If you're like me, you've been seduced by Method's pretty bottles and simple design. But maybe you haven't picked up any of their cleaning products, reasoning that cool bottles alone do not a successful product make.
Think again. They're green. They're the kind of green where they frequently tell you what's in their products, instead of making up their own fake green certification to slap on a line they make in their Big Evil Corporation lab. I haven't been to the Method plant, but I imagine it to have tulips in it. Really. One sniff of their wood polish will have you on board, and not because of chemicals that will get you high.
Why praise Method now? They just gave their green products an extra push with a temporary store in Chicago. Yes, you have to go to Chicago. But you'll offset your carbon by buying their products and talking them up to friends, who will buy them in place of their regular bad-chemical, petroleum-based cleaning agents. Sweet, no?
From the press release:
The green home and personal care company's "detox your home" shop offers aroma and ingredient workstations for sampling and testing out products and an on-site photo booth to photograph guests revealing their own dirty little cleaning secrets. Visitors are encouraged to drop off their toxic chemical cleaners as part of the store's "toxic turn-in" in exchange for a free method product. ... Detox Chicago is part of method's ongoing efforts to change the way people clean."
Sound sweet? The next part made me want to drive right out there and demand to be let in:
In the evenings, Chicago-based "method mavens" host private parties in the shop that educate and inspire guests while promoting healthy cleaning and living habits. The parties include eco-projects led by green living experts Danny Seo and Sophie Uliano; "sustainable sip" organic cocktail-mixing classes and an evening with Chicago area design students hosted by method's designers, Josh Handy and Nate Pence.
So: Green cleaning products, green personal care products, safe disposal of bad chemicals and a discount? Check, check, check and frugal check.
You can also pick up Method's book "Squeaky Green." I have a copy. If I can pry it out of my hands long enough to type, I'm doing a review because you NEED this book. Pronto. I know there's economic trouble, and you think hardcovers are expensive, but this book will make your life better. I'll tell you why soon.
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
Leave a comment