Everyone wants a clean and fresh smelling home, but if you’ve been using commercial cleaners and air fresheners, you might have a home full of toxins! In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that the level of pollutants in your home can be up to 100 times higher than the outside air. This pollution can come from gasses given off by anything from your carpeting to your kitchen cabinets to your cleaning products.
If you walk into any grocery store, you will see many different cleaners – there are so many it might be hard to choose. Most of these cleaners are loaded with harmful chemicals.
If you want to practice greener cleaning, there are plenty of natural things you can use. Tea tree oil is a great natural cleaner for mold and mildew, baking soda makes a wonderful abrasive cleaner and white vinegar is a great all around cleaner. In addition to the health benefits of not using toxic cleaners, using these natural cleaners is much less costly than most store bought cleaners. For scrubbing surfaces like bathtubs, sinks and even counters use a mixture of baking soda and liquid detergent.
For cleaning glass surfaces, there is nothing like vinegar. Mix 3 tablespoons with 2 cups of water and just a dab of liquid detergent. Put it in a spray bottle and shake it up, then just spray on and wipe off as you would any cleaner.
When it comes to moldy areas, bathroom tile and even cutting boards, you can use straight vinegar sprayed on the area. The vinegar will work to clean and sanitize as well as deodorize. If you have a mold problem, combine 2 teaspoons tea tree oil with 1 cup of water and spray directly on the area without wiping off – it works wonders!
You can even use natural ingredients as an effective furniture polish and olive oil works wonders for this task. Mix ½ teaspoon with ¼ cup lemon juice – dab onto a rag and wipe over the wood. This mixture can be stored in a glass jar.
When it comes to deodorizers for the home, those store bought sprays are both environmentally harmful and harmful to your health. You’re much better off to open the windows and let the fresh air in. If that’s not enough then you can always put out bowls of dried flowers or herbs, use an open box of baking soda to absorb odors or place some cedar blocks strategically around the house.
There’s no reason why you can’t clean everything in your home using natural ingredients, so throw out all those chemical cleaners and arm yourself with some baking soda, vinegar and tea tree oil. Your house will be less toxic and you’ll save money on your grocery bill too.
Jay and Lynne
Brilliant advice, you guys. Here in the UK we have a telly programme where two older ladies go to clean up people’s houses and they use all the things you’ve mentioned! They never use chemicals.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
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Hi Mandy,
Yes it seems that we have gotten away from all the “old home methods” of cleaning by using the prepared chemicals from the store. Quicker but deadly.
In the US everything has to be done faster. But even that is changing. With the bad economy people are coming back to basics at all levels…..I think this is a good thing.
Jay