Could your favorite cleaning products be damaging your home and your health?
With so many marketing promises and misleading labels, finding the best cleaning products to use for your home and health is complex. Your home should be a safe place from the moment you enter. However, what cleaning products you use from the windows to the dishes and floors could be the silent enemy destroying your health.
From home to mortgage life insurance there are already so many things a homeowner has to worry about, and what you use to clean your home shouldn't add to that list. Before sacrificing your health for polish and shine, consider changing up your cleaning routine.
What are the potential health risks associated with using cleaning products?
The need to clean provides not only safety from germs and clutter but mental clarity. Having a clean and organized home is often a foundational step to creating a happy, healthy life.
However, you may want to think twice before taking a deep commercial-like sniff of your freshly cleaned home. Although many cleaning product companies have taken Go Green initiatives to avoid harming the environment, even cleaning products advertised as "natural" can harm your health.
Without reading warning labels, the chemicals within everyday cleaning products can cause irritation to the skin, eyes, and throats by breathing them. Not to mention that short-term irritants may also cause long-term health effects such as headaches, nervous system damage, and various forms of cancer.
Symptoms of overexposure to harsh cleaning chemicals can also cause shortness of breath and breathing difficulties, dizziness, nausea, and sinus issues. These symptoms can be warnings of a severe underlying problem or be short-term, but what you use to clean shouldn't jeopardize your physical health.
The Most Harmful Chemicals in Household Products
After checking the price of a household cleaner, did you check for the low volatile organic compounds (VOC) label?
VOCs are a collection of gases that get expelled into the air after using specific products. The most known VOCs are benzene, formaldehyde, and toluene, but these ingredients and others aren't always easy to spot when shopping for cleaning products.
Cleaning supplies and household products containing VOCs and other toxic substances can include:
● Air fresheners
● Aerosol sprays
● Chlorine bleach products
● Disinfectant sprays
● Dishwashing liquids and pods
● Dry cleaning chemicals
● Furniture/ upholstery freshener
● Foam bathroom cleaners
● Floor polish
● Laundry detergent
● Rug and stain remover cleaners
● Oven and stove-top cleaners
Keeping anything we touch clean is in prime public focus amid the pandemic, but understanding what qualifies as clean is crucial to our health. Using heavy bleaches and strongly fragranced cleaners could be wreaking havoc on your health.
How to Avoid Using Harmful Cleaners
Just because there are no more crumbs and a space smells nice doesn't mean your home is safe from harmful germs. In fact, the smell of bleach when you enter a space can be extremely misleading.
We often think that without bleach or a promise of disinfectant that our homes fester a dangerous amount of germs. However, most surface bacteria are less harmful to our health than the chemicals within cleaning products.
This doesn't mean you need to stop cleaning. Instead, you need to rethink your idea of what clean is. Removing crumbs, dusting, and maintaining organization are the foundation to keeping a tidy home without exposing yourself to an array of invisible monsters.
A list of ways to change your home hygiene routine to minimize some of the adverse cleaning effects is:
● Keep the use of disinfectant and sanitizing products to high-traffic areas like countertops, doorknobs, faucet, toilet handles, light switches, remotes, and toys.
● Ventilate your home by opening windows, turning on fans and air diffusers while cleaning to reduce your exposure.
● Keep your heating and air conditioning maintenance up to date.
● Never mix bleach or a bleach-containing product with cleaners that contain ammonia.
● Place baking soda throughout your home to absorb smells and harmful chemicals.
● Always wear gloves when using disinfectant or bleach cleaners.
Harsh chemicals and highly acidic cleaning products may not only harm your health but will wear out your grout years faster. This can cause shower leaks, mold, and other home issues that are pricey and take more than a mop to fix.
What are the best cleaning products for your home?
Believe it or not, but the best cleaning products for your home are natural ones.
Self-made cleaners may sound inconvenient or less effective, but only because great advertising has led us to believe that as true. Mixing ingredients to make your own cleaners takes little time and is just as effective a form of home maintenance as using store-bought products.
You can get as spicy as you like with cleaning product alternatives. Many natural ingredients like cinnamon, lemon, patchouli, tea tree, and lemongrass have proven to fight viruses and bacteria as effectively as bleach.
Also, as a safer cleaning alternative, you can add these ingredients to easily made mixtures of warm water and baking soda until it makes a paste whenever your home needs a good scrubbing. Mixtures like this are safer for you to breathe and clean without causing unnecessary damage to grout, tile, countertops, doors, or floors.
A standard homemade mix for cleaning uses a 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide, one teaspoon of dish soap, and essential oils for everyday household use.
This mixture can even be used to help get rid of various kinds of stains from water to pet waste by applying the cleaning mixture and then waiting a few minutes before scrubbing and rinsing away.
What is the safest cleaner to use?
Mixing your own cleaner is a more affordable and easy option, but sometimes you just have a need for grab and go.
When you're shopping for cleaning products, check out the ingredients and claims on the label to ensure the product isn't hiding any ugly features. Look for the "low VOC" labels or sponsors by American Lung, Cancer, or Heart associations for the best shelf choices.
Avoid products that include ammonia, 2-Butoxyethanol, and chlorine as prerequisites to beginning a healthy cleaning routine. For products you can get online or in stores, here is a list of great cleaning product brands to start with include:
● Citru-Kleen
● Clean-Cut
● Earth Force
● Enviro Kleen
● Green Clean
● Love, Home, & Planet
● Planet Green
● TREO
Cleaning your home should be an experience that makes you feel proud, productive, and at ease after finishing. If you're constantly looking away, pinching your nose, or coughing while cleaning, chances are you're using an abundance of products that contain harmful chemicals.
Change your cleaning routine and be around longer to continue sharing your home with family, friends, and pets.
About The Author : Danielle Beck-Hunter writes and researches for the life insurance comparison site, EffortlessInsurance.com. Danielle learned about the adverse health effects of cleaning products while working for a maid service company. After changing the ways she cleans her home, she stopped experiencing symptoms caused by harsh chemicals.
