Detoxify Your Home and Join the Green Cleaning Trend

Hey guys, today we’ve got a great article from Groom+Style about the benefits of going green with our cleaning and getting those chemicals out of our homes! You guys know that there is literally not a single commercial cleaner that I am still buying in the store because, quite frankly, they’re so easy to make and very cheap too! Make sure and check out the link at the bottom of the article to see it in full and get some great cleaning recipes.

The DIY, homemade and all-natural cleaning worlds are sounding the alarm bells on commercial chemical cleaners found in stores. It’s no secret that commercial cleaning agents can be harmful to your health. All you have to do is smell them and read the warnings on their labels to know that they’re full of toxic chemicals. These cleaning agents contain chemicals which can cause cancer, asthma, allergic reactions, and are often poisonous when ingested. They are dangerous to have around children and animals.

On top of that, many household cleaners contribute to water and ozone pollution. And the contemporary obsession with disinfecting everything is leading to the threat of super-viruses and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Green cleaning is the home cleaning DIY trend geared toward caring for the health, well-being, and sustainable practices of your family by using all-natural cleaners. For most makers of homemade cleaners, this isn’t just a budget solution, it’s a lifestyle. The aims of green cleaning are to keep your home and family safe and clean while also lowering their impact on the environment.

For more information, take a look at the infographic here and for lots of easy green cleaning recipes!

Detoxify your home green cleaning trend
Feel free to use this infographic on your site, however, please include a reference/citation to the original.

The Dangers of Household Cleaning Products
Most commercial cleaning agents are comprised of dangerous, and often undisclosed, chemicals. These chemicals can cause minor to serious and life-threatening health problems from inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact.

Chemicals to be Aware of
As with any substance, the level of a product’s toxicity depends on dose and length of exposure. The worst toxic chemicals fall into three categories:

• Carcinogens which cause or promote cancer. These types of toxins can be found in chemical air fresheners and bleach.
• Endocrine disruptors which cause problems relating to hormones. These can be found in anti-bacterial soaps.
• Neurotoxins which affect brain activity. Negative effects can include of headaches, lethargy, and memory loss.

Going green will remove all of those products from your home!

Many cleaning agents can also cause skin irritation and eye irritation, and be poisonous if swallowed. Air fresheners and other chemicals that linger in the air can cause asthma from long-term exposure, and many fragrances can trigger allergies. A few household cleaners will even create poisonous gases when mixed with other cleaning agents (chlorine bleach, ammonia, and toilet cleaners).

Antibacterial Soap
Antibacterial soaps are dangerous for global health as well as individual health. The truth is that regular (greener) soaps have been proven to be just as effective as antibacterial soaps when it comes to killing germs that may cause diseases. However, antibacterial soaps help bacteria build a resistance to antibiotics, creating bacteria that are difficult to near-impossible to kill with known methods.

Triclosan, an active ingredient in antibacterial soaps and other goods meant to promote healthy homes, has also been known in animals to interfere with the body’s regulation of thyroid hormones. This is known as an endocrine disruptor, and it could lead to hormone-related problems such as infertility, early puberty, obesity, and cancer. Frequent use of anti-bacterial soaps and triclosan may also be a cause of allergies in children.

Greenwashing
When buying natural cleaners in store, be aware of “greenwashing.” Greenwashing refers to marketing campaigns by companies that promote their brand as environmentally responsible without a specific reason. This is a good way for companies to grab consumers who want to buy green but do not have the time to investigate this image. Many cleaning brands take advantage of green marketing while still using harmful toxins and chemicals in their cleaning products.

Brands will often use misleading claims on their bottles and packaging to make their products seem more environmentally and health-friendly than they actually are. This includes products labeled as “green,” “natural,” or “biodegradable.” Many of these products still contain harmful toxins. When checking natural cleaning products in stores, look for specific claims and information rather than buzzwords.

Benefits of All-Natural Cleaning

Green cleaning will allow you to feel comfortable breathing the air in your home and cooking on freshly cleaned counters. Switching to all-natural cleaning and homemade cleaners promotes a healthier and more wholesome quality of life. For one thing, natural cleaners are safe around children, meaning that you can clean with your children around and get them involved in their own healthy cleaning routines.

A Healthier Household
In spite of the decreased rate of disinfecting (which is mostly unnecessary), natural cleaning promotes a healthier house through improved air quality and safer surfaces. When you clean with chemicals, those chemicals can enter the air and remain on the surfaces that you and your family touch every day.

All-natural cleaners allow you to be confident when you’re doing your household chores, knowing that you’re breathing healthy air in your house. Natural cleaners are also less likely to leave skin-irritating residue on countertops, windows, and other surfaces. They are safer, non-corrosive cleaning agents that limit the risk of chemical burns to your eyes and skin when cleaning.

Many who use all-natural cleaning products, whether homemade or purchased, comment on the better air quality that these products promote. Some even consider the green cleaning process to be a form of aromatherapy because homemade cleaning agents often replace toxic chemical smells with calming and relaxing essential oils.

They’re Better for the Earth
All-natural cleaning products are less likely to release harmful chemicals into our wastewater. All-natural cleaning supplies can help to lower the carbon footprint that leads to ozone depletion and climate change.

These natural cleaning goods often come in recyclable packaging. And it’s very simple for anyone making their own cleaning goods at home to reuse their bottles and containers. Just rinse and refill!

Knowing the Ingredients

Government regulations do not require companies to list all the ingredients on the packaging of commercial cleaning products. Even those that provide partial lists can be purposefully misleading, giving you a false sense of security about what you know about a product. The only way that you can be sure about the contents of a bottle of household cleaner is to make it yourself.

In stores, the market for all-natural home cleaners has been booming to fill the need for non-toxic and less irritating cleaning agents. The high demand for clean and healthy households has allowed companies that produce all-natural cleaners to demand high prices. That means you could be paying more for products that won’t jeopardize your health.

However, making your own homemade cleaners is much less expensive than relying on chemical cleaning. Homemade cleaners are most often a mixture of a few basic and inexpensive pantry ingredients such as vinegar, olive oil, and lemon juice for healthy home cleaning, so you don’t need a chemistry degree to spruce up your home.

Home Cleaning Substitutes

• Baking Soda: Use baking soda to clean, scrub and scour tough cooked on messes, neutralize household odor and soften water.
• Soap: You can use unscented liquid soap, flake, powder, or bars. Many people choose their soap based on what they’re used to and what’s easiest to handle while cleaning. Most natural cleaning enthusiasts recommend using castile soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s, vegetable soap, or olive oil soap. Always avoid soaps that contain petroleum distillates!

Picking the right soap is a great way to have your home spaces smelling and feeling the way you want them to, so try out different soaps and make adjustments if you’re not happy with what you have. It’s best to also avoid soap containing unnatural fragrances, but, if you are unhappy with unscented liquid soap, add an essential oil of your choice to your soap to give it some character.

• Lemon: Lemon juice is a very strong food-acid that is effective against household bacteria.
• Borax: Borax is sodium borate. This is a non-carcinogenic substance that is not absorbed through the skin and is not harmful to the environment. Borax is about as safe for you as salt, but you still shouldn’t ingest it! Use borax to clean your painted walls and wallpaper, as well as your floors. It can deodorize, disinfect, and soften water.
• White Vinegar: White vinegar will be your go-to for most of your homemade cleaner needs. It can cut grease, remove mildew, absorb odors, and dissolve some staining and wax build-up.
• Washing Soda: Washing soda is also known as SAL soda or sodium decahydrate. It’s a mineral that you can use to cut grease, remove stains, soften water, and clean your bathroom, including your walls, tiles, sink, and tub. Washing soda can be irritating to mucous membranes, so it’s best to keep it away from your nose or wear a mask while cleaning, and it can be harmful to aluminum.
• Isopropyl Alcohol: Isopropyl alcohol is used as a disinfectant. You can also substitute ethanol for its disinfectant qualities, and some even use inexpensive vodka, depending on whether or not the smell will be washed away in the cleaning process.
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is a powerful absorbent, making it a good cleaner to soak up oil spills in and around the kitchen. You can also use it to clean windows, polish furniture, and shampoo and clean carpets and rugs.
• Citrus Solvent: Citrus solvent is made from orange peel oil, an organic substance that you can use in lieu of mineral spirits. Citrus solvent is often used as a natural paint thinner and comes recommended for bicycle chain cleanup. Around the house you can use it clean oil, grease, and some stains.
• Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil has antiseptic properties, making it a natural choice for treating wounds and killing many strains of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Tea tree oil can be used in most homemade cleaning products to add a disinfectant to the cleaning process.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AND FOR A WHOLE BUNCH OF FANTASTIC EASY AND GREEN CLEANING RECIPES!