I recently saw a story on the news stating how the air in our homes are highly toxic. Air inside the home is typically more toxic than our places of employment, public buildings, and the outdoors. I found a fantastic article summing up the EPA and the National Cancer Associations findings on cancer and home toxins. I highly recommend giving it a glance. The most startling fact to me, a stay-at-home mom, is that women who work in the home have a 54% higher risk of developing cancer than those who work outside the home. Yikes!
We really do not need to buy into the marketing that has been thrown at us our entire lives that we need the fancy new product to have the cleanest home. After all, what good is a clean home when you are left with toxic air?
I wanted to share with you the four products I use to clean my entire home.
1. Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner- This is a simple vinegar and water mixture that I mix together in an old squirt container (from a product I bought for a ridiculous price, and later noticed it contained, yup, vinegar and water).
2. Dr. Bronners SAL suds- This stuff rocks. A small amount goes a LONG way and it smells like a real pine tree. We use a squirt of this in the toilets to clean them, and to clean the showers and sinks, counter tops, and basically any surface that needs cleaned.
3. Earth Friendly Products Window Cleaner- This product contains vinegar, and a coconut oil based soap to eliminate streaking. We use this to clean all the glass in our home.
4. Homemade furniture polish- A little olive oil and a hefty squeeze of a lemon work to make a fantastic furniture polish without the chemicals!
For floors, I simply use water and a steam mop.
To read more about cleaning the air in your home, see the Reducing Home Toxins series.
(Is there anything Dr. Bronner’s can’t do?)
I love love love this post, and I’m bookmarking it for future reference. Thank you!
I use a vinegar, water and dish soap mixture to clean almost everything in our house. I sprinkle a little baking soda on surfaces that need a little scrubbing like sinks or the stovetop, but I really find this mixture works well, even on glass. For floors, when I actually mop, I just use vinegar and water. I would love to get a steam mop, though.
I’ll have to try that on glass. Thanks for the tip! I used to use vinegar and water on the floors, and once I got a steam mop learned the hard way that vinegar does NOT go in a steam mop!! Water only
It is amazing how well it cleans even stuck on food.
I spray my vinegar mixture on the floor and then use my steam mop once a month and it does not effect my steam mop!!!!
Great idea!
WOAH, 54%?!?!?!?!??! That’s insane! Makes me even more thankful I’ve been using homemade cleaners pretty much our whole marriage. Yikes, imagine what it’s doing to the babies and toddlers at home.
Thanks for the inspiration and ideas. I haven’t tried Dr. Bronners, sounds great!
I know! Scary, isn’t it. Dr. Bronner’s is awesome. We use the castile soap to make foaming hand soap and body wash.
Where can you buy Dr. Bronners at?
We have it at our local Kroger grocery store, but any health food store should carry it, or of course, Amazon. I’ve been doing more grocery type shopping on Amazon because often the prices are cheaper than the store.