Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living

I bought this after reading about it on a US blog web site & thought I may not be able to get a copy of it. Thrilled I managed to as I try to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and this book has loads of tips on practical day to day stuff on the subject.It's not full of making expensive impractical changes to the fabric of your home, but has recipes for cleaning solutions, skin care etc. Good basic tips, and the ones I've tried so far really work. Just trying to cut some of the chemicals out & go back to basic solutions for things. Fascinating book.

I'm completely satisfied with the book sold by WeBUYBOOKS.

I found this to be a helpful book. The only criticism I have is that the author basically recycles the same recipes over and over again. Which is okay but I feel that this can be seen as slightly offensive and lazy. It is easy to fill a book such as this with stuff but one has to make it interesting reading too and I found myself being bored after about 25 pages...

I am working hard on the lessons in this book. Wish I had found it sooner!

Great book to transform your home and purchasing patterns from synthentic to safe and chemical free!

SIMPLE - I do wonder how the supermarket shelves are stocked to the ceiling with such toxic and ineffective rubbish. Absolutely everyone should read this book along with a little research of their own.

Enjoyed reading about the hidden dangers of additives in food and domestic products. Have passed it on to my daughter who needs to alter her diet.

Although American, all the advice and recipes are easy to do here. Simple ideas that save not only your pocket but the environment too.

Era lo que esperaba un buen libro para hacer productos de limpieza menos tóxicos y belleza

I love this book!!!! If you are willing to become a greener person, this book will help you a lot!!!

What an wonderful book! I've been meaning to try moving to less toxic methods of cleaning my home, but had just never taken the time to do it. A few weeks ago when I was cleaning my bathroom, I looked at my bottle of tile cleaner and realized that if my two year old got a hold of it, it could kill her. So I got out a big box and put in every household cleaner I had that had a warning label on it -- then I hauled it out to the garage and told my husband that he had some toxic waste to dispsose of.I picked up this book from my library, went out and bought everything I needed to replace ALL of the cleaning products I normally use, and spent all of about $12... Then I indulged in a couple of bottles of essential oils, and my house smells better than it ever has, and looks and feels as cleaner than ever.The recipes are easy to make, inexpensive, and very effective. No more expensive, store bought, toxic chemicals in my house!This book is an excellent place to start for beginners like me. I thought I'd better get my own copy before I put too many dog ears and spills on the library's! Next stop... my bathroom cupboards. =)

This book has some good recipes, not all of them work, but overall I enjoy using this book for natural ways to clean my house!

This book probably deserves a 3 for it's liberal preachiness at the beginning which is exceptionally annoying. If I wanted to read Greenie whining I would buy a book by Al Gore. In fairness to the author, she has hypersensitivity to chemicals due to two exposures to strong toxins which adversely affected her health and the quality of her life, so I can understand her having exceptionally strong feelings about such issues as environmental chemical pollution. For this I will cut her slack and give the book a 4. Unfortunately, her view is completely unbalanced and one-sided, never looking if there is another side to the story. As an example, she rails against DDT, quoting 70s data analysis. More recent research which she is obviously unaware of refutes many of the Armageddon claims against DDT which were made in the 70s. She still clings to her tie-dyed truths, regardless of recent scientific evidence. The overwealmingly huge number of human deaths due to malaria (the leading cause of death in many African nations - which is 100% preventable) which could have been avoided by proper and judicious use of chemical pesticides such as DDT is never taken into account. Obviously, don't use a poison exceptionally toxic to mosquitoes as toothpaste. But are hundreds of thousands of preventable human deaths an acceptable price to pay for chemical purity? So, as I said, her worship of the Green Dragon is one-sided and very dogmatic. She's entitled to her beliefs, but she should not beat me over the head with them when I'm not trying to buy a Green Dragon Koran. All I want is what the book cover advertises itself to be.On the very positive side, the book does in fact provide exactly what I was seeking and what the cover says is in it, which is a large number of safe formulas for cleaning and hygine solutions. (I don't want to use poison for toothpaste either). It reports to have well over 800 such formulas, and the author claims she tested all of these and many more, and culled out the ones that don't work well. That implies all the ones in the book do work to some extent, and I'm willing to take her at her word for that. The content of the book is yet to be put to the test in my house, so I can not comment on the efficacy of most of the formulas. I can say that the recipies all seem to use very safe ingredients which my father taught me to use as part of our family history, stretching back multiple generations. Some key ingredients include baking soda, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, beeswax, cornmeal, olive oil, whisky, herbs of many varieties, cornstarch, cornmeal, hydrogen peroxide, borax, lemon juice, washing soda, and that most amazing of all multi-purpose substances - water. True, she confuses perlite and vermiculite, so she's not an expert gardner, but some minor mistakes is acceptable. Overall, this is a great resource for using common safe ingredients to create a pleathora of cleaning, hygine and other household solutions in an inexpensive, safe and effective manner. If you want what the cover advertises, buy the book and you will absolutely get that - plus you get to listen to a sermon or two from a priestess of the Greenie religion, no extra charge... If on her next book she leaves the preaching at home and gives this good of information on the advertised subject I will hapilly rate her work a 5.;-{>