The ingredients on the back of most cleaning products are truly frightening. The sheer amount of chemicals alone is enough to make me nervous, but it is really the chemicals themselves that are the most toxic. Many household cleaners contribute to poor indoor air quality, and expose you to dangerous chemicals that often have negative impacts on our health and the environment.

For a cheap, easy, and effective cleaner, I make an “all-purpose spray” from Gorgeously Green. The recipe is incredibly simple, and it can be used on countertops, fridge, walls, toilet seats, sinks, doorknobs, and tons of other things. We use ours daily to wipe down the sinks in our bathrooms as well as a cleaner for our counters when they need more than what a wet rag can do. We also use it any time we need to disinfect anything (like the counter before we bake or roll out dough).

Ingredients:
32 ounce spray bottle (or multiple bottles that add up to 32 ounces)
2 cups water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon castile soap
3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
20 drops tea tree oil
20 drops any essential oil (I like citrus, and my mom likes lavender, so we add the essential oils once they are in the spray bottles so we can customize from the same recipe)

Recipe:

So many people do not understand the importance of organic foods. It always surprises me how little people know about what is in their foods. Pesticides are not only extremely harmful to our environment, but also to the farmworkers who are exposed to them on a regular basis and everyone who eats them daily (more on that soon when I get into the nitty gritty of pesticides).

“If you choose 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day from EWG’s Clean 15 rather than the Dirty Dozen, you can lower the volume of pesticide you consume daily by 92 percent, according to EWG calculations. You’ll also eat fewer types of pesticides. Picking 5 servings of fruits and vegetables from the 12 most contaminated would cause you to consume an average of 14 different pesticides a day. If you choose 5 servings from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll consume fewer than 2 pesticides per day.”

My work is a sustainability nightmare. There is no recycling (the school district for some reason does not give us recycling at the pool. It drives me crazy. I am always begging people to take stuff home with them, but it is way too much (and too dirty) for me to take it all home).

One of the major things we have control of is our water supply. For years my boss has bought us bottled water so that people will drink water on hot days and stay hydrated. I have been complaining to him for years about how unsustainable it is, how expensive it is, and all the unnecessary waste we are creating.

I think he finally got tired of listening to me, because when he finally said “fine, what else can we do” I quickly told him we could get a large pitcher that filters the tap water. He asked some people on staff and they agreed with me that they would drink the water that way. Two days later I came in to work and we had a large, beautiful filtered water dispenser in our office.

One of my must needs for school next year is silverware. I could go out and buy a new set, but they are ridiculously expensive, unless I got plastic which goes against just about every fiber of my being. Instead, I have decided to find used silverware. I bought some from craigslist at the end of the last school year.

As the weather warms I cannot help but wonder what happens to these curious creatures. I know that environmentalist around the world gripe about how campaigns to save endangered species only focus on the animals that we consider cute, but at the same time I think there is something behind choosing animals that humans are drawn to. Without a face to put on the ominous “endangered species” title, it would be difficult to gain the attention of the larger public.

So while we enjoy the warmer weather, perhaps take a moment to be amazed by the playful and intelligent Polar Bears and consider their future. I think they would appreciate it.

One of my favorite things about summer is all of the time I have to read. During the school year I do not have time (or the brain power) to read “fun books” (basically anything a teacher did not assign to me).  Two of my favorite do it yourself sustainability/environmental books are Sophia Uliano’s Gorgeously Green and Do It Gorgeously.

The irony does not escape me that I am writing this on the first day of rain this summer. It seems that winter was worried we might have forgotten about it and came to visit. At my home in the Bay Area it is pouring today like it was any other day in February or March. I love the rain, and yet I am not really looking forward to working in it all day today. Oh well, at least I got a free car wash and I shouldn’t have to worry nearly as much today about getting a sunburn : )

After my sunburns and freckles from a few weeks ago I immediately went out and bought new sunscreen to replace my year old tubes. I could not find one of the brands I wanted, and instead decided to try something new that I had read a bit about online. Within the first day I had completely fallen in love with it. Although the one I bought is not waterproof (I am waiting for a local store to restock before I can test out their water-resistant version), All Terrain’s TerraSport is incredible.