The EcoChic

Can you really use ‘joy‘ and ‘cleaning‘ in the same sentence?  Does anyone really enjoy cleaning?  All I can think about is that five minutes after I clean one of the members of my family will come behind me and mess it up!  I mean seriously…I wipe the dinner table clean after a meal only to have someone leave another pile of crumbs a few hours later!  And for some reason hardwood floors are dirty the second I put the mop away!  It’s all rather exhausting if you ask me!

But that’s why I’m not “The Cleaning Coach” and Leslie Reichert is!  I virtually met Leslie back in September when I was on Twitter asking about stained diapers.  She graciously sent me an email suggesting that I try some Charlie’s Soap and pointed me to her website and her new book…”The Joy of Green Cleaning.”  She must have known how badly I was in need of some coaching!

The Joy of Green Cleaning is your ultimate cook book for green cleaning recipes.  It is jammed pack with 70 pages of recipes for kitchen cleaners, bathroom cleaners, floor cleaners, laundry cleaners and more!  Now that’s a lot of recipes.  Did you know you could make your own dishwasher rinse aide with lemon juice, club soda, and borax?  Or that a combination of borax and vinegar and water will remove mold in your bathroom?  The recipes in her book are really simple and use low cost and non-hazardous ingredients.

You can buy Leslie’s book in ebook or spiral bound versions and for all of my wonderful readers she has offered a $5 off coupon!  The ebook sells for $10 so that’s half off!  How can you go wrong? 

But don’t stop with just the book…visit Leslie’s other site, Shop Green Cleaning, to find all of your cleaning essentials.  There she sells the ECO-Sponge and Skoy reusable cloths.  You can also find Charlies Soap, soap flakes, and soda crystals for all your laundry needs…even for cloth diaper laundry! 

Use coupon code theecochic09 at either site and receive $5 off your entire purchase. 

You can also find Leslie on Twitter as @greenyourcleanand on Facebook as Leslie Reichert.  She also writes a pretty awesome blog called Clean Green Talk.  Today she posted her first tip in a series called 20 Day Cleanup to Thanksgiving.  I guess when I’m done online my task is to clean the guest bathroom!  I’ll do that after my cloth diapers are in the dryer. 

Leslie…I’m a difficult student but I’m sure with your help and your cook book with The Joy of Green Cleaning book, there is still hope for me!

This post is sponsored by The Joy of Green Cleaning but unless you are Cinderella I’m going to guess that you’ll feel the same way I do about her products!

Giveaway Alert!  One lucky winner is going to win a E-cloth Furniture Pack! Keep reading to learn more.  ECO-ngratulations Mom of 3 Dolls! Watch your email for details!

A few days ago I introduced my eco-world to E-cloths and told you how nice it was not to have to use chemicals to clean my kitchen.  Just take these fabulous e-cloths and add water, it’s that simple!

The E-cloth Furniture Pack is just as fabulous as the Kitchen Pack.  The furniture pack contains 2 cleaning cloths; a heavier brown cloth and a cream glass & polishing cloth.  The glass & polishing cloth is very similar to the one included in the kitchen pack.  The thick brown cloth is fluffier than the general purpose cloth. 

Where did I use it?  I already mentioned that the glass & polishing cloth is quickly becoming my favorite E-cloth.  My cream cloth has been used on windows, table tops, mirrors, and glass shelving.  The most surprising use is windows.   When used damp on your windows and glass doors you don’t think it’s going to work and then it dries…and there are NO streaks!  It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever witnessed!  We have a giant sliding glass door in our living room that leads out to the pool area; with kids you can imagine how many times we are cleaning the fingerprints off that door.  I’ve tried countless green window cleaners (all of which I like) but I still have to use paper towels in order to wipe those cleaners off the glass and leave a streak-free finish.  With the e-cloth glass cloth I’m done using those glass cleaners; now all I need is water! 

The brown cloth can be used either dry or damp.  If you use it dry is works really well for dusting (think swiffer duster…only better).  Now if you know me I try not to dust very often so I don’t use it dry often.  But I have found it works really well on my leather furniture when used damp.  (Ok…go ahead and slam The Eco Chic for having leather furniture…I love it and it’s much easier to keep clean with the kids.)  I find myself using the brown e-cloth every few days to wipe down the sofa.  When I get the motivation I will try it on my blinds and a few other places that get cleaned on those ’special’ occassions. 

Would you like to try E-cloths?  The Furniture Pack sells for $19.98 and E-cloth is currently offering FREE SHIPPING on ALL orders!  One lucky winner will receive their very own E-cloth Furniture Pack. 

Win It!  To enter to an E-cloth Furniture Pack you must visit E-cloth and leave me a comment below telling me where you would use your brown E-cloth first.

Extra entries!  Yep, as always you can enter more than once!  Each entry below is worth one extra entry into the giveaway.  You must have answered the Win It! question first in order to qualify for the extra entries.
1.  Follow both @TheEcoChic and @Ecloth on Twitter.  Leave an individual comment with your @Name.
2.  Tweet about the giveaway up to twice daily.  Include both @TheEcoChic and @Ecloth and a link back here in your tweet.  Leave an individual comment with a link to your status tweet. 
3.  Subscribe to The Eco Chic using the Feedburner Subscription box at the top of this page.  You will receive an email from Feedburner and me asking you to validate your subscription.  Only validated subscriptions will be counted when I draw a winner. 

Leave your comments HERE to complete your entry to this contest.

Contest ends Sept. 16th at midnight (EST).

ECO-ngratulations Mom of 3 Dolls! You win! Watch your email for details!

Good luck and clean green! 

As I was skimming my inbox today I found a link called 10 Weird Uses for Vodka and had to follow it.  Now I have to share it with you along with a few other links I found too. 

The one weird use that I’m going to try is for mold and mildew on tile.  I’ve mentioned before that we currently use hydrogen peroxide periodically to freshen the grout stains.  I’d like to see which works better. 

How about using vodka to clean your jewelry?

Or for a toothache?

Or for aches and pains?

Or as a bug repellant?

Would you add vodka to your shampoo if it would make it healthier?

What about spraying vodka on your smelly clothes to freshen them up in between cleanings?

I love finding new useful ways to use ordinary items.  Maybe I’ll even take some to the beach with me next time just in case I get stung by a jellyfish!  Enjoy the links and enjoy a glass of vodka for yourself!

With all the new green cleaning products available I have to say I was quite excited to get a sample of the TerraCycle cleaners.  I have been using the Natural All Purpose Cleaner and the Natural Window Cleaner for a few weeks now and I have to say…I’m impressed!  Now if you knew me you would know I don’t like to clean!!  I hate using all those nasty smelling chemicals because they cause my asthma to flare up. 

Natural Window Cleaner

 My absolute favorite cleaner was the Natural Window Cleaner.  I have a 5 yr old who LOVES leaving his little handprints all over the back sliding class door and the front glass storm door.  We are always cleaning these doors and now I have a natural cleaner instead of my normal window cleaner.  No ammonia odor and no streaking; what more can a girl ask for?  I can once again see out of my windows, at least for the next 20 minutes before he goes and touches them again. 

There are 2 more natural cleaners that I want to try; the Bathroom Cleaner and the Drain Maintainer.  I have long hair that always clogs up the bathroom sink; especially when mixed with toothpaste and shaving cream.  We also have an older home and we haven’t upgraded the bathrooms yet.  The shower is the hardest place in the house to get clean.  The mildew grows so quick that we have to clean it all the time.  The only thing I have found that works easily with no strong smell is hydrogen peroxide; and that still has an odor.  So I can’t wait to find these 2 cleaners and give them a try.  You can search for a store near you by visiting TerraCycle; their store locator tool is at the top right of their website.   

Remember those soda bottles that TerraCycle collects in their Brigades?  All their cleaning products are packaged in those used soda bottles.  I love upcycling and this is truely upcycling at it’s best.  And when you are done with the product you know that you can recycle them easily. 

We’ve all heard the term RECYCLING but how many of you have heard the term UPCYCLING?  Anyone want to take a guess what the definition of UPCYCLING is?

According to Wikipedia; Upcycling is the use of waste (trash) materials to provide useful products.  The main difference between recycling and upcycling is that there is minimal processing involved with upcycling.  The waste materials are used in the waste form to create a new and useful product.  I’ll give you some examples in a minute.

TerraCycle, Inc is a company out of Trenton, NJ that has mastered the art of upcycling.  While in college at Princeton University, TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky had a wonderful idea for marketing worm poop.  Worm poop?  Yes, I did say worm poop.  A form of composting is vermicompost where worms break down the materials and the worm poop is then used as a mulch or plant food.  Well Tom had the idea of selling this worm poop as an all natural plant food.  There’s more; Tom decided that he would bottle this special plant food in used soda bottles.  Thus bringing in the upcycling. 

Pictured above is one of the many plant foods marketed by TerraCycle, Inc.

Soda bottles are collected through the TerraCycle Bottle Brigade where schools and organizations can earn money for sending in used soda bottles.  I first heard about TerraCycle about 4 years ago at work.  One of my facilities participated in the Bottle Brigade as a fund raiser for an Equine Rescue Non-Profit Organization. 

Now, years since Tom’s original idea the company is exploding.  I’ve seen their products at local big-box retailers such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target.  The products now range from garden products, cleaning products, and even accessories like tote bags.  And each product includes the upcycling idea using what would have been a waste material and turning into something useful. 

In the coming days I will focus of the different brigades that TerraCycle currently has to collect waste.  I will also spend a day on each area of products; gardening products, cleaning products, and the fun accessories and bags.  At the end of my series on TerraCycle I will even have a GIVEAWAY of one of their fun tote bags.  So stay tuned and learn more about TerraCycle and upcycling.