Greener Cleaners

Now that you’ve put a lot of effort into your green kitchen design, you don’t want to fill it up with harmful toxic cleaners, do you? Unfortunately, many traditional cleaners are made from petroleum based products and as we all know petroleum is not a renewable resource. Not only that but it’s harmful to the environment into your health.  So how can you find Greener cleaners for your kitchen?

One thing you can do is go natural. Some of the best cleaners are probably in your cupboards right now and these include vinegar and baking soda.  Mix in either one of these with water will give you a wonderful and natural cleaner and baking soda is a great deodorizer or for the home you can toss out those toxic plug-ins and just use baking soda.

But for those of you that like to have your cleaners come premade, there are actually quite a few choices today and as the demand for green cleaning products grows, there will be many more and the future.

One green cleaning products that’s been around for generations is Bon Ami, this widely recognizable product comes in a cylindrical container and is simply calcium carbonate.  It’s biodegradable and contains no toxic ingredients like perfumes or dyes.  Another cleaner you might be familiar with his Borax.  The unlikely name makes it sound like it’s filled with chemicals however it has just one ingredient sodium tetraborate decahydrate which is safe to use and does not contain chlorine or phosphates.

One of the “newer”products called Simple Green has actually been around for over 30 years. It comes in an easy-to-use spray bottle filled with green liquid.  The company actually has a huge range of environmental he finally cleaning products that can be used to clean just about anything.

If you take a trip through grocery store, you probably find a variety of green cleaning products on the shelves. Be sure to read the labels so you pick one that really is green and you be helping your family’s health as well as the environment.

Low Flow Kitchen Faucets – Save Water Without Even Noticing

When designing your green kitchen, everything must be taken into consideration and that includes the kitchen sink – or, I should say, the kitchen faucet.  Today’s faucets come in water saving models that will help save water when doing your normal kitchen tasks.

But will a low flow faucet severely impact you filling up your pasta pot?

The truth is that these new water saving faucets actually save water without having a big impact on your daily tasks.  They do this by using sensors which shut off the water when it might have been left running otherwise as well as make use of aerators that lesson the water flow without you noticing.

When it comes to buying a low flow faucet, homeowners today have a lot of choices and you can buy stylish models that match with any type of décor.  In addition, you’ll be able to choose from a bunch of different technologies that help to keep water consumption down.  One type you might consider you a metered valve facet which delivers .25 gallons of water and is then set to automatically shut off.

There are other types of water saving faucets too.  A self-closing faucet is one that is spring-loaded and shuts off a few seconds after the water is turned on. This eliminates the excess flow of water when you are turning away with a pot of water or something in your hands and can’t shut it off yourself.  It also eliminates the need for you to have to come back to the faucet to shut it off, thus making your kitchen work more efficient.

Some faucets have infrared sensor that will automatically turn the water on when a hand is sensed underneath and then automatically shut it off when it senses that nothing is underneath the faucet.  This is the type of faucet you see in a lot of modern restrooms and can really save water as well as be convenient to use.

But no matter what type of low flow kitchen faucet you choose, you will be accomplishing a couple of goals. First off, you’ll have a nice “green” faucet for your kitchen.  Secondly, you will be saving water which will not only have a positive impact on your water bill but also on the environment.  And thirdly, there are related benefits such as less groundwater pumping, less sewer treatment, less distribution pumping and, off course, less water taken from the earth