When it comes to cleaning your house, the typical villains are dust, debris, bacteria, and mold. Your goal is to eliminate these nasty, unsightly particles and leave household surfaces spotless and sanitary. But what if we told you that the solutions you’re using to clean your home might be just as dangerous as the dirt and germs you’re trying to remove?
With an increasing emphasis on saving the environment these days, more and more people are taking a second look at their cleaning supplies. You might be surprised to learn that the chemicals you’ve been using to protect your family from illness are also capable of hurting them and nature. So what can you do?
The first step is to get educated about which household cleaners are safe and which ones are noxious. The second step is to replace your toxic cleaners with safe ones. But where do you begin?
We can’t empty your cleaning cupboard for you, but we can share some information to help you learn the difference between dangerous and safe household cleaners and how to find the latter. With just a little effort, you’ll soon be eliminating both grime and poisons from your home!
Why Are Some Household Cleaners Considered Dangerous?
Not all household cleaners are created equal.
Most household cleaners contain chemicals that are very effective against all kinds of messes from grease and grime to germs and mold. Unfortunately, if those chemicals can kill bacteria and mold spores, they are also dangerous to other lifeforms like humans, animals, and plants.
When you use toxic cleaners in your home, those chemicals get in the air you breathe and leave residues on the surfaces you touch. This kind of exposure can:
- Irritate the lungs
- Cause asthma
- Irritate or burn the skin and eyes
- Cause cancer and reproductive abnormalities
Children and pets are the most vulnerable. Infants and children have more delicate body tissues that are more easily damaged by toxins. Pets and infants are also more likely to ingest cleaning chemicals accidentally and suffer severe harm.
Cleaning chemicals are dangerous for the environment too. Many of our household cleaners find their way into the soil, water, and air outside where they can kill wildlife and sicken us.
So why do we use dangerous chemicals in household products? Because they are cheap and effective.
Manufacturers have long advertised their products as being “strong” and “tough” on everything from dirt to germs to stains. They want you to believe that using their product will make cleaning easier. Strong chemicals are indeed very effective for cleaning, but their real reason for using those chemicals is they are cheap, and no one wanted to spend the money to test the risks of these ingredients.
Luckily today, more and more people are concerned about their health and the environment, and there has been an increased awareness of the dangers of traditional household cleaners and movement toward selling and choosing more natural solutions.
How to Know If My Household Cleaners Are Safe or Not
Now that you understand the dangers that may be lurking in your cleaning cabinet, let’s discuss how to tell which household cleaners are safe to use and which should be avoided.
The best way to know what you’re getting is to read the labels. Unfortunately, manufacturers use many loopholes to avoid listing all of the toxic ingredients they use. But there are some things to look for.
First, avoid cleaners with usage warnings that begin with words like “Caution,” “Danger,” and “Warning.” If a product tells you it’s dangerous, believe it!
Second, avoid cleaners with known toxic ingredients. There’s a lot of these, but here are the most common ones:
- Bleach
- Fragrance
- Formaldehyde releasers
- Phthalates
- Quaternary ammonium compounds
- Sodium hypochlorite
- Triclosan
- 1,4-dioxane
If you do not recognize an ingredient, it’s easy to look it up online today. Another tip: most safe ingredients are familiar words, so if a word is long, complicated, or unfamiliar, there’s a good chance it isn’t healthy.
A word of warning: don’t trust all products that claim to be “all-natural,” “organic,” or “eco-friendly.” These terms are not regulated and can appear on anything. Instead, look for safe ingredients like the ones we’ll discuss below.
Which Household Cleaners Are Safe?
Are you tossing your old, toxic cleaners now? If you are, you’ll need to replace them with safe household cleaners. But what should you look for?
The safest cleaning ingredients are
- Plant-based like castile soap and essential oils
- Mineral-based like borax
- Or edible like vinegar, olive oil, and baking soda.
That’s why there are so many homemade cleaning product recipes online–many can be made with ingredients straight from your pantry!
Want to save yourself the work of making your own cleaners? Plenty of brands have jumped on the eco-friendly cleaning bandwagon and offer safe but effective household cleaning products. Whatever kind of cleaners you need, today there is a variety of healthy options.
Here are some popular brands that sell safe household cleaners:
- Mrs. Meyer’s
- Better Life
- Aunt Fannie’s
- Seventh Generation
- Real Simple
- Method
- Ecos
- Ecover
- Eco Me
- Bon Ami
- Dr. Bronner’s
Safe House Cleaning Made Easy
Switching household cleaners may seem daunting at first, but there are many safe options on the market these days. You just need to know where to look. If you’re cleaning for the health and safety of your family, do not eliminate only the germs and dust that sneak into your home but also the poisonous chemicals hiding in your cleaning supplies.
Want to make green cleaning even easier? Hire a cleaning company that cares. Clean My Space CT provides Connecticut families a safe living environment with quality, safe house cleaning services. We use our own green cleaning supplies, so you don’t have to worry about having the right thing on hand.
Own a business? We offer commercial cleaning services too! Your employees and visitors deserve a sanitary, chemical-free work environment. We use safe cleaning methods to give your office a professional look and atmosphere.
Clean My Space CT cares about the health of our clients and their communities. We even donate free cleaning hours to cancer patients through the Cleaning for a Reason program.
If you’re looking for a stress-free way to guarantee a healthy living environment for your family, request a free quote today, and let the cleaning experts at Clean My Space CT remove both the grime and chemicals in your home.
