Dear Dot,
I would love to find great, gentle, and good-smelling cleaning and beauty products that are also high-concentration and low-volume, but I’m totally overwhelmed by the vast amount of marketing from many different companies telling me why their product is so great and so much better than everyone else’s. Do you have any fave cleaning products or bar shampoo recommendations?
–Jennifer
The Short Answer: You can assemble a DIY cleaning kit using good old white vinegar, lemons, baking soda, and a bit of castile soap. Since you love scents, add in your favorite essential oils (lavender is a popular one, or anything citrus-y). You’ll not only have all you need to get your home sparkling but you’ll save yourself a small fortune, too. The internet is chock-a-block with do-it-yourself cleaning recipes so get Googling and pick your favorite.
(Dot’s favorite? A surface scrub of baking soda and enough water to create a paste. Add a few drops of dish soap. You can make what you need or store extra. If it hardens, just add a bit more water to turn it back into a paste.)
My dear Jennifer,
Many, many years ago, I left my job as a magazine editor to become a freelance writer, and my days were filled with writing books and magazine stories. It was a glorious time. And then Mr. Dot and I decided to have a baby. I birthed this baby on a Friday morning with the sky a perfect blue outside the hospital window. She was magnificent, this baby Dot. The next day, we took her home, where, having little to no experience with babies, I imagined she would doze in a basket while I finished my regular magazine column that was due on Monday.
It might surprise no one to discover that my column was submitted late and no doubt required extensive editing. This baby, this perfect creature that I expected would snooze often, coo occasionally, and charm us all, instead wailed and screamed and was single-handedly responsible for a path worn into the hall carpet as I paced with her day and night like some sort of postpartum Lady Macbeth.
Babies, as it turned out, were a lot of work, this baby in particular. And so, Mr. Dot and I scrounged in our sofa cushions to find the money to hire someone to clean our apartment, one less chore for us stressed out parents. As I navigated new motherhood, Max (our cleaning gentleman) imposed order on literal chaos, cleanliness on filth, and assured me, as only a childless 24-year-old young man could, that I was mothering just swell.
Max moved on, and we hired Lindsey, a lovely woman with three young children and a commitment to Earth-friendly products born of her concern about the indoor air pollution from cleaning products, which Dot shares.
Turns out, Lindsey uses, as she puts it, “a lot of white vinegar.” She even put a glass bowl of water and white vinegar in my (disgusting) microwave, turned it on for five minutes, waited a few minutes longer, then wiped it clean. I pointed out that Lindsey’s favorite cleaning product wasn’t making me hungry for fries, so what gives? To mitigate the vinegar smell, she said, she adds a few drops of essential oils (though vinegar’s smell dissipates as soon as it dries, she assured me). BTW, Jennifer, have you seen the Instagram lady’s microwave lemon trick? It’s similar to Lindsey’s vinegar approach, but with an actual lemon instead!
And that’s the thing with cleaning products — you can assemble a DIY kit of good old white vinegar, lemons, baking soda, and a bit of castile soap. Since you love scents, add in your favorite essential oils (lavender is a popular one, or anything citrus-y). You’ll not only have all you need to get your home sparkling, but you’ll save yourself a small fortune, too. The internet is chock-a-block with do-it-yourself cleaning recipes so get Googling and pick your favorite.
(Dot’s favorite? A surface scrub of baking soda and enough water to create a paste. Add a few drops of dish soap. You can make what you need or store extra. If it hardens, just add a bit more water to turn it back into a paste.)
As for castile soap, I am slavishly devoted to Dr. Bronner’s for, well, pretty much everything, including washing my floors, my walls, my countertops, and my body. But not just any Dr. Bronner’s — the almond-scented version. (You’ll discover your own favorite — the Citrus Orange is a close second for me. The peppermint’s not bad, either.)
My friend Sarah, a home organizer (who often cleans for her clients) swears by Natura products. They’re available only to Canadian readers but if you can get your hands on them, Sarah insists you’ll love them. “My most favorite,” she raves, “is the cleaner with Australian tea tree oil. Most of my clients end up buying it.”
For personal care products, Bluedot’s Marketplace editor, Elizabeth, swears by Ethique. “Legitimately a great brand,” she says. The company is woman-founded and offers cruelty-free bar soaps, shampoos, and conditioners that really work, according to Elizabeth, who has Rapunzel-like tresses: “Works really well, a variety of scents, none overwhelming.” Elizabeth also notes that Ethique offers small sample sizes, which ship in paper containers in tiny boxes. “The whole brand is plastic free and is one of my favorite brands in our whole marketplace,” she says.
Catherine Walthers, Bluedot’s creator of all things sustainably delicious, just discovered a “heavenly” Moroccan Rose-scented deodorant in a cardboard container from Humble — she picked it up at a zero waste store. Cathy says that, like Bluedot’s Marketplace, the owners or managers of these stores are great sources for product info. “They usually test and know all the products,” she says.
Bluedot’s copyeditor, Laura Roosevelt, who's also been guiding us all through growing a garden that will feed us through the year and whose mother just might be the OG environmentalist, is, like you, Jennifer, converting to eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products. “One I love is Blue Heron Botanicals' Organic Lip Therapy products,” Laura says. “Their chapstick comes in a range of scents, packaged in heavy paper.” The company boasts that one sea turtle is saved for every lip therapy product sold, which I confess alarms me somewhat because that means every lip therapy product left on the metaphorical shelf is an unsaved baby sea turtle. So please, everyone, buy yourself a Blue Heron Botanicals’ Lip Therapy product so we can save all the baby sea turtles!
I’d love to also open this question up to Bluedot’s wonderful readers, who no doubt have their own favorites — perhaps wonderfully scented ones. Please send your suggestions or comments to de*****@bl***********.com.
In the meantime, though, Jennifer, try not to sweat it too much. Dot holds firm that anxiety about making a misstep is misplaced. Avoid the worst culprits — anything that warns of being an eye/skin irritant, requires ventilation for use, is packaged excessively, or has a skull and crossbones or that scary bony hand on its label. But don’t knock yourself out trying to find the “perfect” cleaner or beauty product. Bluedot’s motto is a wise one: Buy less. But when you buy, buy better.
Squeaky-cleanly,
Dot
