VOC-free paint and the magic behind magic erasers

Since we moved into our new place I've been focusing some energy and time on decor, as expected. Painted the guest bathroom so far. That was more involved than expected as who ever painted before was very messy. They didn't tape up anything, slopped all over outlets and the ceiling :( When the walls were beige and the ceiling white, the paint splotches weren't as obvious. As soon as the walls were a pewter blue-grey, the beige splotches on the ceiling became SUPER obvious and so I then had to go and paint the ceiling.

It was my first time using eco-friendly VOC-free paint. I got the Harmony brand from Sherwin Willliams. It was pretty expensive, $47 a can, but they give you 15% off when you become a member, which is free to do. I honestly didn't notice a difference in smell or application; I thought it would be a lot less smelly than regular paint. I am happy to know that it won't be off-gassing toxic volatile organic compounds though. I'm usually pretty frugal but this paint was worth it to me. It was still less expensive than Benjamin Moore's VOC-free paint which is between $50-70 a can (!)

Update: I do not recommend the Sherwin Williams Harmony brand as it requires 2 to 3 coats. I experimented with different rollers, different rooms, different amounts of paint on the rollers and still, it is not very good. So it is cheaper to get the Benjamin Moore VOC-free paint it seems. I will try that for the rest of the condo and post a link here with the review later.

Update 2: I've now used and bought Benjamin Moore's Natura paint and posted a review.

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For this move my husband taped up some of our furniture with packing tape, which I totally ARGH'ed about. I googled the best way to remove the sticky tape residue and found that "Goof Off" was the most recommended product to use. So I bought it at the paint store, waited for my husband to take V out for a walk, cause boy was it SMELLY! If it worked like a charm, it might have been worth the noxious fumes, but it really didn't work that well at all. It removed the residue but didn't lift it right off -- it was like I was scrubbing it around the surface. Before I was even done my husband came back. We had to keep half the windows in our condo open all night to get rid of the smell.

Fast forward to today when I was zipping around with that Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. (I usually am very against toxic products but that thing really is magic!) when I decided to try it on the tape residue. It had worked just earlier on some sharpie marker that my daughter had used to scribble all over our laminate flooring (heart attack time! lol But the eraser took care of it so simply :)) That *MAGIC* eraser wiped the tape residue off as if it was nothing, as if it was just some spilled water or something. Hardly any effort used at all, and no bad fumes!

And that, my friends, was the highlight of my day :)