Happy and Healthy Spring Cleaning

We are back from Vermont, which made our car look like this:

It was a great trip.  On the way to Boston we ran across the Simon Pearce factory in Windsor, VT, where we were able to view glassblowing in progress.  It was fun to see the origin of many of our wedding presents.

We also came across The Vermont Country Store, "purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find."

 It was perfect timing, because I was able to buy Kirk's Castille Soap, the missing item in my "natural cleaning" arsenal.  It is my goal this year to be about 75% green in my cleaning.  We live in a coastal area and it just seems like the responsible thing to do.

Of course Sherry and John at Young House Love have a great series of comprehensive posts about just this topic.   One thing I learned is that there is some controversy regarding the safety of Borax, so it may not be wise to jump right into using that on dishes unless you have done your own research.  For the record my favorite book on this topic is Green Clean (pictured above)- the recipes are easy to follow and everything is broken down by room (bathroom, kitchen, etc).

Happy scrubbing!