There are many reasons why we clean, our hygiene and that of our living and work spaces being the most obvious of all, but some of the products we have been using as time has moved on have not always been good for our health and well-being. Thankfully the green initiatives of today and the evidence of global pollution have served as a wake-up call for most people out there, so companies have been working on better, more eco-friendly solutions to deal with cleaning. Such an approach stays away from harsh chemicals and tries its best to find a solution that works with green cleaning in mind. The cleaning products of today offer a lot of opportunities to deal with it, so you would do well to follow that example as well. Why? Well the reasons are quite simple – there are many health benefits to using such an approach instead of dealing with cleaning in the most traditional way and making your home a potentially toxic environment by using too many toxins in the common cleaners.
Whether we deal with cleaning or someone else does it for us is unimportant, the fact remains that this is one activity that stays as a constant in our daily lives. Every week we must do our best to have a clean home or we will choke on dead air and foul water. There are always dust mites in abandoned environments and worse, dander and dust all over the place so you would do well to clean often to make sure this never happens. The best way to avoid the allergies you may flare up is to ensure you work with green cleaning materials.
There are many cleaning products that may easily be respiratory irritants, since most of them have aerosols or contain harsher chemicals that could easily become a problem. Sometimes chemical reactions between certain types of cleaners can even become dangerous, so you would do well to consider using non-toxic alternatives instead. Avoid ammonia, bleach and aerosol canisters as much as possible. In the end green cleaning will result in a healthier home, purer environment, use of safer cleaning products and better air quality for all involved.
The examples ahead will give you more information you can use to do house cleaning the green way:
- You can deal with window cleaning in a relatively simple way by combining water and distilled white vinegar into a useful mixture. This should allow you to clean your windows without the usual petroleum-based window cleaners. You can also do the same thing with some rubbing alcohol or even witch hazel, easily allowing you to break down any smudges from fingerprints and other problem spots on your glass surfaces. You can use washing leather if you have one to polish the windows or alternately a really good squeegee when you clean.
- Another excellent way of cleaning is to use lemon juice and olive oil to polish and clean your furniture, staying away from the more commonly used petroleum products. Using this combination will easily allow you to not only clean and break down any hard spots on the surface of the furniture, but you will also have a chance to buff them to a shine. The pleasant, fresh scent of lemon when you’re done cleaning will only come as a bonus in the end.
- Cleaning metal usually takes a good bit of effort and we often use acids that happen to be a problem since their vapors can become really unpleasant at best due to their toxicity. You could instead move on from using them by using something non-toxic and eco-friendly instead. Make a mixture of flour, salt and vinegar and you can use this to clean most metals safely without any stronger acids involved in cleaning. Making a paste of these is pretty easy and you won’t have to worry about storage as you would with the acids used in traditional cleaners. Use a soft cloth and cover the area you need to clean. Allow it to dry off and then use said soft cloth to buff the area vigorously for optimal results. You can also do some good on copper and brass surfaces if you use a sliced piece of lemon, using its weaker acidity to remove patina and all without harsh chemical vapors and opening windows every time you want to clean your metal surfaces.
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