How to ‘green’ your cleaning
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For day 23 of our carbon fast it was time to check our household cleaning and beauty supplies.
The suggestion reads “Reduce your use of household cleaning products, soaps, shampoos, hair care products and other items which contain chemicals. Replace them with products which are biodegradable. Carcinogenic chemicals in deodorants, soaps, shampoos, and body sprays persist in the environment, build up in the food chain and return to haunt us long after they’ve gone down the drain.”
Well honestly, this subject is a BOOK to me, not a blog post. Where to start?
I started taking note of the chemicals I was using both in my home and on my body when I was pregnant because I was determined to have an organic, free range baby!
I wanted a home water birth, no medical intervention and I figured the best way to achieve that was to get myself as healthy as possible. This meant not only being aware of what I ate and drank, but of the chemicals that I was ingesting in other ways.
We can’t control the environment at large, but we can pay attention to what we bring into our homes and welcome into our body.[amazon-product align=”right” small=”1″]1847734588[/amazon-product]
According to the EPA, air pollution can be up to 5 times more INSIDE our homes than outside on a busy street.
Stop and read that again, because I want you to be shocked…
If you are shocked then it’s time to do a ‘green’ spring clean, right?
To clean your home I promise all you need is bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), white vinegar and a bottle of your favourite essential oil (Lavender is good – it’s anti bacterial and smells wonderful).
To clean your body, take a step back from the advertising campaigns and the sexy air brushed girls and ask yourself what you really need. Do you need shower gel, body lotions, antiperspirant, perfume and goodness knows what else? No you don’t. Take a look at nature and all the beautifully groomed animals out there…
I’m not suggesting you start licking yourself clean, but it makes you wonder how much stuff we need, right? I had a go myself, by using clay to wash my hair and skin – if it’s good enough for a hippo, right?!
How many of you get itchy skin, headaches, sore throats, watery eyes or have sneezing fits after cleaning or bathing? MAYBE your body is trying to tell you something about the products you are using…
What about you? What step could you take to ‘green’ your household or personal cleaning routine today?
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Fabulous post…it is alarming to see how many dangerous chemicals are in our everyday household products. So glad to be linked with you in our comment group. I’m going to learn a lot I’m sure!! We’re looking into getting solar panels at the moment…trying to do our bit for the planet!!
I’m a big fan of bicarb and vinegar (and E-cloths) but you’ve made me realise that I’m a bit of a shower gel addict. Hmmm. That’s definitely something for me to work on! Great post.
Firstly, can I just say YAY for homebirth 🙂
We are very careful with what we use to clean our children and they both have excellent skin thanks to a bath, no soap, no moisturisers, talcs etc, just the occasional bit of almond oil for baby massage.
Over here at the moment there is a growing movement of mothers turning back to bicarb, vinegar and lemon juice for cleaning. It was mainly started by a book called “My Year of Living Like my Grandmother” by Wendyl Nissen (… don’t know if you can get it in the UK). I haven’t read it yet, but from what I can tell it is very well written and has lots of great tips and cleaning recipes.
Chemicals used in home cleaning products proved to have high impact on our environment and our health as well should be banned. There are a lot of alternate resources that we can use to clean our homes, in which are safer to use and have little or no impact at all on the environment and human health. We should be watchful on what products to use and not to use. It is not only for the sake of Mother Earth, the people today… but also for the sake of the future generations.
@Inside the Wendy House: How exciting to be considering solar panels! I hope that goes well for you and maybe you could post about it; I’d love to read about it…
@Preseli Mags: Glad it was useful Mags – aren’t E-cloths great!
@tartankiwi: Sounds like a wonderful book; thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be sure to check that one out if I can get hold of a copy!