Courtesy of Kevin Schwartz
READ MORE ABOUT:
Dad of of 21-month-old Tyler, Kevin Schwartz has a cool business making what I believe is some of the best-working and safe-enough-to-drink household cleaners with his line Babyganics. He started the line when he noticed his pet pooch had a painful hotspot on his chin from resting it on a glass coffee table that he cleaned with conventional glass cleaner. This got him thinking--if it does that to a dogs chin, what is it doing to the rest of us? Tons of research and a few months later, and--voila--Babyganics was born, just in time to clean up for Kevin's own baby, Tyler.
"With a 21 month old and a dog, our house is a full-time mess," says Kevin. "We've got two little critters that are constantly eating off the floor, so staying clean is very important for us and, of course, with the amount of cleaning we're doing, we need everything to be safe to use around both our dog and our kid. Basically, everything we're cleaning should be considered a food surface (because it often is). My mantra is 'Get it clean and leave nothing behind.'"
Here are Kevin's four top tips for staying clean and green:
- Only buy neutral cleaners--by that I mean safe and natural.
- Before you spray anything all—green or not—see if you can cleanup with a simple, damp cloth first.
- If a product says "Keep out of reach of children," you shouldn't it spray it around them either. So ditch toxic cleaners altogether.
- Don't use pesticides inside or outside of your home--that includes antibacterial cleaners too, which are actually classified as pesticides by the EPA.
Another benefit to keeping your home full of kid-safe cleaning products? Everyone in the family can pitch in. Come on kids, grab a rag!
Here's our roundup of the best kid-safe cleaning products:
Kevin's Babyganics (available at Babys'R'Us, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Costco)
Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day
Seventh Generation
Ecover
Find great gift ideas for dad in TreeHugger's Father's Day Gift Guide.
Lynda Fassa is Planet Green's babies and family expert. She's the founder of Green Babies organic cotton baby clothes and the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby, and the forthcoming Green Kids, Sage Families: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Family, both from Penguin NAL. Read her previous posts here.
-
- {}
