BOOK LOVE: DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes

When asked, “why make your own non-toxic cleaning supplies?” many of us will have a handful of answers.

It’s better for our household environment. It will reduce our body’s toxic load. It will save us money. It smells nice.

In this week’s Weekend Book Love post, I’m giving you all a peek inside my friend Heather’s newest e-book, DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes. Heather blogs at Mommypotamus, and because she’s my friend (and you guys are awesome!), she’s also offering an exclusive 20% off discount to my readers when they buy her book!

Why make your own non-toxic cleaning supplies?

Here’s my favorite reason, straight from Heather’s keyboard to your reading eyes:

“You may have slightly different reasons, but yesterday my toddler ate some laundry detergent. Being the kind, thoughtful mother than I am, I handed him a glass of water to wash it down. That, folks, is the beauty of making your own non-toxic cleaning supplies.

The best part? They WORK.”

Heather’s book begins with an eye-opening introduction.

She writes,

Right now as you read this page, there are about 700 chemicals coursing through your body, many of which can be found in the cleaning supplies that line store shelves: potent hormone disruptors, formaldehyde and cancer-causing 1,4 dioxane to name a few.

The sad part is, these chemicals are most dangerous to the developing endocrine systems of our children.

The good news, though, is that you can radically reduce your child’s toxic load (and your own!) by switching to natural cleaning products.

These non-toxic cleaning supplies will save you money.

Perhaps the most interesting part of reading Heather’s book (for me!) was reading her Cost Savings Analysis breakdown for many of her recipes.

Here’s an example of one for her Citrus Splash All-Purpose Spray Cleaner.

Cost Savings Analysis: Citrus Splash Cleaner

Store-bought “eco-friendly” cleaners – which often contain questionable ingredients – cost an average of $0.12 per ounce. Here’s the breakdown for this recipe:

• Water – Cost varies, but roughly $0.01 for the total recipe
• Vinegar – About $0.05 per ounce
• Essential oil – Prices will vary depending on brand and type, but mine came to about $0.01 total for the recipe

Total store bought cost – About $3.84 for 32 ounces
Total homemade cost – About $1.62 for 32 ounces (A savings of 50%!)

(cost analysis quoted from p.18 of DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes)

These non-toxic recipes WORK.

I have always loved the idea of homemade dishwasher detergents.

But I could never — ever — get them to work without leaving a filmy residue on my dishes. I tried all the tricks the free recipes online touted as so-called “fixes” for this problem, including adding straight vinegar as a rinse aid.

Yet nothing worked, so I gave up.

I started buying natural-ish brands of dish detergents and store-bought, phosphate-including rinse aids to make sure there was absolutely no filmy residue on my glasses.

And then I read DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes, and I knew my mistake.

Heather succinctly explains just why most homemade and all-natural dish detergents leave that residue behind.

… And she tells you how to prevent it!

She provides a fail-proof recipe for success, promising that if you use her homemade detergent along with one of her homemade rinse aids, you will never have a filmy residue on your dishes again!

Doesn’t her homemade dish detergent look downright edible?

I combined this dish detergent with her recipe for Liquid Rinse Aid, and guess what happened?

My first spot-free, residue-free, 100% so-natural-it’s-edible load of dishes.

HORRAY!

I’m hooked.

Sold.

A fan for life.

Want to save 20% on this fabulous e-book?

From now until October 1, 2013, you can use coupon code HEALTHYHOME20 at checkout to save 20% off DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes.

This is an exclusive savings for Food Renegade readers, so if you want to save, buy the book today before you forget!

(Click here to buy DIY Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes)

HURRY. The offer expires on October 1st!

Want to read more BOOK LOVE posts?

This is the first in what I hope to be a weekly Weekend Book Love Series.

Every weekend, I’m going to be reviewing one of the new books that comes my way.

(Seriously, I get about a dozen books each month from authors and publishers asking me to review them! It’s time I did something with my never-ending supply of interesting books and select the most awesome, most useful, most well-written of the lot to review.)

(photos courtesy of Mommypotamus, standard disclosures apply)