Eco friendly homes and products

James250
Level 3
Cathedral City, CA

Eco friendly homes and products

I made the decission several years ago to have solar installed.

Other than the connection fee I have not paid an electric bill in several years. The utility usually pays me about $300 for my over production.

Today will be 109 F and I am not afraid to run the A/C.

Other interests

How to reduce my water usage.

Eco freindly cleaning products.

Reducing my carbpn footprint.

James

47 Replies 47
Oomesh-Kumarsingh0
Level 10
Pamplemousses, Mauritius

@James250 You are a very eco friendly host and you are a good model to follow but i have doubts if guests cares about saving water or electricity speaking from my own experience as a host i have notice that most guests dont care if they left the AC on when they went out or switching off the lights during the day time. In other words they simply dont care they paid and they tend to do whatever they want. I think Airbnb should let hosts rate their guests on how ecologic and economic they guests were during their stay, that would really help us a lot.

You are right that they want to treat your home like a hotel.

I found that it takes a little education of the guests.

 

I inform them that I have given them one towel for their bathroom and one for the pool. I inform them that this is done to cut down on the amount of laundrey and water required. I live in the desert and water for us is always a problem.

I do ask them to close the doors when they us the A/C as it conserves energy even though I have solar. I do ask them if they have A/C at home and do they leave all of the doors and windows open when they run their A/C. Makes then think!

 

I will admit that I am having a hard time finding eco friendly soap,body wash and hair care products. Any suggestions?

James

Ria16
Level 10
Northland, New Zealand

Did a google, have a look at pineapple hospitality there is an Eco brand there. They send out samples too. 

Hi Chris, it's terrific that you care about the environmental impact of the products you buy! 

I"ve been using Dr. Bronner's soaps for years, as they claim to be environmentally friendly and useful for everything.

For shampoo and lotions, I like  ALba Botanica, Nature's Gate, and Avalon Organics. 

Those things are generally less costly at grocers other than Whole Foods.

 

For cleaning, when you don't want something soapy, there's Nature's Gate, Seventh Generation, Mrs Meyers. 

There are definitely some brands trying to sound like they're eco-friendly, when they are only slightly so. Green works is one of those, and I don't recommend that brand. I believe CLorox owns it, so I suppose that's their attempt at testing the eco-market to see if they can sell to it. 

Dr, Bonner's is awesome! Vinegar is an old and trusty stand-by. I mix it into most of my mixes. I also use Borax and vinegar to cut laundry soap use (1/4 cup of Borax and a splash of vinegar) and then use only half the recommended laundry soap).

I have notes in the bathroom about how to use the shower curtain, and to drop any dirty towells on the floor of the kitchen (near the laundry closet), when they need clean ones.

I like the idea of allowing us to rate the environmental concern shown by guests (and visa versa). My current guest is a bit messy, and leaves the lights on...

I'd love for Airbnb to work with owner/hosts on passive and active solar upgrades!

Peace everyone!goodairbnbKitchen.1 060.jpg

I am extremely sensitive to Mrs. Meyers products because they utilize very strong essential oils plus synthetic fragrances which get into the bedding and is extremely hard to get out, much more than commercial laundry detergent.

 

It takes at least 10 wash cycles to get the sheets and bedding fragrance free again. I've also done a lot of research and it's much more toxic than people imagine in spite of its branding. Unfortunately I'm not able to put a link here in this message, so I am cutting and pasting some text from one website:

 

"The reality? According to the company website, Mrs Meyers Clean Day contains such lovely ingredients as benzisothiazolinone, PEG-2 Cocomonium Chloride, methylisothiazoline (linked to nerve damage by the NIH), phenoxyethanol, Sodium Caprylyl Sulfonate and sodium methyl-2 lauryl sulfate (can create cancer-causing nitrosamines and cause acute aquatic toxicity) and the ever-so-discreetly-named “fragrance”.

As you may know, when you see a product with the ingredient “fragrance” in it, you HAVE ask yourself: where did that smell come from? Upon first glance, it seems clear that Mrs Meyers is trying to send the message that their fragrance is all-natural. After all, why else label their products with such natural and clean-sounding scents as Basil, Lavender, Honeysuckle, Lemon Verbena, and Geranium? Unfortunately, their scents are far from all-natural in origin.

 

When asked what was in their fragrance, the company responded: “Our fragrance compositions use a combination of natural essential oils and safe synthetic ingredients. This allows for the most pleasing, quality, and intriguing scents – inspired by the garden – that you’ll want to use again and again. This approach provides consistent performance, quality, and safety in every bottle. All fragrances are phthalate-free.”

@James250, I am new to being a host (I am learning some helpful info from you, thanks). Almost 3 years now, I have gone au Naturel with grooming and household products and I would like to share it with you. I found a life saver called, The Honest Company, which originates right out of CA! There is too much to say about it, so I invite you to check out their website. There is a lot going on to simplify our lives. *no irony intended LOL*

@James250,  As for eco-friendly products I use several different things but will just mention the most popular all of which are zero waste too.  (For more on zero waste there are several great websites if you do a google search.)  Whole Foods sells a soap in several different scents called Good soap.  It’s unpackaged and you can get three for $6 US.  As for shampoo and conditioner I recently began using Plaine Products.  I bought their travel size and regular size.  I leave out the travel size for guests and clean and then refill between guests.  I personally found their shampoo to be amazing.  However one of the things I found as I went eco-friendly is that everyone is very different about their hair products so things may vary for others.  Toothbrushes have also been very popular, maybe the most popular.  Initially I left out the free toothbrushes our family received when we went to the dentist but finally ran out of our supply.  So we started leaving out the eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes.  I buy them in bulk from amazon usually.

 

To clean, I typically use Dr Bronner’s soap in lavender, Borax, and vinegar.  In the last few months I remember seeing a great post about ways to clean in an eco-friendly way that if you search and found you may find very useful.

 

Hope this info is helpful.

Hi James

 

You can find eco friendly soap, body wash and hair care in Asia specially in Malaysia. If you are interested to purchase from Malaysia I will send you the detail.

 

Thank you.

 

Regards

Mizanaur

 

Hello Mizanaur

yes definitely interested!

please send me the link.

jim

You can try this link:  Soaplabmalaysia @James250

 

**[Link removed  - Community Center Guidelines

I am also aware that guests can sometimes treat our home as a hotel.

I make them aware that they need to be considerate of the neighbors, their fellow guest and our home.

This is our home where we live and to show respect for our home!

The rules we post are there to make their trip and enjoyable one.

Yet some guests seem to lack common sense.

The spill food on the floor, walk thorugh it and then across the carpet. Would they do that in their own home, I think not!

The have the A/C on and all of the doors open. Would they do that in their own home, I think not!

When they leave our home all of the doors are left open, so our home is not scured. Would they do that in their own home, I think not!

These are common sense rukes and should not have to be in the rules we post.

 

I always ask them when they are leaving if there was anything we could have done to make their stay more enjoyable. This accomplishes two goals. 1. to give feedback to the host 2. to encourage them to give an honest review!

 

There will always be that guest that is difficult to please! Hopefully they are a minority!

Em4
Level 10
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

@Oomesh-Kumarsingh0  i like many here have seen many comments.  this has got to he the best comment ever.  rating the environmental attitude of guests and hosts alike would be a great moderator alongside accuracy, coomunication, cleanliness, location, check in and value.

 

🙂

Em

Hukawai Lodge

Franz Josef, NZ

https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/15418840

Oomesh-Kumarsingh0
Level 10
Pamplemousses, Mauritius

@Em4 Thank you for the compliment and happy hosting!!!