Switching from chemical to green cleaners can have a big impact on your health and the environment. Not only will the switch reduce pollution in the air and water, it may also help reduce allergies, respiratory issues, nausea, headaches and skin irritation.
Here are some easy-to-implement tips to make your home safer and kinder to the environment:
Switch out your laundry and dish detergents. There are a variety of natural products available now to replace the heavy chemicals we’re used to finding in our detergents. For your dishes, try Better Life, which makes all-natural dish soap, detergent and dishwasher gel to keep your dishes spotless. For laundry, even the name brands are coming out with more natural options—for example, Tide’s Free & Gentle. Brands like Seventh Generation focus on making toxin-free detergents that ensure your clothes get clean without flushing toxins into our water supply.
Reuse dryer sheets for dusting. You’re going to use them anyway, so why not get an extra bonus out of them? Once they’ve been through the dryer, they are perfect for attracting dust with ease. Clean your TV and electronics with them without any risk of scratching the surface.
Clean your bathroom, kitchen and floors the natural way. The most important way to improve the health of your home is to replace typical chemical cleaners with natural ones. You can easily make your own or buy natural products from Method, Seventh Generation and Honest Company.
A great floor cleaning solution is as simple as combining equal parts hot water and vinegar with a small amount of olive or lemon oil for shine. Or if you prefer to use a pre-made Canadian product, ATTITUDE Floor Surfaces Tiles & Wood Cleaner is certified eco-friendly by Eco-Logo. Bathroom messes also respond well to a simple, at-home formula like the one above. Take the water and vinegar and add one cup of borax. Bring this mixture to a boil on the stove top until the borax is completely dissolved. Let it cool, add in the lemon oil and use on all your hard-to-clean bathroom surfaces. Equal parts vinegar and water with a little salt thrown in is a simple, all-natural option you can always rely on for safely cleaning your kitchen.
Eliminate paper products as much as possible. This not only has great benefits for your pocketbook, it’s an important step in helping reduce paper waste and preventing more trees from being cut down. While using less toilet paper isn’t really a possibility, consider switching to recycled and unbleached options. Paper towels and napkins are better off replaced with cotton towels that can be easily washed and repeatedly used without adding to landfills.
