NON-TOXIC CLEANING

The Green Sanctuary project, Non-toxic Cleaning Supplies for UUCB, is designed to promote the health and safety of individuals, of the community, and of our planet. Through our research we were very interested and excited to learn about safe, cost effective ways to clean, using common, household ingredients such as baking soda, distilled white vinegar, water, and olive oil. Although our research is by no means comprehensive or complete, we are moving forward in our effort to live more sustainably. We hope our findings will be as useful to you as they have been to us.

The following documents are the result of our research:

• Green Cleaning Quick Tips is a short list of safe, effective, cleaning agents.

• Non-toxic Cleaning Supplies is the expanded version of “Green Cleaning Quick Tips”.

• Cleaning Ingredients to Avoid lists toxic ingredients commonly found in household cleaning products.

• General Cautionary Notes

• Green Cleaning Resources is a list of relevant books, articles, and websites which we have found interesting and helpful. At the beginning of the project we took an inventory of the cleaning supplies we were currently using at UUCB. Next we did a green cleaning literature search. One of our favorite books is Green-up Your Clean-up, by Jill Schoff (2008). Jill is a mom who researched and wrote this book out of concern for her young family's health and safety. We are pleased to have added her book to the UUCB Library's collection for all who wish to borrow it.

• After trying out some of the recommended ingredients when cleaning the church and our homes, we eliminated some cleaning agents from our closets and replaced them with more earth friendly ones. UUCB Cleaning, Then and Now is a chart showing the products we previously used, the ones we use now, and comments based on our experience.

• And finally, because we view this project as only a beginning, we are including Recommendations for Future Non-toxic Cleaning Projects.