Over the past few months, I’ve made one simple change in my home. Instead of using bottle after bottle of liquid hand soap, I’ve switched to bars of plain old Ivory soap. I’m pretty pleased with the decision for several reasons:
At a score of three (on a scale of one to ten), Simply Ivory bar soap is rated as a moderate hazard by EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Database. I can purchase this for a great price, which makes it an all-around good – and healthy – deal for me. I choose Ivory because it’s very affordable. Another common bar soap that also has a good rating is Dove Beauty Bar Soap for sensitive skin. (I’ve used Kirk’s Original Coco Castile Soap in the past and have been pleased with it … it’s another safe variety, but isn’t so common.)
- Since Big Brother and Little Sister are still perfecting the art of hand washing, they were squeezing an awful lot of soap – and using an awful lot of water to wash all the bubbles off. By teaching them how to lather with a bar of soap, they’re using less soap. In the long-run, that’s more economical for our family.
- Environmentally speaking, bars of soap are much more environmentally friendly than bottles of liquid soap – purely for the fact that bars of soap are wrapped in paper, and liquid soap is packaged in plastic bottles. Even when I used to buy the large refill bottles to pour into my glass soap pumps, I still was throwing away the plastic.
- With bars of soap, I don’t have to be concerned about exposing my family to the dangers of anti-bacterial soaps. (It’s important to avoid soaps that include triclosan.)
Talk back
What kind of soap do you use? Have you ever thought about greening your daily routine with a simple bar of soap?
How about you?
What did YOUR family’s Accidentally Green week look like? Please e-mail stories and/or photos to accidentallygreen@gmail.com. I’ll share them with other readers!
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Hilary Kimes Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, mama, and journalist. She writes about making healthy decisions that honor God and happen to help the environment at Accidentally Green. Short and sweet - like her writing - Hilary is the author of several healthy living eBooks.
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