The History of Green Shine

I love cleanness. I must admit that. Not the hospital's sterile environment, but a pleasant, nice home. A few years back a huge part of our household expenses went on commercial cleaners. Glass cleaners, disinfectants, furniture polishes, drain cleaner, kitchen cleaners, laundry detergents, oven cleaners, tub cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners and so on. It is far too much to mention them all.

Then suddenly a white spot appeared on my hand's skin. My doctor made the diagnosis: eczema. His first question was about what kind of cleaners I use in my household. It was an absolute wake up call for me. Immediately started to check what ingredients are in the cleaners.

I was shocked when I realized how many dangerous chemicals are in use in these everyday cleaning supplies. I thought naively that cleaners I buy in the supermarket are safe, but I had to realize that toxic chemicals are present in almost all household products. These chemicals are dangerous for people and for the nature itself. Furthermore I read that while there has been much research into how individual chemicals behave, there is little knowledge of what their combined effects could be. (Which was reinforced by a plumber who told horror stories about the effects of mixing cleaners).

So as a housewife, I wanted to take care not only the cleanness of our home, but my family's health, too. That's why I started searching for milder, safer and more eco-friendly alternatives. Simple ingredients like salt, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda that are used for cleaning by my grandmother's mother are not that harmful (and they can be also used for cooking). Moreover my personal experience shows that they are as effective as a commercial cleaner.

I started to use white distilled vinegar to remove limescale from my tap. The next step was using bicarbonate of soda for scrub my tub. During the next two years I obsessively have been looking for new alternatives, tips and tricks. I have tried them and depending to the result I continued to use what worked for me. I felt that it is worthwhile to summarize these methods and share them with others. Green Shine originally started out as a book project, but I thought that I could reach more people by developing an iPhone app. This app is the culmination of 2 years of research and my experience in using these solutions in our own household.

I hope you'll find my app useful and helpful. And feedback and your thoughts are most welcome!