A Clean Home is a Happy Home.
We not only have to keep up with our homes to maintain their cleanliness, but a clean home is beneficial for our soul, mental and emotional well-being as well as keeping us from getting sick. Creating healthy habits in maintaining a clean home truly brings out the best in everyone. People are less stressed, there’s less to worry about and you don’t feel bogged down by a cluttered environment that could create a cluttered mind and cause an overwhelming situation. I know, because I’ve let it happen more than i’m willing to admit (I’m human) ,but I have found cleaning as I go is much easier to maintain a cleaner home.
Whatever our cleaning style is, it’s concerning by how dirty our house cleaning products are. Sure, we use them to clean surfaces, and sure, they absolutely do the job, but what happens to our health while we breathe them in or somehow get them on our skin? Common cleaning ingredients can be laced with carcinogenic impurity 1,4-dioxane. Independent tests have detected the presence of 1,4-dioxane in numerous name-brand cleaning supplies. Other products contain preservatives that release low levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde. I’ll be the first person to tell you that clean grout is VERY SATISFYING, but how satisfying is it if I’m using something that can harm me down the road?
The good news is, is that you can achieve a clean home with simple non-toxic ingredients without having to sacrifice great results.
Here’s a list of what I use around the house
Glass cleaner: In a spray bottle, combine a 1/4 cup white vinegar with a 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap. Dilute the solution with two cups of water, then shake the bottle vigorously to mix the components.
Wood Polish: 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1.5 cup of water, and 8 drops of lemon essential oil
Whitener/Grout Cleaner/ Sink Cleaner: Baking Soda and Lemon Juice or Baking Soda and Vinegar. Depending on what you are cleaning, the amount of baking soda will vary - to get rid of sink scratches, I find half a cup of baking soda will do - add enough lemon juice or vinegar to create a paste and apply the paste to the scratches and leave on for about 10-15 minutes. Once time is up, take a toothbrush and scrub the scratch marks (you’ll have to use some elbow grease) and they will start to disappear. Rinse the sink with hot water.
Here are a couple of options for a sink cleaner:
https://www.forceofnatureclean.com/
Toilet: Once again, Water and Vinegar. Vinegar is like coconut oil where there are multiple uses for it! You can also use https://www.forceofnatureclean.com/ for your toilet.
Kitchen / Bathroom Floor: An easy non-toxic way that I clean the kitchen and bathroom floor is using this steam cleaner - https://www.mccullochsteam.com/shop/steam-cleaners/mc1385-deluxe-canister-steam-cleaner - it’s life-changing and sure easy to use. All you need is to fill it with water and let it heat up. Once water is heated up and hot, you press a button on the handle to release the steam and mop as you normally would. It makes it super easy to clean.
I understand that this steamer is a little expensive, but this is truly an investment. If we don’t want to buy this steamer right now or even at all, spraying simple hot water mixed with vinegar on the kitchen floor and using a rag to clean is also fine. Depending on the floor you have, I would recommend checking to make sure your kitchen floor can handle vinegar/water (which it should, but never hurts to double-check).
If there are any questions or anything you think I should add, let me know!
Stay healthy!
-N