Issue 423: November 6–13, 2003

CLEAN LIVING

COUNTER ACTION There are plenty of options among green household cleaners. Photo: Shaniqwa Jarvis

Holistic cleaning products let you treat your home as well as you treat your body

By Tracey Middlekauff

Plus
• Bare essentials: Mix your own do-it-yourself cleaning supplies

In 1988, Mark Sklawer was cleaning houses part-time to earn extra cash when he sustained a chemical burn all over his forearm. The culprit: a conventional oven cleaner. Sklawer knew he needed a different approach to germ–busting. “In my grandmother’s day, they didn’t have all this [commercial cleaning] stuff,” he remembers realizing. “But they had clean houses back then.” So Sklawer stripped down to basics, and his Holistic Housecleaning Service (718-282-2408) was born. For $25 an hour, he’ll scrub, wipe, polish and muscle his way through a job, using whatever product it takes as long as it doesn’t contain fragrance, dyes or chemicals.

Chemical burns aside, there are other compelling reasons to avoid commercial cleaners. Common products such as Ajax, Windex and Formula 409 contain bleach, ammonia, or 2-butoxyethanol, all of which are recognized by the EPA as potential eye, skin or respiratory irritants. Some people develop sensitivities to these chemicals and can’t use products that contain them. And many widely used cleaners are petrochemically based; they’re derived from crude oil, a nonrenewable resource. All those substances wash down your drain and can find their way into drinking water, streams and lakes. Sklawer has noticed a rise in inquiries about his service since 9/11; he believes New Yorkers are “thinking more about the environment and our dependence on petrochemicals.”

When it comes to choosing products, 45-year-old Sklawer favors simplicity. For a scrubber, he likes the clay-based Bon Ami, which has been around since 1886, or the slightly younger Borax, available since 1891. Grandma would definitely approve, and if you want to use it yourself, so will your wallet: Bon Ami will set you back only about 79¢, and a 4-pound box of Borax, enough to clean a lot of bathrooms, costs less than $5 at the D’Agostino on West 23rd Street. Sklawer also likes CitraSolv ($3.39 at Whole Foods), an orange-based cleaner that cuts grease and wipes off as easily as Formula 409.

Julie Genser, a 37-year-old freelance copywriter who uses Sklawer’s service, admits that she’d wondered at first just how clean her apartment would be after it was scrubbed only with green products. “But I’m really impressed,” she says. “He used a lot of muscle, and that justifies why I’m paying more.”

But if elbow grease isn’t your thing, there are products out there that will do a lot of the work for you. Healthy Clean Buildings, a company based in Melville, New York, replaces toxic cleaning chemicals with safer alternatives in schools, offices and institutional buildings, and offers products for residential use. For $59.95, you can order the Healthy Home Cleaning Kit (631-643-1882 or www.cleaningpro.com/HSHOMECLN.cfm), seven products designed to replace virtually everything under your kitchen sink. The kit comes with four H2Orange2-brand hydrogen-peroxide-based cleaners for windows, toilets, tubs, carpets, countertops and the like; A-Ben-A-Qui, a nonchlorinated scouring paste; a citrus air freshener; and Ecotru, a hospital-grade disinfectant that can kill E. coli, TB, hantavirus and lots of other things you probably don’t want in your apartment. While 60 bucks may seem pricey, a little goes a long way—and the products work well. You can also order a three-item refill kit for $29.95.

There are plenty of local options, too, and they aren’t found only at natural-food stores. D’Agostino carries Earth Friendly Products window cleaner for $3.89, comparable to what you’d pay for Windex, and a bodega in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, stocks Seventh Generation laundry detergent for just $5.99. At Back to the Land in Park Slope (142 Seventh Ave 718-768-5654), Ecover and Seventh Generation are the best-selling brands, despite the occasionally higher price tag. Seventh Generation’s 22-load laundry detergent was a whopping $7.19, and the window cleaner was $4.79. But they do work: After a test run with Seventh Generation, my dishes and laundry were clean, although I did miss the scent of Downy, even if it does come from chemicals and not a mountain stream.

While you can pay more for some green products, Sklawer urges us to weigh the real costs. “I’m always surprised that people are going to yoga, living a healthier lifestyle, and yet their house is full of toxic chemicals, all of which stay in your body,” he says. “Aren’t you worth a dollar more?”

BARE ESSENTIALS

It’s all well and good to decide to spend extra cash on protecting your health and preserving the environment—unless you’re broke. That’s where Annie Berthold-Bond, author of Clean and Green and The Green Kitchen Handbook, can be helpful. After developing severe chemical sensitivities in 1980, Berthold-Bond created easy and cheap do-it-yourself cleaning recipes. Among our favorites:

Soft scrubber
Mix a handful of baking soda with enough liquid soap (the latter ensures easy rinsing) to create a frosting-like texture. Dr. Bronner’s castile soap with lavender essence works well, doubling as an aromatherapy session.

Window cleaner
Mix 3 tablespoons of white vinegar with 2 cups of water and a squirt of liquid detergent, like Seventh Generation dish-washing soap. This works as well as Windex, and vinegar is about as cheap as it gets: just over $1 for a bottle at D’Agostino. Vinegar and water also make an effective floor cleaner; Berthold-Bond recommends a ratio of one part vinegar to four or five parts water. Pointing out its deodorizing properties, Berthold-Bond recommends spraying undiluted vinegar on cutting boards and around the toilet rim.

All-purpose spray cleaner
Combine 1/2 teaspoon washing soda, a squirt of liquid soap and 2 cups warm tap water in a spray bottle and shake well. This solution is effective on stoves and kitchen counters, but some exertion may be required. And note: Washing soda is strong enough to strip wax, so think before you spray.

Mold killer
Mix 2 teaspoons tea tree oil with 2 cups water. Tea tree oil can be expensive ($7.49 for a half-ounce of Back to the Land brand), but it goes a long way and is remarkably effective.