One of the things that kept us from going green in the beginning was cost. When you think of everything you could do to help out by going green it becomes incredibly overwhelming. After a while of doing nothing at all I started to change my thinking. There are so many small changes we could make that would help out in a big way. Small things that only have to be purchased every couple months. Something like a toothbrush.

There are over 300 million people living in America. If everybody replaced their toothbrush twice a year that is over 600 million toothbrushes being thrown away. What if all those toothbrushes were recyclable? Can you image the waste our country could get rid of if everybody did the small thing of buying a recyclable toothbrush?

So “going green” doesn’t have to be huge or expensive. Just look around your house and see what small thing you can contribute. If everybody did something small, the impact would be huge.

The toothbrush that we have chosen to use is the Preserve Toothbrush. The toothbrush is made from 100% recycled material and when we are done using it will be reprocessed into plastic lumber for picnic tables, decks. etc. And it is only $3.00 from Whole Foods. So for just $6/year we can contribute to making our Earth a better place.

If you take a look around our house you may not be able to find any huge green changes we have made. Going green can sometimes be very expensive. So over here at our house we have started with some of the smaller, much cheaper items. Items that you may not even recognize as being green.

One thing that we all use in our houses are sponges. We use them to wash dishes, scrub counters, and much more. According to some of the articles I have read recently, sponges should be replaced to prevent the spread of germs as much as once a month (that’s right Papa, once a month)! Not only that, but you should have one sponge for every item you are going to clean. You heard right. One sponge for dishes, one for counters, one for tables, etc. And if you only have one for all those things you should throw it out every couple weeks. My, my that is a lot of garbage.

That is why I am happy to say I came across a company that makes biodegradable sponges. It is called Twist and the prices are very affordable. The one I have been using for the past month is called the Euro Sponge and I really like it. It works just as well as any other sponge I have used in the past. In fact, it is a lot softer and smoother so it slides better over counters and dishes. The time has come that I need to purchase a new one and I don’t feel bad at all about throwing it away because I know it is made from materials that are recycled and biodegradable.

So I am off to the store to get a new sponge for myself and two for one of you!! If you would like to win two Euro Sponges made by Twist:

To enter:

Just leave a comment!

Bonus Entries:

(1) Tweet or link back in your facebook status to this giveaway

(2) Write about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me

Leave a separate comment for each bonus entry.

A winner will be randomly chosen at midnight on March 20, 2009 and announced when I wake up on March 21.

It has come to my attention that even though my blog is titled Mostly Natural Momma, I have yet to share with you how I have tried to make my home more natural and green. So I am going to start this little segment called Now More Natural. Here goes:

One day when I was pregnant with Sweet Pea I started getting out my cleaning supplies to clean the bathroom. My tote was filled with bleach products, comet, and lots of other cleaners full of chemicals. I thought to myself…maybe I could convince my hubby to clean the bathroom by telling him that his pregnant wife should not be cleaning the bathroom and breathing in all this nasty stuff. And that got me thinking even more. Should anybody really be breathing it in and risking getting it all over their hands, eyes, and mouth? What are these chemicals really doing to our bodies? Maybe just breathing it in once is okay, but we all know that bathrooms must be cleaned way more than that.

My mind really started racing at that point. The new baby was surely going to find a way into the cabinet and drink my 409. Not good. I had to find some other alternative.

So I turned to my friends and the internet. Two cleaners that constantly were brought up were Babyganics and Shaklee. Both cleaners are non-toxic and free of harsh chemicals. I found that the babyganics cleaners worked a little better than the Shaklee. And if you do buy this product, make sure you buy a scented version because the non-scented smells nasty. My hubby will not go into the bathroom at all if he knows have have cleaned it with unscented babyganics because it smells that bad. But even though these products are advertised to be non-toxic, I still get a little nervous about Sweet Pea. I loves to help me clean and I want to let him. On top of that, the non-toxic cleaners tend to be a little more expensive than the regular stuff and that is always a negative.

So I started researching a little more and have found the solution. Vinegar. I started cleaning with vinegar a few weeks ago and will never go back. I am absolutly amazed at how well vinegar cleans. My sinks and counters have never looked so shiny. I found this awesome website called 1001 Uses for white distilled vinegar. It gives specific directions for cleaning any room in the house and much more. Now I can hand Sweet Pea a rag and let him scrub until his little heart’s content and I don’t worry about it at all. Oh…and it is really cheap!!