Spring Clean Your House

Safe and Natural Ways To Clean Your Home

With spring in the air, spring cleaning is on our mind. We’ve talked about spring cleaning our beauty tools and spring cleaning our skin, but what about our home? Americans are exposed to an untold number of chemicals in their home from cleaning products every day including formaldehyde, phthalates and PFCs. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, these chemicals can put your health at risk for asthma, Parkinson’s disease and fertility problems, among other concerns. We spend a lot of time ensuring what we put on our skin is safe and what we put in our body is healthy, so let’s take some time to discuss how to safely and easily spring clean our house.

Avoid These Cleaning Chemicals

  • Chlorine: Found in dishwasher detergents, swimming pools and your water supply, chlorine is thought to be a leading cause of breast cancer.
  • Formaldehyde: Most cleaning products contain this chemical including laundry detergents, air fresheners, and furniture polish. It is a known cancer-causing agent as well as a human carcinogen.
  • Ammonia: Found in disinfectants and window cleaner, ammonia vapor is irritating to the eyes, respiratory tract and skin.
  • Lye: Found in conjunction with ammonia in many oven cleaners (the most toxic cleaning product people use), lye can eat at the skin and the fumes can affect the respiratory system.
  • Bleach: Though most people think bleach is the best way to kill germs and clean surfaces, when combined with ammonia and acids, it forms a toxic gas that is highly irritating the eyes and lungs.

Clean With These Items

  • Lemons: Lemons are great for disinfecting bacteria on cutting boards and removing lime scale buildup on faucets. Lemon juice can be used to clean windows, cut through grease and dissolve soap buildup and hard water deposits.
  • Distilled White Vinegar: Vinegar is great for cleaning the kitchen sink, removing mildew from tile, brighten clothes, remove grease and get rid of rust.
  • Baking Soda: Baking soda naturally deodorizes and neutralizes acid. It can be used to clean all sorts of surfaces and as a carpet freshener.
  • Cornstarch: Cornstarch can be used as a furniture polish and as a carpet shampoo.
  • Sea Salt: Sea salt or table salt is great for scouring tough dirt and grime, as well as disinfecting.
If you don’t have time or you’re not up for making your own cleaning products out of your kitchen items, a few good natural brands you can buy include Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyer’s and BabyGanics. How do you create a safer, cleaner home environment using natural products? Tell us in the comments. Sources: The Raw Greek, One Green Planet