A lot of us grew up thinking chemical smells like bleach and ammonia signaled ‘clean.’ But as Deirdre Imus discusses in Green This! Volume 1: Greening Your Cleaning (Simon & Schuster), some of the chemicals we have used in the past to maintain our homes are doing us and our families much more harm than good.

In this useful collection, Imus shows how cleaning one’s home in an environmentally responsible way can be as effective and often even less expensive than traditional, toxic, means. Topics include simple, efficient cleaning methods for every room of the house; spotlights on everyday products of which we should be wary; summaries of the latest research on the toxic effects of ordinary chemicals; and resource lists of widely available ‘green cleaning’ products.

And that’s why it makes our top 5!