Rites of Spring (Cleaning)

If you live like a peasant in sixteenth-century England, it's time to sweep out the layer of old hay that's lain all winter on your kitchen floor. And no matter where you live, spring festivals such as Noruz, in Central Asia, provide impetus and rewards for cleaning. This vernal equinox (March 20) or Earth Day (April 22), your home may be ripe for purification, especially if you've had children underfoot all spring break. As you attack the grime, however, take care not to pollute your indoor air with a chemical miasma, as Jodi Hesse, an at-home mother of three boys in Minneapolis, discovered when scrubbing the bathroom one day. "I don't remember the brand, but it was a shower cleaner. I just about keeled over from the fumes," says Jodi, who has now switched from standard to least-toxic brands. Such irritating, unhealthy fumes are often caused by petrochemical volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-including some components of smog-which evaporate from products. In addition to concerned moms like Jodi, state governments are taking action: New York mandates that public schools use green cleaning products, and New Jersey's governor has ordered state agencies to do the same.

These days, a cleaner doesn't deserve the name if it poses risks to the environment or our health. Brenda Jaffe, of Delray Beach, Florida, switched to least-toxic cleaners one Earth Day during the '90s. "I am sensitive to chemicals, but it was more the interest in the environment prompting me to make these choices," Brenda says. (See "Ingredients to Avoid" sidebar) "Green cleaning means keeping chemicals out of the waste stream, downstream," says Andrea Kannapell, an international news editor at The New York Times. Julie Besonen, food editor of Paper Magazine and Andrea's neighbor in a New York City East Village apartment building, adds, "I hate the waste with all the packaging." So they reuse containers, and, says Andrea, "I buy my dish soap in bulk and refill my small dispenser." Julie says she's cut back on packaging so much that she "only takes the garbage down once a week." At the very least, she and Andrea say, green cleaners should come in readily recyclable packaging. Ideally, they'd also be made of post-consumer-recycled materials. For example, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap uses certified organic plant oils, and the refillable bottle is made of 100-percent post-consumer-recycled plastic.