Grandma’s Cleaners

When I first started reading Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House. I found it curious that she had recipes for cleaning products. Who has the time to mix their own cleaning products these days?? But, then I realized nobody actually wants to be exposed to chemical fumes 365 days a year when you don’t have to. And these days you don’t — and it doesn’t mean mixing your own.

My first go-to is Mrs. Meyer’s Lavender dish soap. I branched out to the Lemon Verbena recently and was sorely disappointed so I’m sticking with Lavender but they also have Basil and Geranium and a few other scents in their lineup. I like the company because Mrs. Meyer’s is a real lady — the founder’s mom who raised 9 kids in Iowa. They have hand soap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, all purpose-cleaner, baby stuff, etc. They’ve got it all – even some scent free stuff. Mrs. Meyer’s packaging says Classic to me — practical, traditional — but they’re selling cleaning products so I don’t see it as exclusively a Classic item. (And when Katie can deal with her local overcrowded Whole Foods, she loves these products too and thinks they have a hip retro look. She’ pretty sure the founder was a marketing whiz before she started the company.)

I also use Method‘s hand wash and dishwashing detergent. The latter does just as good of a job as my old dishwashing detergent, Cascade without harsh chemicals and doesn’t leave that same Cascade smell all over my son’s plastic dishes. Method’s packaging seems a bit more hip and cosmopolitan than Mrs. Meyer’s. It says Fun (read Ikea) to me. But again, they’re selling cleaning products so it’s really for everyone. And I see those Method pumps everywhere theese days.

Actually, the first green cleaning products I tried were Shaklee’s and I was equally impressed. You order these online through Shaklee but what with being a stay at home mom and starting an online women’s magazine, I never get around to planning ahead of time to reorder with my Shaklee rep, Diana Maltz. But, if I was just a stay at home mom, this would be the perfect solution for me.