| | |  | Sustainable Housing | Home » » Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home | | | | | | | Description: | | We are what we eat, but we also are what we use to clean our homes, pamper our skin, and decorate our rooms, according to Renée Loux, accomplished raw food chef, award-winning author, and host of Fine Living TV's Easy Being Green. In her new book, Easy Green Living, she applies her whole-foods philosophy to home, garden, and beauty routines. Renée Loux demonstrates that being green at home is easy, affordable, and better in every sense of the word. She discusses the daily choices we face that can keep the home, personal care, and beauty routines free of toxins. She exposes the dirt on cleaning products and common hazardous ingredients and reveals her recommendations for greener options, including her "Green Thumb Guides" for choosing non-toxic, eco-smart, and human-friendly products. Peppered with compelling and inspiring facts, Easy Green Living is full of "5 Step" lists, products and recipes for green cleaning, helpful charts, safer choices for every room, and inspirational advice so we can save the planet--one cleaning spritz at a time. As recent special issues of Vanity Fair, Time, Newsweek, and other major publications have demonstrated, going green is an idea whose time has come. Whether addressing big-picture topics like renewable energy, or offering simple suggestions for everyday living, this complete lifestyle guide shows that healthier choices don't mean a radical or complicated life change--it is, after all, easy to be green.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Renée Loux | | Paperback:
| 416 pages | | Publisher:
| Rodale Books | | Publication Date:
| April 01, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1594867925 | | Product Length:
| 9.01 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.52 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.08 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.55 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.5 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 45 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 45 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 54 found the following review helpful:
Inspiring & Essential--the book I've wished existed for years!!Apr 02, 2008
By K. Newton
"Maui Mom"
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.
32 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Comprehensive and Well ResearchedApr 01, 2008
By Norma Lehmeierhartie
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.
44 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 Pretty basic...Jun 06, 2009
By RissaRoo
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.
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful reference bookApr 21, 2008
By Alice Berger
"Bergers Book Reviews"
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
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Green your whole life!!!May 26, 2008
By Diane Moore
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!
See all 45 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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