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Clean and Green: The Complete Guide to Non-Toxic and Environmentally Safe Housekeeping

by Annie Berthold-Bond

Book Description 485 ways to clean, polish, disinfect, deodorize, launder, remove stains, even wash your car, without harming yourself or the environment. Recipes based on harmless, nonpolluting, renewable ingredients. 160 pages, recycled paper/vegetable ink, paperback.

Editorial Review Excerpts

Library Journal
Better than Heloise's Hints for A Healthy Planet....

Garbage Magazine
The result of her years of experimentation is not only an encyclopedia for environmental cleanliness, but also a laundry list of solutions of solutions for everyday puzzlers.

Home Magazine
In a remarkably easy-to-use format, Berthold-Bond tells how to clean effectively using simple, natural ingredients such as baking soda, Borax, lemon juice, vegetable oil and vinegar. She makes a convincing argument that cleaning with natural products can be handier, cheaper and just as effective as the alternative.

Ontario's Common Ground Magazine
For those concerned about the environment, and the growing population with chemical sensitivities, Annie Berthold-Bond has the solution - actually 500 of them - in her book Clean & Green. Using her thoroughly researched and personally tested formulas for easy-to-make, nontoxic and nonpolluting household cleaning aids, it is possible to eliminate the health hazards of standard commercial products.

Natural Health Magazine
It is a gold mine of ideas for cleaning everything imaginable.

Comments From Readers

Annie Berthold-Bond's recommendations for cleaning recipes are compact, exact, and varied. Recipes are included for nearly every cleaning situation encountered in households today. The book may seem short and lacking the discussion typical of many "stay green" books. Don't let this fool you. When you just want to choose a good cleaning recipe (they're conveniently ordered by type of cleaning situtation) using ingredients you probably already have in your home, then this book is the one to choose.

* * *

This book is good. BUT...there are way too many recipes with no explanations for the beginning green cleaner.

I was a little lost in the vast forest of different ways to clean everything. Also, there are no detailed instructions on just how to mix together the ingredients. As Karen Noonan Logan points out in "Clean House, Clean Planet," there are times (especially when mixing baking soda and vinegar) when you must put the ingredients in a specific order for the cleanser to work.

Don't get me wrong, this *is* a very good book! Chemically sensitive people and those who already make their own cleansers will find it a valuable source. But, for the beginner, it would probably be better to get "Clean House, Clean Planet" first because it has detailed instructions, some chemistry lessons and effectiveness ratings.

After you become more familiar with how green cleaning works, this book would be an excellent addition for more recipes and ideas.

* * *

I only bought this book a couple of weeks ago, and have already put many of the recommendations and recipes into practice. It offers easy to understand and implement alternatives for those who want to use enviromentally-friendly alternatives for their home. Also offers a large resource guide for where to find what you need.

* * *

I'm not much interested in housecleaning, but when I read Annie's recipes, I trust her attention to safe and healthy living. Environmental illness,a disease that requires a lot of housecleaning, has forced me to search for safe products, and to use them.I am comforted to find such a reliable and extensive source of information.


To view a more complete list of Generation Green's recommended adult reading, click here.