Cleaning
You can look up how to make natural cleaning products. It perhaps takes a bit of effort but once you make up a batch it should last a few rounds of cleaning.
In the long term, it is better for eliminating allergens in your home environment. The overall health impact for you and your family will be far greater. At the same time, you could be saving money and eliminating waste from the environment.
If you find it’s easier to buy cleaning products, then consider switching brands to less toxic ones for you and your home.
What you can do
Smarter cleaning products can be found in our kitchen cupboards!
Here are some common natural less toxic cleaning ingredients
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Vinegar mixed with water for cleaning floors
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Borax mixed with lemon juice to clean toilets
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Mix lemon juice and olive oil to polish furniture
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Baking soda can be used to scrub iron, stainless steel, copper pots but not aluminum.
What others have done
Switching cleaning materials
With cleaning materials, avoid unnecessary dyes and fragrances. If you have no other option to make your own, use concentrate detergents, whereby you use less, and buy larger packs. This reduces the amount of packaging you accumulate for recycling.
Substitute cleaning where possible with natural products. People have cleaned homes with these well before marketeer’s and media convinced us we needed convenience and harmful chemicals in our homes.
A checklist
Use the same checklist with cleaning here as you have with kitchens. Ask yourself:
Is the product harmful to health and home?
Is there an alternative that can clean just as well or you are willing to switch?
Can you save water, reduce pollution, save energy and save more money?
Does it tick some of the 9R boxes?
Call for change
The Environmental Working Group website is a great place to find out about the harmful chemicals that may be in brands you are using so that you can change them