Green cleaning products

I love that most of the cleaning products I use are made of edible ingredients, are cheap, and are free of scary chemicals!

Here are some products we use that I really like:

Mixture of 1/2 white vinegar and 1/2 water in a spray bottle

• Smells like vinegar but the smell leaves very quickly after you spray something
• Great for cleaning basically anything except granite
• Use for bathrooms, mirrors, glass, kitchen appliances
• Kills viruses, bacteria, and even the flu
• Vinegar is good for using in laundry to remove stains

Mixture of 1/2 rubbing alcohol and 1/2 water in spay bottle

• Safe for granite (counter tops in kitchens, bathrooms, tables) because it’s not acidic
• My husband uses this spray to de-wrinkle his work shirts. He just sprays them and hangs them up and they are ready to wear in the morning
• The smell seems to linger a little longer than the vinegar
• Kills viruses and bacteria (especially if you don’t dilute it more than 50%)

I like to make a paste of baking soda and vinegar to clean water glasses which makes the really sparkling clean. Baking soda can be used anytime you need something grainy to get particles off, like if there is residue in your tub.

I also use a mixture of 1/2 rubbing alcohol, 1/2 water, and a few drops of orange extract in a spray bottle as deodorant. The alcohol kills bacteria that make bad smells. I just use the orange because I like the smell of it.

I love that after I clean, it’s safe for the dog to roll around on the floor, and once Jack is crawling I don’t have to worry about him either!

Favorite eco toys

Everyone seems to want to give toys as baby gifts, so we have more than I would have expected. Why doesn’t anyone want to buy people useful presents like weeks of a diaper service, haha?  Luckily most people gave us eco-friendly toys since they know that is important to me. When people ask about something to buy, I generally suggest the brands Plan Toys and Haba which are available online or some stores.

Here are some of Jack’s favorite (and not so favorite) toys so far, at 6 months old:

1. Wooden spoons! He LOVES to chew on them now that he is teething. I have the spoon from this set but I’m sure any is fine. I like the shorter ones so it’s less likely that he can push it too far in his mouth. Also doubles as a drumstick against the table!

2. Wooden rattles like this. He likes the circle-shaped things that he can easily grasp and fit in his mouth. I think the hard wood feels good against his gums, because he likes biting on the wood toys more than stuffed animals or most rubber ones.

3. Wooden blocks. We have these from Plan Toys (which is an amazing company that uses great natural materials and nontoxic paint). Jack loves when I build a tower and he knocks it down, and also likes to chew on the blocks. I’m sure as he gets older he will be able to actually build and do even more.

4. He likes the natural rubber teethers too, but generally less then wooden toys. He likes the different textures of this panda which FYI is a lot darker than it looks on the picture. We also chose to get the baby sofie giraffe because it doesn’t have the squeaker inside like the big version, and it’s legs are connected so the baby won’t shove a single leg too far down their mouth.

In terms of toys that have been least useful so far, Jack has not really been interested in stuffed toys as much.  Starting at 4 months he has been trying to chew on anything, so a washcloth (possibly put in the freezer beforehand) seems more interesting to him than an expensive organic stuffed toy.

We also read baby books to Jack, but he doesn’t seem all that interested yet (at 6 months). I also couldn’t find any really non-toxic books, and he always wants to chew on them, so I think he’d rather play with things I let him put in his mouth.

Let me know if you have any other natural toy suggestions!