Green Household Cleaners: Clean Homes Naturally

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Use this not that!
Use this not that!
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The indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals in commercial cleaning products has negative effects on both our personal health and the health of the environment.
The indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals in commercial cleaning products has negative effects on both our personal health and the health of the environment.

When I decided to stop using harsh chemical cleaning products in my house and to find environmentally safe alternatives, I didn’t have to look far. I just called my mother. People who have been cleaning since before synthetic formulas became widely available (after World War II) know what works.

My town’s library proved to be a big help too: An entire section is devoted to household hints and advice, much of it from before the ’50s ushered in “better living through modern chemistry.”

But I also knew that many of the old-time cleaning recipes I’d found were never intended for use with today’s synthetic materials and household appliances. Over the past 50 years we’ve opened our homes to the likes of polyester, Formica, vinyl and myriad other forms of plastic, and we’ve enlisted the aid of dishwashers and automatic washing machines and dryers.

So, with help from my mother, the library, various environmental groups and some recent, ecologically conscious household-hints books, I experimented. I adapted. I experimented some more. And eventually I came up with my own arsenal of formulas for modern-day green household cleaners.

Seven Natural Cleaning Essentials

  • Published on Apr 2, 2021
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