Seventh Generation Mother Nature Contest!

Win a green home makeover! Seventh Generation is giving away an awesome $5,000 green home makeover to one really lucky lady...The contest, which runs from now until May 31, asks you to nominate your “Mother Nature,” a person that has been inspirational to you by making their home, community and/or environment safer and healthier. The grand prize winner will be awarded a $5,000 green home makeover and both the nominated “Mother Nature” and the grand prize winner will receive a year's supply of Seventh Generation products. IN addition, a $2,500 donation will be made in our “Mother Nature's” name to an organization working to make the world a safer place. Six finalists will also receive a year's worth of Seventh Generation products to help them protect their planet home.

To kick off the contest, Seventh Generation is sharing the story of Ivette, "a trainer at Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), a non-profit organization helping low-income women in the San Francisco Bay Area establish cleaning service cooperatives that use environmentally-safe methods to protect everyone's health." The contest's site shares her inspirational story as well as natural cleaning tips and ideas from Ivette. Here are her top five cleaning rules, just to give you an idea:

Rule 1: Go Top-to-Bottom.

Whether it's a room or a bookcase, clean from the top to the bottom and you won't have to go back and pick up any stray dirt or errant dust that falls as you go.

Rule 2: Go Back to Front.

Always clean from back to front for similar reasons. If it's a room, start in a rear corner and work toward the door. If it's a cabinet, begin in the back and clean out toward the edge.

Rule 3: Work Clockwise.

Pick a starting spot and work in a steady clockwise direction. Working systematically in this way will ensure that you don’t forget anything and won’t have to spend any time thinking about it!

Rule 4: Don't Use or Do More Than You Need To.

Always start with a small amount of cleaning product and use more as necessary for tough spots and other challenges. Using more than you need to start only creates more work when it's time to rinse everything off!

Rule 5: Look Before You Leap.

If you're cleaning something you've never cleaned before and/or using a product for the first time, you'll save a lot of aggravation by always testing things first to make sure you won't cause any damage.

Win It!
To get you inspired to use natural cleaners and nominate a Mother Nature (myself, anyone?), Seventh Generation will be giving away the following cleaning kit to one of my readers:
- Ivette’s top three cleaning tools (pocket scraper, microfiber rag and scouring pad)
- Seventh Generation disinfecting wipes
- Seventh Generation Natural all-purpose spray
- Seventh Generation Natural dish liquid
- Seventh Generation Recycled paper towels

They sent mme the same kit to check out and I've actually been using it everyday. With living in a house that's being remodeled, having a toddler, and fervently "nesting" thanks to my son-on-the-way, I have a never ending supply of things that need to be cleaned! The "cleaning tools" have been extremely helpful and I can't believe I didn't have a scraper in my arsenal before! I used it to finally get our wooden highchair clean last night (we've had it almost a year now--it was really gross). While I don't care for the smell of the disinfecting wipes, I am finding them very handy as well to wipe out the potty chair that my daughter has been faithfully using, and since the other cleaning products have no smell, they are being a tremendous help as I wash dishes in our bathtub and eat on our coffee table right now (remodeling, of course)! I hope you win this kit if you have any children or any house in disarray!

To win, go and enter their contest at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/mothernature. Like I said, if you are having a problem thinking of someone to nominate, remember that I'm sitting right here drooling about the possibility of winning a green home makeover. ;-) After you enter, come back here and tell me who you nominated! Be sure to leave an email address and separate comment for each entry. This contest will end on May 31, 2010 at 11:59pm, EST.

Extra Entries:
The usual--spread the word about this contest and my blog with links and tell me what you did. One comment/entry per word-spreading. You can tweet and Facebook about this contest 1x/day!

Otherwise, boost my blog somewhere (Technorati, Digg It, etc.) or grab my button and earn more entries!

Of course, you're already following me on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Google Friend Connect, and you're an email subscriber...right?...if not, get on it! Let me know which way you follow and your name for another extra entry (one entry per following way).

Good luck and be blessed!

Seventh Generation provided me with a sample kit for review. No other compensation was received for this post.