That said, there are several things you can do to make a home car wash as green as possible. Of course there are other factors in considering an eco car wash. If you opt to take your car to an automatic car wash, if it is very far out of your way then the gas used to get there may offset the environmental advantage to using the automatic car wash, so be sure to consider your individual situation.

How to Green up a Home Car Wash

Detergent

Use only natural detergents. You may be surprised what some eco-friendly liquid soap and a big sponge can tackle when it comes to car dirt. For tougher areas like grills and wheels, try using borax. The extra grit can do wonders for scrubbing away gritty dirt. A great combination eco wash solution is to mix 1 cup of green liquid soap with 3/4 cup borax or natural powder laundry detergent. If you’re looking for a ready-to-apply eco-friendly car wash detergent, check out Simple Green’s Car Wash.

Wash on the Grass

So long as you’re using a minimal amount of detergent (and natural, eco-friendly detergent at that), it’s a great idea to save water by sharing it with the grass. Carefully drive your car onto the lawn before you wash it so that the grass can soak up the water after it washes/rinses your car clean.

Use a Bucket

While a garden hose is a super convenient way to rinse, using a bucket and sponge is a much more efficient way to wash your car. Try to use the hose as little as possible and only for a final rinse.

Wash Less

Washing a car more often than every few months is usually unnecessary. If you can decrease the frequency of car washes this is another great way to conserve water.

Waterless Car Wash

Another way to conserve water when it comes to home car washing is to use one of the newer waterless wash products. There are several all natural versions of these waterless car wash solutions that are made from vegetable extracts. These can be especially useful and practical for touch ups and more frequent wipe downs. For a handy eco-friendly waterless car wash spray take a look at Eco Touch Waterless Car Wash and Polish.

A look at conventional air fresheners

Some of these chemicals have even been banned by the FDA, but these bans are unenforceable due to trade secret laws that protect the chemical fragrance company.

• Formaldehyde – known carcinogen
• Phenol – skin and nervous system irritant
• Limonene – skin, throat, eye irritant
• Methylene Chloride -Prolonged skin contact can result in the dichloromethane dissolving some of the fatty tissues in skin, resulting in skin irritation or chemical burns. It may be carcinogenic, as it has been linked to cancer of the lungs, liver, and pancreas in laboratory animals.
• Acetone -Acts as a central nervous system depressant
• Terpinolene – Highly irritating to mucous membranes, has been known to cause hypothermia, CNS and respiratory depression, and headache
• Methoxybenzaldehyde
• Butanoic acid
• and the list goes on…

The thing about conventional air fresheners is that these chemicals tend to build up over time, mostly on carpets and surfaces where kids play and other areas that we come into regular contact with. We track them outside where they end up contaminating the soil. They don’t even work for getting rid of odors and cleaning up the air. Conventional air fresheners just cover up odors for a short period of time, while leaving all their unknown chemicals laying around.

Natural air fresheners not only make the air smell good and fresh, but actually kill germs without killing friendly bacteria. What’s more, putting together your own unique scent combinations can be a lot of fun. There are hundreds of fruits, trees and herbs essential oils from which to choose. Below we’ll look at some of the most well known essential oils for natural freshening and anti-bacterial traits.

More recently there have been more conventional air fresheners marketed as being natural room fresheners. While many of these products are improvements on conventional air freshener, such as soy candles or truly natural non-aerosol sprays, yet in most of these ‘natural’ air fresheners are still scented with chemical fragrances rather than essential oils and other natural plant materials.

The Benefits of Natural Air Fresheners

As we talked about above, the disadvantages and risks of using conventional room fresheners are many, but can natural air fresheners really measure up in terms of ease of use like the popular automatic air fresheners sold in many stores -what exactly are the benefits of using natural air fresheners?

One of the very unique aspects of natural air deodorizers is that you’re not just covering up an unpleasant smell, but you can actually deodorize and clean the air this way, by dealing with the source -and add a pleasant natural aroma while you’re at it. I’m particularly fond of eucalyptus and cedar combinations for neutralizing odors and freshening a room.

One general purpose spray recipe that I love because it can be used on counter tops or as an air freshener:

For some households you may decide to avoid sprays for freshening the air. I like to use eucalyptus, pine, lavender and/or cedar in sprays because these can also be effective in inhalation therapy for asthma or cold related nose and chest congestion. If you want to have more exotic aromas without spraying them into the air, there are several natural diffuser options.

Where to Get Natural Air Freshener Supplies

There are plenty of great natural herbal and essential oil supply stores online. After doing a lot of research, comparing prices and trying a handful of other herbal stores online, I found Liberty Natural. I’ve just been so happy with the selection of items and low prices I have to pass along the info. They have a minimum order of $50 and their site is a little old fashioned, but the quality, selection and prices cannot be beat, so it’s easy to meet  the minimum. You can get very small sizes of essential oils and great discounts on every size upgrade. Oh, and check out the cosmetic bases section (it’s under ‘botanical ingredients‘). You can get bases for natural lotion, shampoo, conditioner, etc, that you can combine with the essential oils you’re getting to create your own natural beauty/bathing items. My favorite is, coincidentally enough, the same oils listed above (eucalyptus, cedar and grapefruit) added to their all-purpose body gel / shampoo base.

How to Diffuse Natural Air Fresheners

We talked about sprays above. These can be fast ways to neutralize odors and add a nice aroma, but what are the other ways to diffuse natural scents?

Candle Diffusers

These can be a nice effect for night time or parties, or daily air freshening. Use essential oils, but be sure to fill the oil warmer with water and then drop the essential oils onto the water. Start with 10-20 drops and adjust.

Electric Diffusers

There are several high-end aromatherapy diffusers, but there are also very basic and small diffusers that you can plug into a wall outlet or car lighter/power. You can get these for about $6 each from Liberty Natural . Be sure to get replacement pads (look for refill items under aromatherapy).

Wand Diffusers

You can use regular wand diffusers if you add some alcohol or witch hazel to your essential oil blend. You’ll want about 1 part essential oil to 4-6 parts vodka or witch hazel. this will allow the essential oil aroma to be carried up and diffused by the wands.

Stay tuned for more on natural fragrance and personal care using essential oils in coming articles…

Prevention

You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth mentioning as a key element to any roach control plan: keep your kitchen as clean as possible (free of loose food and crumbs. Also fix any leaks and dry any damp areas as well as possible. The goal, naturally, is not to attract roaches by giving them free food and water. It might take a little while to get in the habit of washing and drying plates and or scraping them and putting them in the dishwasher as soon as you’re done eating, but all these little things add up. For my family, besides not leaving dishes stacked in the sink with standing water, daily maintenance amounts to vacuuming the kitchen floor every two or three days and washing counter tops after every use, so it really doesn’t take a lot of time.

“that’s great and everything, but I’ve got a serious roach problem on my hands. I just want them gone”

This happened to me just a few weeks ago. Over a couple of days I noticed a few roaches showing up in the kitchen and thought to myself, “guess I’ll make some roach balls this weekend”. By the time the weekend came around I realized roaches were trying to take over the appliances! In a sudden population explosion there seemed to be scouts sent to check out every corner of the kitchen. This might sound gross, and it is, but even the cleanest homes can have a roach outbreak like this, especially in warm/hot climates. In any case, there are eco-friendly solutions that will work just as well as toxic extermination chemicals.

Even if you’ve got an emergency on your hands, the first place to start is cleaning the kitchen (and wherever else there’s food debris). This will probably mean taking everything out of food pantries and off of countertops.

Dealing with Pet Food

If you can pick up pet food dishes except during feeding times, great. If you’re like me and don’t want to be constantly picking up and putting down food bowls, why not try the ‘moat’ method or isolating your let’s food from roaches. Choose a larger flat container that your cat or dog’s food and water dishes can fit into without touching the edges. There should be about an inch gap. Fill the larger container with soapy water. Roaches will either not try to cross, or will die in the soapy water. If you choose the right size/shape containers this moat solution doesn’t have to take up much more space than your pet’s food area already does.

1. Clean Surfaces and Floor, 2. Wipe with Eucalyptus or Pine Oil

All surfaces (including pantry/cupboard shelves) should be washed with soapy water. While you’re at it, wipe surfaces with eucalyptus, pine or cedar oil (pine cleaner will do in a pinch, but oils last longer). You can mix essential oil (eucalyptus, pine or cedar) with some rubbing alcohol in a  spray bottle.

Do this same routine all around where you’ve seen roaches.

Green Emergency Roach Control

OK, you’ve got two options:

Purchase lizards.
OR
Make natural poison baits.

You can do one or the other, but not both -poisoning geckos is not on the list. If the lizard option doesn’t sound too appealing (I wasn’t sure about it at first either) perhaps hearing about my experiences with house geckos will add some perspective (or skip to natural roach poison baits).

House Geckos- the greenest roach control system

I’ve seen house geckos deployed in a few different homes. The one with the worst roach problem was an older house in south Texas. The little buggers just came in from outside through all the cracks in their house, but trying to seal the cracks on their own and the usual roach solutions weren’t really fixing the situation, so they went online and bought 3 house geckos. Two days later a medium sized box appeared with a bunch of natural fiber stuffing and what appeared to be an empty box. After a few minutes three little (4-inch) lizards zipped out and away from the box. The roaches disappeared over a period of several days and continued to decline until they were just gone. The lizards were only spotted a couple of times, and pretty much kept to themselves.

I had a similar experience to the first one above when I bought some skunk geckos from a local reptile store. These are a tiny bit bigger than house geckos and do the same thing: keep to themselves and eat roaches. Be sure to ask the sales person about care specifics in case they run out of roaches to eat. I’ve heard that if they run out of natural food, they will start wandering out into sight more often, but in my experiences, this has never happened -the South always has roaches… and sometimes geckos will decide they like it better outside. Where I live many people go and buy 3 or 4 geckos for their 2-3 bedroom house every Spring. Anyway, geckos are awesome eco-friendly roach devourers, so consider this as a green option that also gets you out of having to deal with roach baits (and the roach carcasses once the poison kills them -ew).

Natural Roach Poison Baits

The following are 2 types of recipes, one for ‘roach balls’ (poisoned roach baits) and one for a dry mixture (dry roach poison mixture). The roach ball version tends to be more attractive to roaches because of the moisture, but you might have different results, so I’m including the dry recipe too in case that works better for you.

Roach Balls

16 oz. powdered boric acid
1 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 sm. onion, chopped
1/2 c. shortening

Combine ingredients, then add small amounts of water until it becomes doughy, but not too wet or it will be difficult to work with. Separate into little balls. You can place these in plastic baggies and put them around the kitchen, including floor, counter top and pantry (and wherever else you’ve seen roaches). If you want to use old containers instead of plastic baggies, that would make it an even greener solution. The baggies tend to keep in some moisture which attracts the roaches, but that’s just me experience. If you’re worried about animals getting into these, you can put the roach balls into old soda cans.

Dry Roach Bait

2 parts cornmeal
1 part sugar
1 part boric acid

Put this mixture into little open containers where you have seen roaches.

What next?

So, the kitchen is cleaned up and wiped with eucalyptus oil. The roach balls are in place, now what? Keep wiping up crumbs and not leaving any food out in the open. Regular maintenance / prevention is key to staying on top of roach control. It will take a few days for the majority of roaches to die, so in the meantime, put some additional deterrents in place. Clean up the roach bodies when they start droppin’ -Follow up with the soapy water, then eucalyptus/cedar/pine oil routine.

Natural Roach Deterrents

Dried bay leaves and catnip work great as roach deterrents. You can place bay leaves directly into your cupboards and pantry, or empty large tea bags and fill with dried herbs, closing them with a bit of string or stapler. There are also iron-sealed tea bags.

Diatomaceous Earth -kills and deters roaches

Diatomaceous Earth (or DE) is comprised of very finely ground fossilized shells of tiny organisms called diatoms. The sharp edges of these tiny particles cut holes in roaches exoskeletons, which kills roaches by dehydration within hours -the same way that borax works. Though this stuff is deadly to roaches, it’s perfectly safe to use around children and pets, and at a price of $3-$7 dollars per pound it’s affordable too. This is technically a poison and not a deterrent, but given that it’s even safer than borax powder, DE is safe to dust all along floors and countertops -even around small children or pet areas. Use something like borax for roach balls to take are of a roach problem, but for sprinkling either borax or DE around in the kitchen I would opt for DE. You can use an old makeup brush or large soft paintbrush to lightly ‘dust’ DE all around under appliances, as well as on floors and countertops. Here are some eBay auctions for DE.

Barrier Protection

Using cedar, pine or eucalyptus oil around the thresholds and windows of your home will deter new roaches from coming inside. Use the same oil and rubbing alcohol spray idea as above, or for outside you can use straight oil. You can also place cedar chips around these areas.

To boost your barrier protection you can place a few concealed soda cans with roach balls squished into them around the edges of your barrier to lure roaches away. Putting roach balls into old soda cans will keep small critters from getting to the poison.

Seal Cracks

Another step you can take is sealing cracks with caulking. If you have very large cracks, canned spray insulation is the quickest way to fill these. Just insert the straw into the crack and push the button until you see foam poking back out. Wipe off excess.

Targeted Roach Control

Use a spray bottle filled with soapy water to spray rogue roaches. They will usually die within a couple of minutes.

That pretty much covers my experiences with green roach control: A combination of prevention through keeping food areas clean, and environmentally-friendly deterrents, as well as ‘green’ poison baits –or just a few hungry geckos– will take care of any roach problem. If you ever decide to go with a professional exterminator, there are green extermination companies who use green pest control products, so ask about the eco-friendliness of a prospective exterminator’s treatments.

If you have some solutions of your own, please share them below…

So many of the conventional cleaning products we grew up with are petroleum-based and have many negative traits -for the environment and for us individually. Many times these strong chemicals are much more powerful that you really need to get the job done anyway. Along with replacing conventional cleaning products, there are some other things you can do to minimize the need for harsh cleansers.

Be careful with antibacterial cleaners

This one might be old news for many of you, but just in case you haven’t considered it before, antibacterial and antimicrobial cleaners are harmful to the environment in a different way. These cleaners do not clean any better than regular soap and water, and produce antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. While it might be good to have antibacterial hand cleansers around when you or another family member is sick, going green with cleaning means not using antibacterial products on a regular basis.

Freshen air and carpet naturally

Use essential oil diffusers to freshen the air with essential oils, or simpler yet: Just add some cinnamon and clove to a simmering pot of water. Or maybe mint and orange peels. Going green can mean having fun and getting creative with aroma.

Check out some place like Liberty Natural for the very best deals in essential oils, floral waters, dried herbs and other green products -their essential oil soaps can’t be beat. They have a $50 minimum order policy, but it’s pretty easy to meet and you can get supplies for several months -they sell essential oils in so many sizes -from less than an ounce to 16 ounces, it’s perfect for stocking up.

And don’t forget plants. A green leafy plant will help clean the air and keep it smelling wonderful. Can’t go much greener than that solution for freshening the air.

For carpet, baking soda sprinkled around and left for at least an hour, can then be vacuumed up to eliminate odors and freshen things up. Even better, open a large baking soda container and add several drops of essential oil, or perhaps a tea bag with dried herbs such as mint, lavender, pine or lemon into the container with the baking soda. I like to leave the baking soda ’steeping’ for at least a week, so every time I use one I just make sure to prepare another for the next time I vacuum. Makes things a little more interesting, and definitely qualifies as green cleaning.

Dispose of toxic cleaners safely

When replacing conventional cleaners with green cleaning products, don’t just through toxic cleaners in the trash or pour them down the drain. If these cleaners are toxic to you, imagine how toxic they can be to the environment. Many cities have special ‘toxics’ pickup days so you can get rid of all toxic waste like old cleaning products just by leaving them on your curb. Find out from your county or city what you are to do with toxic waste.

Avoid conventional dry cleaning

Dry cleaners that utilize conventional dry cleaning chemicals are the largest users of Perchloroethylene (perc), which is toxic to humans and creates smog. Green cleaning options are to opt for carbon dioxide dry cleaning. Ask around and find a dry cleaner who uses green cleaning methods.

Take off your shoes

Whenever possible, leave shoes by the door when coming in form outside. This green cleaning solution works by avoiding additional dirt. Shoes are the dirtiest things we come into contact with on a regular basis, whether we’re talking about soot and grime, or toxins. Taking your shoes off and leaving them at the door will keep people from tracking the outside in. Things like animal waste, oil, pollen, particulate pollution and any number of other things get picked up by our shoes and then tracked inside and spread around if shoes are left on.

Make it easy and keep a little shoe rack or shelf by the door where everyone can keep their shoes. By keeping shoes by the door you can eliminate a lot of extra sweeping and dusting, while also keeping your inside environment much safer for the people and animals who live there.

Use green cleaning products

And of course one main step to take in greening up your cleaning routine is to replace conventional cleaning products with eco-friendly green cleaning products. With the growing interest in going green, there is an ever growing assortment of green cleaning products from which to choose.

You can find everything from trash bags and dish soap, to all-purpose cleaners, laundry detergent and pet litter that are green products. Also, because more people are going green, there is more of a demand for green cleaning products such that you don’t have to spend more money for green cleaning products than you would for petroleum-based conventional cleaning products. I’ve put together a widget of some green cleaning products you can order from Amazon, which is a great place to shop for the customer reviews -these save a lot of hassle in helping you choose which items are going to work for you.

Of course the simplest way to go green with your cleaners is to use only baking soda, vinegar and/or borax for most of your cleaning chores. Baking soda is great for controlling odor in carpets, air and appliances. Borax is supreme at scrubbing hard crust from stove tops, pots and pans, counter tops or you! Borax is a very gentle soap that occurs naturally and is mined. For this reason it is not 100% green, but the carbon footprint from the mining equipment is quite small compared to the huge amounts of borax that is produced. Vinegar is a way to strengthen any borax and baking soda green cleaner mix, or can be used by itself with old newspaper or cloth for cleaning windows and mirrors. The main thing to keep in mind, is that many cleaning jobs require more elbow grease than cleaning product. Only use as much as you need to get the job done.

Along with vinegar, borax is probably the most affordable and multi-purpose green (eco-friendly) cleaner you can buy. Commercial-strength borax can also be used for (external) personal hygiene, and is a common ingredient in many homemade soaps and facial cleansers. 

Of course many cleaning tasks just take water and a bit of elbow grease, but if that won’t cut it, borax is a tough cleanser with a gentle effect on the environment. If you take into consideration the not-so-eco-friendly mining aspect of borax production, it’s not exactly a 100% green product, but compared to the highly noxious and toxic chemical cleaners borax is a much greener choice.

Just how many things can borax be used for?

• drain cleaner

  Pour a 1/2 cup or so into the drain and let it for 15 minutes, then add hot water (the hotter the better). Repeat for tough clogs.

• Cleaning mirrors and windows

  Dissolve a couple of tablespoons of borax in 2-3 cups water. Use a sponge or cloth to apply.

• Toilet bowl cleaner

  Pour 1/2 – 1 cup borax into the toilet bowl. You can let it sit for a while to minimize scrubbing (or not). Use a stiff brush to scrub. Voila! sparkling clean toilet boil with minimum effort and without nasty chemicals. Add 1/2 cup vinegar to strengthen the mixture and keep the bowl cleaner longer.

• Deter pavement weeds

  This is not recommended for use directly in the garden or flowerbed, but for sidewalks or other paved areas where weeds like to creep in, sprinkle borax along the cracks and the weeds won’t be able to grow.

• Deter ants from entering your house

  Sprinkling borax along the foundation of your house will keep ants and other insects from entering your house. Though a little borax near the foundation will not harm the grass, be careful not to apply too much near plants. This also works great with snails and slugs, around deck areas, etc.

• Eliminate urine odor in fabric

  Wet the affected area and rub in some borax. For particularly old or large stains you probably want to scrub it around some with a sponge or cloth. Then just let it dry and vacuum up the powder.

• Cleaning and sanitizing your garbage disposal

  Cut disposal bacteria and mold out of the picture with a little borax every couple of weeks. Pour 1/4 cup borax down the disposal with just a bit of water. Let it sit for about an hour then wash it away with hot tap water.

• Cleaning tiles and grout

  Borax is absolutely fantastic for cleaning tiles and grout in the bathroom -especially aided by the use of an old toothbrush or other small stiff brush. Just sprinkle a little as you go along, adding just enough water to easily move the powder around. Rinse with warm water. Borax is even safe for surfaces that scratch easily -where you wouldn’t use Comet/Ajax (toxic abrasive cleansers), borax works just as well and will never scratch surfaces.

• General kitchen and bathroom cleanser

  In addition to tiles and grout, borax works wonders on sinks and tubs. Just sprinkle a bit into a wet sink basin or tub and lightly scrub with a sponge or cloth.

• Cleaning grease

  Whether it’s greasy hands or a greasy barbecue grill, borax is great at cutting through tough grease. It seems to absorb it as it scrubs it away with it’s fine grit. As always, rinse with lots of warm water.

• Clean cutting boards

  Borax is perfect for scrubbing cutting boards clean because the little bits get right into the pores and cuts left from chopping veggies and whatnot. Since borax is slightly toxic (you would have to ingest about 5.8 grams per pound of body weight to get a lethal dose -that’s over 6 ounces for a 150-pound person!) it’s a good idea to rinse with plenty of warm/hot water.

• Oven cleaner

  Make a thick paste with borax and vinegar. Apply to the inside of your oven with a scrub brush. Let it sit for a few hours, then wipe away the grime with a damp cloth. If you find some tough spots, use your brush to scrub away the yuck.

• Freshening smelly bedding and linens

  Adding 1/2 cup of borax to your wash will get rid of unpleasant smells and stains (spot treat small, tough stains).

• Laundry detergent booster

  Borax is safe to use on colored fabrics. Simply adding 1/2 cup to each wash will brighten colors and make your detergent more effective.

• Deodorizer

  Dissolve 1 tablespoon per gallon of water for deodorizing your refrigerator, camping coolers, etc. Sprinkle in garbage cans and add hot water to wash. When dry, sprinkle additional borax to absorb future odors.

• Cleaning mold and mildew on outdoor furniture

  Combine 1 teaspoon each borax and liquid soap (castille soap is eco-friendly and a little goes a long way) with one quart water in a spray bottle. Spray down affected areas and allow to soak for at least an hour. Rinse with water.

• Cleaning pots and pans

  If you’re looking for a way to clean your best pots and pans without scratching them, borax can’t be beat. Just sprinkle some borax onto a wet pot/pan and rub with a cloth or sponge. Borax will not scratch no matter how hard you scrub.

• Very dirty floors

  Most floor washing really only needs water and perhaps a bit of vinegar, but for really grimy floors try dissolving a 1/3 cup borax and 1 teaspoon of eco-friendly dishwasher detergent in a half bucket of water.

• Carpet powder

  Sprinkle borax onto your carpet just as you might commercial carpet powders (you can even add a couple drops of essential oil to add your own scent –just a couple now!). Let it sit overnight then vacuum it up. This makes carpets smell wonderfully fresh!

• Flea killer

  Just like with carpet powder, sprinkle borax onto carpets, furniture and mattresses. Leave overnight and then vacuum up the next day. As far as I know, this is the most effective, eco-friendly solution for killing fleas in the home. (do not use on pets except in a (wet) solution that is washed off afterward!)

• Treatment of fungal infections

  Among microbiologists, borax is a well known for its anti-fungal properties. Very few people have sensitivity to contact with their skin (in fact borax is often used as a skin cleanser by those with very sensitive skin), though sensitivity has been reported. That said, people suffering from any kind of external fungal infection, such as athlete’s foot, ringworm and yeast infections, can use borax mixed with water (I usually use a paste consistency). Borax is highly effective against nearly every kind of fungal infection. Add some iodine to boost anti-fungal properties.

• Gentle face and hand cleanser

  Later on I’ll post some of my favorite recipes for homemade shampoos and facial cleansers, but for now: straight borax with a little bit of water is great for cleaning hands and face. It’s very gentle and leaves skin feeling silky smooth.Have you found other uses for borax?

toxicity notes:
I’ve seen some articles talking about the toxicity of borax. While it’s necessary to keep borax out of the reach of small children and pets, borax is only about as toxic as table salt or baking soda. The lethal dose of borax is 2.66 g/kg. As mentioned above, this means that a 150 pounds person would have to eat over 6 ounces of the stuff.