Home | Lifestyle | Home Repair & Maintenance | Natural Cleaning | Natural Home Cleaning Facts

Natural Home Cleaning Facts

by Riley Catz

Overview

Replacing toxic cleaners with natural products helps the environment.

564765d7-8de7-e94e-4ce3-f51eda5baef8400300

Natural cleaning products can easily and inexpensively replace many of the household cleaning products that contain toxic ingredients. In fact many, if not all, natural cleaning products can be homemade. According to charityguide.org the average American uses about 40 lbs. of toxic household cleaning products each year. Replacing toxic household cleaners with natural products can greatly reduce harm to the environment.
Benefits

Cleaning products make their way into the environment on a daily basis. They are washed down sinks, drains, and toilets; sprayed into the air; and dumped onto the ground. Switching to natural cleaning products made with environmentally safe ingredients eliminates the incident of contamination to plants, animals, air, water and food supplies. Using natural products in the home not only helps protect the environment, it keeps the house much safer for family and pets. Homemade natural cleaners are also less costly.

Toxic cleaners make there way into the environment.

2cba6b41-7b30-4265-fca9-093aaaa1f535300400

Considerations

While natural cleaners work well against most germs and bacteria, there has been some question about natural cleaning products lacking EPA approved "disinfection." According to Nina Shen Rastogi at Slate.com, "none of the big green cleaning companies---Seventh Generation, Method, Ecover, or Clorox's new Green Works line---offers an EPA-registered disinfectant or sanitizer. However, some smaller companies already offer products that meet EPA standards without resorting to ingredients some environmentalists find troubling...PureGreen24, for example, uses an active ingredient composed of silver ions and citric acid, and the company claims the manufacturing process produces no waste or byproducts." The botanical disinfectant Benefect, according to Rastogi, kills germs with thyme oil.

Natural products clean well.

5506bd30-c991-dc4a-431c-f304356d6097300400
Substitutions

Many natural products can be used as safe and inexpensive substitutes for chemically-made cleaning products. Eartheasy.com recommends a variety of homemade substitutions. Baking soda cleans, scours, and deodorizes. Unscented soap in liquid form, flakes, powders or bars cleans just about anything and is biodegradable and lemon is effective against most household bacteria. Borax disinfects most germs and white vinegar cuts grease, removes mildew, odors, some stains and wax build-up. Cornstarch can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs.

Lemon is effective against most household bacteria.

0e7d1f43-bd46-c066-167a-6de91fc0155b300400
Options

Natural cleaning products do not have to be homemade. Many natural cleaning products are available in stores. There are dozens of products all without harmful chemicals including all-purpose cleaners; bathroom, laundry and dishwasher detergents; dish and hand soap; scrubs and toilet cleaners; and wood, countertop, and glass cleaners. Homemade cleaning products cost less, but are certainly not a necessity with so many green cleaning products on the market today.

There are many natural cleaning products available.

04856678-715b-871d-4e6c-4810baf2467f300400
All-Purpose Cleaning Recipe

Eartheasy.com recommends this easy solution for an inexpensive all-purpose cleaner. Remember, all natural cleaning products homemade or otherwise should be clearly labeled and stored out of reach of children. To create the all-purpose cleaner, mix 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup baking soda (or 2 tsp. borax) into 1/2 gallon (2 liters) of water. Store and keep. Use for removal of water deposit stains on shower stall panels, bathroom chrome fixtures, windows, bathroom mirrors, etc.