Yes, You Can…Go Green In Household Cleaning!
Yes, You Can…Go Green In Household Cleaning!
By Arlene Bascom
There was a time when women wouldn’t think twice about using household cleaning products containing toxic ingredients and chemicals to wipe down kitchen counters, bathrooms, and floors throughout their home. If it made things sparkle, shine, and smell lemony-fresh, they felt it was okay to use.
In today's world, we know that many of those products with unfamiliar chemicals sometimes have negative effects on our health. People have started to seek out more natural cleaning products with ingredients like citrus oil, vinegar, beeswax, cleaning salt, coconut oil, baking soda, and essential oils, like lavender and rosemary. Many of these products are not just better for your health and safe to use around children, the elderly, and pets; they’re also environmentally friendly.
Healthier Homes
If you would like a healthier home, going green—giving up chemical cleaners and replacing them with natural ones—makes sense. You will no longer breathe in chemicals or absorb them into your skin while you are cleaning. Health benefits extend to all family members who are no longer breathing in cleaners lingering in the air and on household surfaces.
Studies have shown that using a toxic household cleaning spray, even as little as once a week, raises the risk of developing asthma. Using green cleaning products can reduce the chances of developing asthma, which, surprisingly, is the most common chronic illness across the country today.
Purer Environment
When you use many common cleaning products, harmful chemicals are being released into the environment. Changing to greener methods helps reduce pollution to our waterways and the air, and it minimizes your impact on ozone depletion and global climate change with fewer smog-producing chemicals. Many green products also use recyclable packaging, which minimizes waste.
Less Expense
For home cleaning, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, and other inexpensive items can do the trick for pennies on the dollar, compared to buying conventional cleaning products. Why go out and buy products when you can use things you may already have in your pantry?
Where to Start?
A recent article by Alice Osborn on my favorite website, “Home Cook’N Newsletter," gives some great, easy, and inexpensive cleaning alternatives to using chemicals in your kitchen.
One good reason senior cooks might want to look into these alternatives? When entering a space that has been cleaned with mainstream cleaners, our bodies must brace themselves for a chemical onslaught. This chemical onslaught becomes more of a problem as we age because our bodies are less able to cope, and illness and weakness might be the result. However, when you enter a naturally cleaned home, you will notice that you love the way you feel because natural cleaning ingredients infuse the space with their subtle scents and natural, non-toxic presence.
Begin with your cutting board, because that's where most foodborne illnesses start. Bacteria consistently grows on cutting boards; keeping them clean makes sense. While thoroughly cleaning a cutting board so that it doesn't harbor bacteria is important, you don't want to add new environmental problems, such as the overgrowth of super-bacteria or toxic fumes (which disinfectants such as Clorox or 409 can cause).
Instead, get in the habit of cutting meat on a glass plate, platter, or cutting board and wash the plates or cutting boards in a dishwasher so that the hot water sterilizes them.
Next, reduce the concern about deadly bacteria growing on your cutting board by using one or more of these 4 simple cleaning options:
1. Wash the cutting board, counters, knives, and utensils with soap and water. Using a good scrub brush is really effective because it gets into all the nooks and crannies of the cutting board.
2. Wash the cutting board with 3% hydrogen peroxide, then with straight white distilled vinegar. Let each rest on the cutting board for 10 minutes or so before rinsing.
3. If you like the smell of lavender, make an antibacterial spray by mixing about 10 drops of the pure essential oil of lavender to 1 cup of water in a spray bottle. Shake to blend. Spray on the cutting board and don't rinse.
4. For all kitchen cleaning, make your own green cleaner. Osborne makes a green cleaner using peppermint oil, lavender oil, and Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE)[1], which she believes is more powerful than bleach and totally safe for children and pets.
• In a 16 oz. spray bottle, add enough drops of both peppermint and lavender oils that the cleaner will smell good...experiment starting with about 10 drops of each.
• Add 20 drops of GSE.
• Fill spray bottle with water.
• If desired, add 1/4 c. of white vinegar to add degreasing power.
This green cleaner isn't the best degreaser around even with the white vinegar added, but it's a superb general cleaner and disinfectant, which is especially good for cutting boards, counters, and meat knives.
Conclusion
If you’re still using harsh cleaning products, now may be the time to start thinking about making a switch. Start simple with any of the above suggestions and then become aware of other ways you can change habits and switch products for a healthier home and a purer environment.
[1] These three ingredients are available at Natural Food Stores, such as Good Earth.