To green your home and get rid of toxic offenders, start with the area under your sink. Switch out dangerous cleaners for safer ones, or make your own.

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RODALE NEWS, GLENSIDE, PA—By the looks of things, you would have thought a rock star had descended upon Emily Loomis's suburban Philadelphia home. She and her sister-in-law, Jennifer Kennedy, stood awestruck as their guest stood in the living room with a cup of coffee, first making small talk, but then quickly getting down to business, rooting through Loomis's cabinets, cupboards, and closets. The star of the day didn't don a guitar, but rather an encyclopedic knowledge of healthy, green living. And for Loomis and Kennedy, both mothers of young children, that was way cooler than anything Bon Jovi might have to offer.

THE DETAILS: Loomis, entered into the contest by Kennedy, won the grand prize in green cleaning company Seventh Generations' "Under the Sink Makeover" contest. Sure, she won lots of safe cleaning products, but the high point of the jackpot involved a free healthy home makeover by green expert and pediatrician Alan Greene, MD, author of Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care and the new Feeding Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond. Dr. Greene spent several hours analyzing the furnishings, food, cleaning products, and appliances inside Loomis's home, and found that the most toxic place in the house was the cabinet under the kitchen sink. The mother of two, who says she's trying to avoid hand soaps with sodium lauryl sulfate because of its link to health problems and pollution, admitted that when it comes to other cleaning products, she usually just buys what's on sale. Many of us do the same, so Dr. Greene's advice really hits home.