Deanna Hains is one smart (not to mention clean!) chick. She is the owner of Zen Home Cleaning, an environmentally-friendly cleaning service that will not only convert your pigsty to a tidy abode, but will also scent the air with essential oils, put organic chocolates on your pillow, and leave yummy handmade soaps in their wake.

Deanna's creative eco-preneurialism is a seed with the potential for a big environmental and public health impact. According to this fact sheet from Worldwatch Institute,

• The air in a typical home is 2-5 times more polluted on average than the air just outside (100 times more contaminated in extreme cases), largely because of household cleaners and pesticides.
• Home cleaning products accounted for a significant percentage of toxic exposures reported to the U.S. Poison Control Centers in 2000.
• A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey study of contaminants in stream water found that 69 percent of streams sampled contained persistent detergent metabolites; 66 percent contained disinfectants.

I recently chatted with Deanna about her just-over-a-year-old booming business.

Starre Vartan: Why did you decide to start a green home cleaning business in New York?

Deanna Hains: I’ve been a vegan for 12-13 years and have lived a holistic lifestyle for a long time. Six years ago I was cleaning the grout in my bathroom with Tilex, and the smell was so strong I couldn’t go back into my apartment for hours. I had always been conscious of what I was putting in my body, but then I thought, what about my living space?

I went out an bought all eco-friendly cleaning products after that. Then, my life got really busy, and I tried to find someone to do eco-friendly cleaning. I looked for two months and finally found this guy who did toxic-free cleaning in New York. He did a pretty good job, but when I came home, my apartment smelled like vinegar, and I thought there had to be a better way.

SV: How long did it take for customers to catch on to your clean and green ideas?

DH: We were completely booked every day after we ran an ad on Craigs’ List. I hired the first two employees, and then we got some coverage in Domino, Daily Candy and New York Magazine. We've grown to twenty employees since then.

SV: Zen Home seems to put a premium on making things look good, as well as clean. Where does that aesthetic come from?

DH: Well, right now I'm getting my second degree, in architecture. My first degree is in interior design. I think it's important to pay attention to what everything looks like. When I started the service, I asked, how can I make it really special? I always liked to stay at the Sanderson in London, a cool, modern hotel, and it was all the little details -- the candles, the turndown service, the fact that the maids organized all the bottles in the bathroom -- that made it such a special experience. We do the same thing: a five-star hotel style turndown, with organic chocolates on your pillow, and we burn essential oils while we’re cleaning. Just really creative way to make our client's home really nice. We train our staff to organize space visually, so it's like your home is a spa.

SV: What services do you offer and what products are in your mean and green arsenal?

DH: We do a general cleaning; a spring cleaning, where we take books off shelves, and organize kitchen cabinets, clean walls and baseboards; and we also do professional organizing of closets and offices. Cleaning is hard work!

We use Seveth Generation, Method home, Lifetree, Bon Ami and others. Unfortunately, most of those companies don’t sell bulk products and we have to buy them by the bottle. The costs are significant, so we're thinking of starting our own line of private-label cleaning products. We sell some of the products our customers love the most online at our store.

---

To find out more about Deanna's business, go to www.zenhomecleaning.com or email info AT zenhomecleaning.com.