Are You Using Chemicals To Clean Your Home?
We are surrounded by chemicals, toxins, endocrine disruptors, respiratory irritants, carcinogens, you name it. The last thing you want to do is to contaminate your working and living space with them under the guise of cleaning.
Cleaners do not need to be toxic. Sure, there will be times when maybe you need something extra strength because vinegar and baking soda isn’t cutting it, or your cat just threw up a chipmunk in the house and you’re completely grossed out by cleaning that spot with peroxide (I may be speaking from experience on this one). That’s fine. But more often than not, you’re just cleaning applesauce off the kitchen table, or chicken stock from the counter, this doesn’t require bleach or extra strength all purpose cleaners.
As we’ve “advanced” in our society, most have become germaphobes. Not every living organism needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth. You don’t need to nuke your kitchen counters on a daily basis. Some microorganisms are beneficial, if not necessary for optimal health.
Case in point, YOU. You’re loaded with bacteria, good and bad. Your health depends on bacteria, LIFE depends on bacteria. So let’s stop nuking everything and creating chemicals clouds in our homes and workspaces. You can still have a sparkling clean, fresh smelling home without the use of conventional cleaning products created and marketed by people who don’t care about you. Sorry, but that’s the honest truth. They just want to sell you their product. If Proctor and Gamble really cared about you, they wouldn’t add endocrine disrupting, carcinogenic chemicals into their air fresheners.
Let’s carry on.
HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS:
You’ve read through the introduction, now it’s time to get to the details. Let’s start with a healthy home.
Everywhere we turn there are hidden synthetic chemicals & toxins in products, even the ones carefully marketed and “health washed” as natural. Long term exposure to these synthetic chemicals are responsible for issues such as hormone imbalances, fertility issues, respiratory distress, neurological disorders. As a collective whole, we need to stop supporting companies who are knowingly putting toxins in their products to save a minuscule amount of money.
You deserve to clean your home without breathing in or absorbing toxins.
LET’S START WITH ALL-PURPOSE CLEANERS
We all know this is the go-to spray bottle for everyday clean ups;
Toddler spilled their bowl of frozen blueberries on the floor? All-Purpose Cleaner to the rescue.
Wiping down the counters after baking some bread? APC to the rescue.
Spilled your cocktail? APC to the rescue.
You get the point.
Below are a few top cleaning brands and their listed ingredients. Do you know what all these are? Take a look, click on the links to see the EWG’s report on these beloved brands.
Simple Green: Water, C9-11 Alcohols Ethoxylated, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Carbonate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Citric Acid, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Fragrance, Liquitint Colorant
Lysol Disinfecting Wipes: Alkyl (50% C14, 40% C12, 10% C16) dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, Water, Ethanol, C9-11 Alkyl Glucoside Propylene Glycol Butyl Ether Ethanolamine, Fragrance/Parfum
Mr. Clean Multi Surface Cleaning Spray: Water, C10-16 Alkyldimethylamine Oxide, C9-11 Pareth, Carboxymethyl Inulin, Sodium C10-16 Alkylbenzenesulfonate, Sodium Carbonate , Sodium Citrate, Benzisothiazolinone, Perfume, Polyoxyalkylene Substituted Chromophore (Cyan), Polyoxyalkylene Substituted Chromophore (Yellow)
Mrs. Meyers Multi Surface Cleaning Spray: Water; Decyl Glucoside; Fragrance; (Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool); Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil ; Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Oil ; ethylene brassylate; linalool; gamma-undecalactone; geraniol; cinnamyl alcohol; 3a,4,5,6,7,7a-hexahydro-4,7-methanoinden-6-yl acetate; hexyl acetate; benzyl acetate; phenethyl alcohol; cyclamen aldehyde; butylphenyl methylpropional; phenethyl salicylate; amyl salicylate; 2-t-butylcyclohexyl acetate; methyldihydrojasmonate; allyl heptanoate; hexyl cinnamal; citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) peel oil; 2-phenoxyethyl isobutyrate; dipropylene glycol; Lonicera Japonica (Honeysuckle) Flower Extract; Lauryl Glucoside; Sodium Citrate; Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate; Citric Acid; Capryleth-4; Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate; Methylisothiazolinone; Benzisothiazolinone
How do you feel after reading the ingredients and seeing the EWG’s report on these products? Concerns for cancer, digestive damage, allergies, respiratory effects, cancer, developmental/endocrine/reproductive effects, damage to DNA, respiratory effects, general systemic/organ effects, nervous system effects, skin irritation/allergies/damage, damage to vision.
I don’t know about you, but you won’t find any of these products in my house. This is where cancel culture needs to step in — cancel the synthetic chemicals!! Products such as the above and the like have been banned in my house for at least the past 5 years. 5 years ago, however I still thought Mrs. Meyer was ok, but take a look at that long list of unpronounceables…..
When you’re reading through the ingredients, you’re most likely thinking that all the ingredients are there, listed out for the consumer to see, that’s not the case however. The word "fragrance" or "parfum" on the product label represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent chemicals and ingredients used as fragrance dispersants such as diethyl phthalate. [ewg.org]
Fragrances have been linked to a staggering number of health risks including, but not limited to; allergens, hormone disruptors, asthma triggers, neurotoxins & carcinogens. The punchline: fragrances are highly toxic. Most contain phthalates, which have been linked to cancer, human reproductive and developmental toxicity, endocrine disruption, birth defects & respiratory problems.
So the question is why are manufactures not responsible for putting these chemicals on their product labels?
Why are they not held liable for pushing out toxic products under the guise of safe cleaning products?
Why are people still supporting these companies by purchasing their products?
It’s time to stop.
SOLUTION:
We’re all in a different place in our lives, some people are able to spend a few minutes each week making their own products, other people want nothing to do with that and would rather purchase from a store, and that’s ok. This guide is here to help you know what brands to purchase from and which ones to steer clear from. Most of the well known brands are no-no’s…. Sorry, walk down any cleaning aisle in your local Target, Walmart, Hannaford, etc and just keep on walking. The smell of that aisle should give it away. However, if you’re in those stores, stock up on some baking soda and white distilled vinegar — those will come in handy for cleaning your home, you may want to get some bulk peroxide as well. More to come on this after the brands that actually care about your well being.
Here are some companies that create quality, naturally based All-Purpose Cleaners without harmful chemicals:
Meliora All Purpose Cleaning Spray: Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Cocoate, Glycerin, Organic Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Water
All of their products are as clean and simple as can be. I cannot recommend them enough. You can purchase the refill solution for a minimal cost as well as the glass bottle to store the cleaner in. Not only are you saving your system from synthetic chemicals, but you’re ridding plastic from your home. It’s a win win! I highly recommend this company for laundry detergent as well. Also note, when I first purchased from this company, I only bought the unscented products. I am sensitive to fragrances. However, the last purchase I made, I decided to try the lemon scented laundry detergent and was happily surprised with the outcome. The fragrance is from essential oils and it is subtle. No overwhelming, in your face scents here — phew!
Use this link above for $5 off your first purchase.
I honesty haven’t found many other products in this category that I can stand firmly behind. There are other clean brands out there such as Seventh Generation, Eos, Better Life, etc, but this Meliora is the cleanest one I’ve found aside from making my own.
Which brings me to the second best option
DIY ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER
There are a few varieties of cleaner you can make. To start, you’re going to need a reusable spray bottle. You can repurpose an old spray bottle, buy a plastic one from your local Walmart/Target or purchase a nice glass spray bottle. My preference is always glass, but of course you have to be careful of dropping and breaking it. If you use an old bottle, be sure the previous cleaner has been throughly cleaned out & aired out. As for buying a new plastic one, that’s fine as well, but you’re bringing plastic into your home, aaaaaand you have to worry about BPA and other toxins in the plastic. Ok, just use the glass spray bottles — you can buy them here on Amazon.
The Down & Dirty Cleaning Spray:
For those times you’ve run out and need something fast. [due to natural acetic acid in the vinegar, this spray is not recommended to spray on natural stone, tile grout, or wood.]
Ingredients: Water, Vinegar, Essential oil of choice
2 cups water
White Distilled Vinegar
20 drops essential oil of choice [amount may vary depending on your scent preference, and essential oil.]
Essential oil recommendations;
Lemon
Lemon & Thyme
Tea Tree
Sweet Orange & Cinnamon
Peppermint [also keeps ants and spiders away]
(also feel free to play with combinations of oils.)
Blast of Citrus Cleaning Spray:
This formula takes a bit more time to create, so be sure to start a new batch when you’re beginning to run low to avoid a gap in cleaning spray. [due to natural acetic acid in the vinegar, this spray is not recommended to spray on natural stone, tile grout, or wood.]
Ingredients: Water, Vinegar, Fresh Lemon Peel or Orange Peel — whatever citrus you’d like to use [lime, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarine, your choice, OR mix them all]
2 cups water
White Distilled Vinegar
20 drops essential oil of choice [amount may vary depending on your scent preference, and essential oil.]
Essential oil recommendations;
Lemon
Lemon & Thyme
Tea Tree
Sweet Orange & Cinnamon
Peppermint [also keeps ants and spiders away]
DIY Natural Softscrub:
Softscrub isn’t the cleanest cleaning product around. Used for mainly dirty surfaces, this product can easily be made at home, using toxin free ingredients. You can use this on many surfaces, counters, floors, tile, grout, pots and pans, stubborn schmutz, etc. Take a look at these Softscrub ingredients; Water, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Dodecylbenzenesulfonate, Alcohol Ethoxylate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Bicarbonate, Fragrance, Preservative, D-Limonene, Linalool.
Make your own — save your health and money.
INGREDIENTS: Baking Soda, Castile Soap, Coarse Salt, Lemon juice or about 10 drops of Lemon essential oil
Depending on what you’re looking to clean - a large area or small, pour 1/2 a cup of baking soda into a bowl, add Castile soap until a thick paste is formed, sprinkle in about 1 tablespoon of coarse salt then add lemon juice or essential oil. Mix together.
Apply the mixture to your surface [bath tub, sink, burnt pan, paint on the table from the kids arts & crafts time, etc….]. If it’s a large area rub it down gently to disperse the mixture over the whole space.
Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before scrubbing and rinsing.
Admire your clean, sparkling surface.
As always, what’s listed on here is my opinion and things that have worked for me in my household. If they don’t work for you, I implore you to figure out something that does.
