The first brand we tried was Mrs. Meyer’s and we immediately fell in love!

The Surface Scrub was the first MM product we actually bought - in the Lavender scent.  Lea really liked it, but she is a big fan of serious scrubbing – she cleans a mean shower, let me tell you!  Personally, while I liked the scent, I am really not a big fan of powder cleaners, so I just couldn’t get behind this product whole-heartedly.  I even left it behind in our bathroom closet when we moved out – but maybe it will inspire whoever buys our house (please oh please, someone buy our house) to try green cleaners, too! 

After the surface scrub, we tried the Counter Top Spray (again in Lavender scent) – and this product I absolutely LOVE!  I love the scent, which is clean and fresh but not overpowering.  Surprisingly even Lea likes it and normally she hates Lavender or anything even remotely flowery smelling!  More importantly, it cleans great and doesn’t leave behind any nasty chemical smells or residue.  I love knowing that the ingredients are natural and safe for the environment.  I used this stuff everywhere – kitchen, bathroom, random cleaning – and it always worked great. 

In fact, we used this so often that we ran out soon enough!  But rather than buy another bottle of the Counter Top Spray, this time we bought a big bottle of the All Purpose Cleaner.  This option is so cost-effective, we just refill our spray bottle using a little bit of the cleaner and water, and it works just as well as the spray.  The All Purpose Cleaner has instructions on the proportions to use, and this way we don’t have to buy multiple bottles (that we can’t recycle here in Alaska).  I wish all the products I buy for home and bath could be refillable this way!

There has been some concern in the past about MM and parabens but they haven’t used them in their products since January 2007 which is great news!

When we moved to Alaska, we were concerned about whether we would ever find our coveted cleaner again – but lo and behold we found it in several locations including our grocery stores as well as the local feed store (sells dogfood etc.). The feed store sells more MM products than we ever knew existed, so score one for Alaska! We may not have recycling but at least we can clean green.

This pdf file has lots of helpful information on what to look for in a greener cleaner.

In brief, things to look for in a greener cleaner:
non-toxic
concentrated
products that do not have bad water softeners including EDTA and NTA in them
biodegradable
less than .5% phosphates
no bleach or sodium hypochlorite
less than 10% VOC concentration
non-petrolium based
neutral pH (7.0 and higher)
recycled and recyclable packaging

Here’s what we have now, and we don’t need any comments on the badness of each of these. We know they’re bad, that’s why we’re replacing them!

Cleaners:
Multipurpose Cleaner: Mr Clean 28 fl oz – $5
Wood Cleaner: Pledge Spray 12.5 oz – $5
Shower Cleaner: CLR 26 fl oz- $6 (rilly bad stuff)
Toliet Cleaner: Lysol Toilet Cleaner 24 fl oz-$4Glass Cleaner: Windex
Glass Cleaner: Windex 26 fl oz – $4 
Bleaching Agent: Bleach – $2
Carpet Cleaner: Capture (one for stains and one for smells) 24 fl oz x 2 – $14 (hurts my lungs)
Dog-related “incidents” Cleaner: Nature’s Miracle 32 fl oz - $9
Liquid Dish Soap: Dawn 25 fl oz- $4
Wood Floor Cleaner: Orange Glo Hardwood Floor Cleaner 32 fl oz – $8

Total Cost: $61

Alternatives we want to try from 3R Living:
Multipurpose Cleaner: Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner 32 fl oz – $8
Wood Cleaner:  Howard Naturals Wood Cleaner 12 fl oz – $9.50 
Shower Cleaner: Going to try Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner and see what happens!
Grout Cleaner: Oxy-Grout Grout Cleaner 14 oz – $8
Toliet Cleaner: Mrs. Meyer’s Toilet Bowl Cleaner 32 fl oz – $5
Glass Cleaner: Mrs. Meyer’s Window Spray 20 fl oz – $5
Carpet Cleaner: Mrs. Meyer’s Carpet Cleaner 32 fl oz – $8
Dog-related “incidents” Cleaner: Nature’s Miracle (actually, I think this is an OK product but I need to double check)
Liquid Dish Soap: Mrs. Meyer’s Liquid Dish Soap 16 fl oz – $5
Wood Floor Cleaner: Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner works on floors too!

Total Cost (s/h not included): $48.50

We’ll keep everyone posted with what we actually end up buying – who knows, we may be able to get some of this stuff locally!