How to Clean Things: Blog

Once upon a time, when I was about 16, my stepmom paid me $20 to clean and wash her car. Because she actually hated doing it herself that much. Me? I kind of like  cleaning cars, although you’d never be able to tell by looking at my Saturn. But that’s what makes it so satisfying: once every year or two, I thoroughly clean something that thoroughly needed cleaning. And that just feels good. What doesn’t feel good is learning that cleaning and washing a car is, almost by definition, an environmentalist’s nightmare. All that water; all those chemicals; all those poor aquatic creatures living near where the storm drains empty into the river. So this year, when it came time to give the car a bath, I did some research and learned how to clean a car using only nontoxic everyday household products. And to save water, I resisted getting entranced by the ripples in the water flowing over the hood. Turns out, cleaning a car the environmentally friendly way can also mean cleaning it the inexpensive, efficient way.