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Welcome to the Essere Organics February Newsletter.
In this Issue
In Other News
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They're super cute!
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Green Cleaning
We assume many things about going green. We assume that our actions will change the future. And it will. We assume that when we “go green” in our homes that we, along with our children, are healthier and happier. And we are. We assume the planet benefits from going green. And it does. We assume we must make financial sacrifices and time sacrifices to be truly green. And we must…or do we? While many aspects of green living are expensive and no green cooking is faster than two minutes in a microwave, there are many aspects of our lives that have green alternatives that save money and time as much as saving the planet. And one of those aspects is in green cleaning.
There she is. The warrior of the world. The mighty protector. The great shield against the harsh complexities of life. She is the nurturer. She is why you are here. She is Mom. Our mothers, our friends’ mothers, our wives, and those of us who are blessed to be mothers –all mothers have a goal. To guard their family against all harm. Protecting our young is an instinct in the animal kingdom that belongs to every mother in every species. Since human mothers do not have to chase off lions and bears, the enemy is often microscopic. So we see mothers protecting their young by donning aprons and rubber gloves, arming themselves with sponges and sprays and waging war on all that is unseen and dwelling in the home. She is bending over kitchen counters and bathroom floors, scrubbing away germs. She is often holding her breath to not inhale the chemicals that aid her, using extension
handles to not touch the very items that help her win. And after every battle, she moves from the strong chemical scent of bleach, chlorine, and soap, into the open air and takes a deep, clean breath, disposes of the rubber gloves, rubs salves on any rashes developed from chemicals that got past the gloves and clothes, takes the red out with some eye drops, commits a final sneeze, blows her nose, and settles into a nice cup of organic herbal tea steeped in distilled water flown in from the Alps.
What is wrong with this picture? Does cleaning really need to be that violent? While some of us can clean with relative ease –no rashes, no sneezing, minimal red eye- most of us do react to the chemical cocktail we create every time we clean and we often need time to recover from our self-imposed battles.
Because most of us follow in the footsteps of cautious mothers who scrubbed floors and disinfected every handle, tabletop and appliance in the home to secure the safest environment for their family, we have an arsenal under our kitchen sinks of disinfectants, sprays, cleaners, and soaps. We forget that our most glaring toxins are used every day and often stored only a cabinet door away from our roaming toddlers.
By going green in our cleaning, we can do three very important things. We can make our homes safer by using cleaners that are less toxic as well as using cleaners that work effectively against harmful microbes. We can eliminate cleaners that double our work by buying cleaning products that are specific to our needs and in doing so, we will save money and storage space. We can fill our home’s air with the scent of actual, natural cleanliness instead of a man-made “chemical” scent that we associate with cleanliness.
For the next three issues, we will focus on what going green in our cleaning means. How it is done. What it will change in our home –our health, our finances, and our time. And how it will change the future of our planet. We will go into the different chemicals that are legal, but potentially unsafe, what benefits they have and what alternatives exist that are less damaging to the environment.
Our own green causes may come from that same frame of mind that our mothers had about cleaning. What leads us to all-natural may be the same DNA that led them to “extra strength” sanitizers. We want to eliminate anything that will cause our loved ones illness or stress. In our mothers’ day, the enemy was bacteria and germs. Today, we have added the word “toxin” to our list of harms. And in our broadened understanding, we see that we can evolve into natural, holistic nurturers. We can simply and effectively guard our loved ones with the planet instead of against it. Nature, after all, is a Mother, too.
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