Customer Reviews

Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home

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Every day I have questions about how to have a healthier household and family--how do I choose sunblock, do my laundry, be a responsible home owner, feed my children, choose a shampoo, a car, carpet, sheets....?? Phew, it is endless. But Renee Loux, in her book Easy Green Living, presents you with all of the information and choices so you can make the most informed decision possible. Nobody wants to expose their children to toxic chemicals or dump toxins into the ocean, for example, but unwittingly, we continuously do. While reading Easy Green Living, instead of inciting a major freak-out (in me!) or sounding didactic, Loux takes a heartfelt, gentle, and passionate approach--encouraging baby steps (and grand leaps, if possible) of change towards a healthy, vitality-filled life.

I have already changed my household cleaning products and rituals. (My children now lovingly wipe the counters with citrus-smelling spray, because they like the smell.) And I am so motivated to change the other things in my life that are possible to change. Loux covers everything from linens and face cream, where to dump old cell phones to retrofitting toilets, safe cookware to curbing waste, deodorant, plastics, and energy efficient appliances.

Easy Green Living truly is an encyclopedia of knowledge, soundly researched (30+ pages of footnotes..Yikes!) that will stay in my kitchen for quick reference, when it's not on my bedside table for devouring before bed.

Easy Green Living, by Renee Loux is an exhaustive guide to eco-friendly living for the home and person. Each chapter reveals the hazardous products to avoid, complete with detailed findings from research. Next, green products to use instead of dangerous ones are described. Finally, each chapter provides resources to find green products.

I like that the introduction included the following, with explanations:
Being green is not black and white
Consider the life cycle of a product
Start small
Green living is a process

The first chapter includes a basic introduction to green living and hazardous materials to avoid.

Chapter two covers the basics of green cleaning; what to avoid, 6 basic ingredients to use for cleaning and recipes and resources for purchasing green cleaning supplies.

Chapter three continues on the cleaning theme, for the kitchen and chapter four covers the bathroom.

Chapter five is about personal care products. In addition to makeup and body cleaning products to avoid and use, Loux presents the hazards of conventional antiperspirants, tampons and hair dye and more and provides
safe alternatives.

Chapter six discusses how to have an eco-friendly laundry.

Chapter seven covers green bedding and chapter 8, lightbulbs.

Chapter nine discusses furnishings and materials, including paint, flooring and carpeting, kitchen and bath counters, cabinets and candles. Of all chapters, this could be more comprehensive--however, as Loux explains in the introduction, understanding the life cycle of products should make it easy to determine how green any product is.

This guidebook will leave few questions about basic green living unanswered, particularly green cleaning.

By the author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.

I bought this book because I was looking for recipes for homemade cleaning products. It does have a few of those, but far more pages are devoted to product listings. That would be OK, except the author basically repeats information that is on the manufacturer's website - no actual reviews or opinions are given. A large part of the book seems to be ads for Seventh Generation - I like their stuff too, but I didn't need a book to tell me so. I find I'm spending a lot at the natural foods store on cleaning products, and my attempts to concoct my own from vinegar and lemon juice often come out scary. I really just wanted some advice on cleaning the old-fashioned way, but the author clearly favors buying expensive, pre-made products from suppliers who probably sponsor her.

The book spans a wide range of topics - including beauty products, cleaning products, linens and mattresses, and home improvement. If you are going to make any large-scale eco-friendly investments (on-demand water heater, organic mattress, hybrid car, solar panels) you're going to need to do much more research than what is in this book. If you're just looking for a primer covering a lot of topics and don't mind it when it states the obvious (bring your own bags to the store, recycle your trash) or hawks products, then you might find this book useful.

It's easy being green... if you know where to begin. None of us consciously make the decision to harm the planet, yet many of our day to day household choices do exactly that. Easy Green Living points out the reasons why we need to change, and gets us going in the right direction.

Many common household cleaners contain chemicals that not only hurt the environment, but can do considerable harm to our bodies. The exact nature of these chemicals is explained, and alternative products are suggested that can do the job in a safer manner. And if you're into "do it yourself" cleaning products, there are recipes to make almost anything out of simple and safe ingredients like white vinegar and baking soda.

The author also focuses on other common household products like cosmetics, bedding and furniture, which contain harmful chemicals, and provides safe alternative choices to those toxic items. And using energy efficient light bulbs and appliances is encouraged, so we can all use less natural resources.

Although I've been semi-green for more than ten years now, there were many things Renee Loux pointed out that were new to me. After reading Easy Green Living, I'm now totally convinced that I can't continue being partially committed to this lifestyle, and I'll be using this book as a reference in making the switch. Our health and Mother Earth's depend on us all going green.

Reviewer: Alice Berger
Bergers Book Reviews

Greening your life seems to be a process. It's not something that you can do in one day. It's taken me a few years to slowly get rid of the things that weren't good for me, especially cleansers, beauty products, and food. Not only will using green products help you and your body, but they can help the earth as well!
This woman really did her homework. She not only stated where she received the abundance of information she wrote about, but she gave tons of resources as well!!
Even if you don't want to give up your everyday products, like: fabric softener, oven cleaner, and makeup, you don't have to!! There are many more natural and healthy substitutes you can use, by buying better products, or making them yourself!!
Greening your life is not as hard as you would think!
Recommended!

I have never been motivated enough by any book to spend time and thought writing a review but this book is the exception. The book is unusually thorough, covering its subject matter in depth and breadth. We should all read it cover to cover but its simple and compact organization invites us to browse and still get lots of ideas. Though I'm not into cosmetics, I found even that section interesting.

The book is well written and an easy read. Technical readers will find it a pleasant experience with good sentence structure and enjoyable phrasing.

Renee makes her ideas clear without preachiness or hysteria. She believes we can live the good life and do the right thing (read sustainable, healthy, thoughtful) at the same time. Life on this planet is short; we should make it as good as possible. This book helps define some ways to improve the experience. You might try one of Renee's receipies from her other books. She thinks and cooks -wow.

My favorite writer is Louise Erdrich and now in second place is Renee Loux. That's a strange pairing but I guess it's that they both talk about things important to the world.

This book is an absolutely amazing resource. Renee gives well researched guidelines and tips for choosing the most eco-friendly products possible. Renee's product recommendations include some well known brands in addition to brands that can only be found online or at natural markets. Her recipes for homemade cleaners & beauty products are also great & show that "going green" doesn't have to be expensive. If you read this book all at once, you could easily feel overwhelmed, but remember that "going green" happens one baby step at a time. This book can help you make more informed decisions as you try to lead a more eco-friendly life. And ladies, after reading this book I swear I will never buy another conventional tampon - Do yourself and the planet a favor and read this book, you won't regret it.

... on holistic and natural living. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about green living but I learned a huge amount from this book, including some amazing and very scary facts about all the dangerous chemicals that manufacturers put into things that we eat, breathe and live in.

These are chemicals like formaldehyde, chlorine and many, many, more that respected household names consistently include in everyday products. I was totally blown away - almost ANY product in your typical supermarket will contain these harmful chemicals.

What's even more amazing is that there are plenty of natural options that already exist, and have existed for decades, and in some cases, centuries, that do the job at least as well, in some cases much better, with no environmental fallout. The price of these options (always a practical consideration for most of us) are sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive but definitely worth considering given the benefits.

If you haven't read this book please buy it, or at least get if from your local library. That's what I did - I picked up a whole slew of books from the library, of which this is the only one that I really, really liked.

I like it so much in fact, that I had to buy a copy for myself and it's one of two books that I'm going to be giving as Christmas presents; the other one is In Fitness And In Health. Check it out, it changed my life and I guarantee it will change yours!

I recommend this book if you're looking for organic product ideas. I brought it with me to Whole Foods market and it was a good resource because there are so many products to choose from. Also, there's a good recipe for a floor cleaner. It includes lavendar oil. I used it to clean my tile floor and it smelled great.

I LOVE this book! I was interested in going green, but didn't know where to start. She tells you everything you need to know. The book is divided into sections - food, cleaning, body/beauty etc. In each section she explains everything in detail. She provides a lot of facts, truths and reasons why it is better to be green. After that, she provides a list of products and the stores/websites to purchase them at. It is so handy! While it's nice to know the facts and theories I really just want to know what to buy. While it seems a bit impossible to turn your whole house green immediately, she makes it really easy to do it in steps. I started with cleaning products. I marked her book and made lists of what I wanted to buy. Most of the products were available at Target for the exact same price, if not lower, than my regular cleaning products. It was so easy! I found recycled paper towels and toilet paper at Trader Joes for the exact samer price as my non-recycled ones. Now I am moving onto beauty. I've found many sunscreens, lotions,and shampoos for only a couple of dollars more and at local stores. If not, they are easily ordered off the internet. It may take a while, but I will eventually replace all of my products with more green ones. Renee's book is easy to read and understand and has really changed the way I think about what I buy. This is a Must Buy!