Guide to Green Cleaning
First, open up all those windows! It’s summer time and the scent of all those beautiful flowers outside can produce natural air freshener! The air inside a home or office to be more toxic than the air outside. Proper ventilation of your home is crucial to maintaining good health. Keep windows open as often as possible allowing fresh air in and keeping toxins flowing out.
Baking soda is a great carpet freshener! Sprinkle some baking soda on your carpet while ventilating the house. Make sure to vacuum it up after a few minutes once the odor-eliminator does its job. Baking soda is cheap and has many uses. Besides acting as a carpet cleaner, baking soda can be used as toothpaste, or inside the refrigerator eliminating bad odors.
Combining white vinegar with hydrogen peroxide creates a cleaner similar to bleach without the harmful chemicals. Don’t mix the white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide together in the same bottle. Mixing will cause the cleaner to weaken. Simply mix the products “as needed” and apply to a surface. White vinegar and hydrogen peroxide combine creates a cleaning product that can kill 100 percent of the bacteria in your home. A cleaner, fresher, and healthier home is just a few cents away.
Before you start tossing all of those old harmful cleaning products away pause just a second. Throwing the old cleaners in the trash or down the drain will still cause harm to the environment. Many communities hold toxic & electronics recycling days and will take all of these chemicals off of your hands. Whole Foods Market or another local organic grocery store is a good place to look to see what days they offer toxic recycling.
Leaving shoes at the door step is a good way to cut down on dirt. Bringing oil, antifreeze, animal waste, particulate pollution, pollen, and other unwanted items into the house is not good for your health. Just the act of taking off your shoes before you step into the house can make less sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming, which means less work, water, energy, and fewer chemicals!
Reducing the amount of paper wasted can have a huge environmental impact. Instead of using paper towels try old T-shirts, socks, or rags. Using old socks is a good idea because they come in pairs leaving one sock for wet and one sock for dry wiping. Buying natural sponges that are biodegradable, can break down or be composted when their useful life is through, is another great option.
The statistics in toxic household chemicals is startling. There are about 17,000 chemicals available for home use, and only 30% of those cleaning products have been tested for the harmful effects they may have on human health and the environment. In the average American household around 10 gallons of these chemicals can be found. Often times the air quality inside is 100 times worse then outside, according to the US EPA. The EPA classified 275 active ingredients in antimicrobials that are considered pesticides because they are designed to kill microbes. The cleaning industry uses about 5 billion pounds of chemicals each year.
You can purchase organic cleaning products like Trader Joe’s, BEE cleaning products, 7th Generation, AtHome, E-Cloth, Method, and many others can be found online or at the local market. Publix carries a green brand featuring toilet paper and other personal items. Green living is a lifestyle that has endless benefits
