Over the past few years, we’ve tried to consume less in our household, in order to save money, divert waste from the landfill, and to do our tiny bit to help preserve the planet’s resources, but there are some things a family just can’t live without. So, we’ve tried to become more conscious consumers, and along the way have switched over to many organic, and more natural products in our household, from food to toothpaste to dishwashing liquid. Many of our customers at Kai Kids (our online store specializing in organic, eco-friendly products for babies, toddlers and preschoolers) are just starting out on their path to greener living, so I thought I’d write a series of posts about our family’s favourite earth-friendly products.

• I’m starting to experiment with making more of my own non-toxic cleaning supplies (watch for a post on that in the next few weeks), but for effective, fresh-smelling, and chemical-free household cleaning needs my favourite brand is Ecover. We’ve tried their dishwashing liquid, dishwasher powder, all purpose cleaner, and window cleaner, and I love them all, more than NatureClean or Citrasolve etc. They are a Belgian company, but now manufacture in the U.S., so although I wish their products were made here in Canada, at least they aren’t travelling to my local store all the way from Europe. My only gripe is that I can’t seem to find any of their products sold in bulk form, as I’d really like to reuse and refill my plastic bottles to save on money and packaging.
• for laundry detergent, we like Canadian-made Nature Clean’s liquid which we buy in bulk at Grassroots, which lucky for us, is in our neighbourhood. We also have recently tried Nellie’s Laundry Nuggets and Laundry Soap, also made in Canada. Both do a great job with no nasty chemical residues or perfumes, and no phosphates entering the water system! We may actually soon start carrying Nellie’s products in our eco-friendly online store !
• Merchants of Green Coffee: Peter has lately become a coffee fanatic (instead of opening Kai Kids, we almost went into the business of importing organic coffee beans!) and I must say, we now drink some pretty amazing Fair Trade, organic and shade-grown coffee chez nous. Peter roasts, grinds and brews our coffee so we rarely buy take-out coffee any more. We buy our beans from Toronto’s The Merchants of Green Coffee, who’ve been importing beans and supplying area restaurants and stores since 1994. Their vision is “To lead the evolution of the coffee industry to a sustainable state ‘from tree to cup’,” and their mantra is Fresh Coffee, Fair Trade, Green Business. We love their coffee, but we also like how they operate and what they stand for. In 1999 they established the Sustainable Coffee Program to pioneered sustainable coffee certification – it helps facilitate the production and sale of sustainable coffee – a direct link to farmers growing quality coffee. Sustainable coffee is defined as: purchased from the farmer at a fair price, grown organically in a biodiverse ecosystem, and processed with eco-friendly technologies and methods. You can buy green or roasted beans from them, roasters, visit their coffee shop, or take lessons on the Art of Roasting, or the Alchemy of Brewing!

Stay tuned, as next week I’m going to write about our favourite toothpaste, soap, shampoo and chocolate! Please join in and comment to let us know about your family’s favourite green products, we’d love to hear from you.