Adam + Eric on Squeaky Green

Squeaky Green - the method guide to detoxing your home just hit bookshelves last month. The co-writers (and co-founders of method) Adam Lowry & Eric Ryan sat down at the method office to talk through the inspiration behind the book, sample some of the dirty little secrets you'll find in Squeaky Green, and show us easy solutions to detoxing our homes in order to create a healthy and happy environment for ourselves, our kids and our pets.

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out Squeaky Green yet, be sure to check it out on methodhome.com. First 300 people to order the book online get a free book cover that actually doubles as a reusable microfiber cloth (only available while supplies last on methodhome.com).

Not Just Green … Squeaky Green!

Congratulations – it’s a … book!  It’s our first one, and we’re so proud.  We’ve named it Squeaky Green: The method Guide to Detoxing Your Home.  (Kind of a mouthful, we know. We hope it doesn’t get teased too much on the playground.)  In a nutshell, it’s a room-by-room guide to lots of easy things you can do to rid your home of toxins so you and your family will breathe easier.

In celebration of Earth Day, here are five easy and inexpensive tips – all pulled from our very own Squeaky Green.

1. Exercise that green thumb by picking up a plant, or five.  Plants are nature’s detoxers and can actually boost oxygen levels in your home.  Some real botanical champs are philodendrons, green spider plants, dracaenas, palms, ferns, English ivy, peace lilies, mums and daisies.

2. Slay the energy vampire.  OK, we know you don’t want to come home every day and reset the time on all your appliances.  Neither do we.  But for those times you’re leaving for a while, plug everything into a power strip and simply switch it off.  (Er, you might want to make sure you haven’t lost the manual for your DVD player.)

3. Open a window.  (Seriously, that’s it.)  The way our houses are built today, the air inside is usually more polluted than outside.  Open that window and breathe easier.

4. Change your furnace and air conditioning filters.  Oh, so sexy, we know.  But the seasons they are a-changin’, and we’d be willing to bet you haven’t done it for a while (every three months is a good rule of thumb).  Really pressed for time?  Turn the vacuum on it.

5. Play outside!  Whether it’s 18 degrees or 80, get out there and kick up your heels for a few minutes at least.  And for goodness sake, take someone with you.

Squeaky Green is now available at Target, Barnes & Noble, Borders and lots of other places, and you can also order it from our web site.  It makes a great gift for Earth Day – but then, we think every day is Earth Day.

Introducing Lil' Bowl Blu & Le Scrub!

Here’s a quiz: What has historically been the top-requested new product among method advocates?

Wait for it … wait for it …

If you guessed “toilet bowl cleaner,” pat yourself on the back.  It was a tough one to crack, so we’re very excited to introduce you to Lil’ Bowl Blu.

Household Hazards Report points the finger at dirty ingredients

I read a recent article  in the San Francisco Chronicle citing a report put out by the Montana-based NGO Women’s Voices for the Earth. The Household Hazards report released July 24th described five hazardous ingredients typically found in common cleaning products (naturally, not method!) and their potential negative effects on people and the environment. It did a great job of talking about why to avoid conventional cleaning products.  

method applauds the group for this report, and is happy to see that it has resonated well both with consumers and in the media (eg. San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Seattle Post Intelligencer, etc). More people questioning the paradox of why to they use hazardous chemicals to make their homes cleaner can only bring good.

we're teaming up with Danny Seo

We’re teaming up with America’s favorite environmental lifestyle expert, Danny Seo. Danny will help us spread the message of making healthy and green living choices, by sharing tips and ideas on creating a healthier home.

Danny Seo is America’s leading lifestyle authority on modern, eco-friendly living.  Through his six bestselling books, how-to lectures, monthly magazine columns in Country Home magazine, and his companion TV show, Danny Seo continues to encourage America to live a greener, more stylish lifestyle.  Danny’s work also extends to Hollywood, where he consults and assists his close celebrity pals on all things green.  Seo was most recently the co-guest editor of Elle’s green issue and co-starred in the HGTV special “Red Hot & Green.”

“I’ve cleaned my whole house with method products for as long as I can remember,” said Seo.  “I love how these yummy-smelling, non-toxic products do such a fabulous job keeping everything in my house sparkling clean.  Working with method is a dream come true.”

-Danny Seo

>>learn more about Danny

an end to the junk

I don't know a single person who enjoys the afternoon trip to the mailbox, only to find it's full of grocery store coupons and "Don't miss this chance to consolidate your student loans." Junk mail is wasteful and, usually, pretty annoying. So, as I was checking my inbox this morning, I was especially happy to read my daily Ideal Bite:

GreenDime is a company who will go through the effort to call and email and write and call again, on your behalf, to keep your address off the junk mail lists. For a dime a day, GreenDime will stop the junk mail flowing into your mailbox, AND plant a tree! According to their estimates, 100 million trees are chopped down every year for junk mail sent in America.

I know I'm not alone in thanking this company for helping us make our lives full of a little LESS waste. Do you know of other companies with similar mantras? Let's hear 'em!

common sense food handling

We all are familiar with the headlines about foodborne illness outbreaks in the US. I just read a Breaking News piece on an E. Coli outbreak in eight states, with one fatality, 50 very ill victims and the numbers expected to rise. This subject got a whole lot more personal for me several years ago when I discovered that I had got Hepatitis A after eating a cold sandwich from a local deli. The sickness was very unpleasant but not life threatening.. Sadly, this happens hundreds of thousands of times a year, and about 5000 of those cases end up fatal according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

are you painting yourself into a toxic corner?

Did you know that indoor air is 3 times more polluted then outdoor air and is considered by the EPA to be one of the top 5 hazards to human health? Paint is one of the main culprits that are polluting our offices and homes. Paint releases low-level, toxic emissions into the air for up to 5 years after application! That means that when your child is lying in their newly painted nursery, they could be breathing paint fumes until they are 5 years old!

But help is on the way. You can buy low-level VOC paint or VOC-free paint which do not off-gas any harmful chemicals. Incidentally VOC stands for volatile organic chemicals…don don donnnnnn. So before you repaint that nursery check out what is in your paint.

Check out the Treehuggers.com for a list of some good, VOC-free paint manufacturers.

The Green Building Supply site also has extensive information on safe primers, paints, sealants, etc.