DIY To Go Green And Save It, Too!
’)
Is green really the new black? In 2006, $32.8 billion was spent on healthy and eco-friendly food, beverage, personal care, and household products. In 2008, $7 billion was spent on natural and organic personal care products alone. And the natural household products category is projected to grow to $1.48 billion in 2011 (an increase of 119% from 2006).
Apparently, even in today’s economy, green is the new green.
But that doesn’t mean it has to cost you more money to go there. As demand grows and the supply of sustainable materials gets stronger, the cost of eco-friendly products goes down until they compete with the mainstream stand-bys on the shelves.
A few months ago, I tested organic versus conventional kids’ lunches and found six cents difference in favor of the organic version: Check out the video to see how that breaks down. By now you’d probably save a whole dime to go green at lunchtime, and you’d certainly prevent your kids from ingesting a whole heckuva lot of pesticides.
But the fastest way to go green and save some green at the same time? Make your own.
Our grandmothers cleaned with white distilled vinegar, baking soda, castile soap and water for hundreds of years until the chemical industry began marketing expensive alternatives, which resulted in 85,000 new chemicals into our households over the past 50 years, according to Healthy Child, Healthy World. No wonder our kids have asthma.
Buy a bottle of white distilled vinegar (a disinfectant and deodorant), baking soda (a deodorant and mild abrasive) and castile soap (made of 100% vegetable oil). Mix it up in recycled cleaning product container and use it to clean windows, toilets, tubs, floors and sinks. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice (a disinfectant) and a dash of olive oil (a lubricant) to the castile soap and dusted and shine her wood furniture. A roughly $10 investment yields materials to keep your house clean for months.
