Natural Cleaning Products, Supplies, & Tips

The Power of Concentrated Natural Cleaning Products

2008-06-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Why are concentrated natural cleaning products powerful? By concentrated cleaning product, I mean a cleaning product where you add the water yourself. This is HUGE. Concentrated products reduce shipping costs because there is less to transport. They save on packaging because one bottle of a concentrated cleaner can replace thousands of bottles of Windex, for example.

Think about it: just by choosing a concentrated natural cleaning products, you can save on carbon emissions, shipping, and packaging. You can prevent thousands of spray bottles from going to the landfill.

Let's go green, clean our homes with nontoxic products, and help our planet!

How safe are green cleaning products?

2008-05-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

The new green cleaning products you bought from the store may not be as safe for you and your family as you thought they were. The market is largely unregulated, and just because the ingredients are labeled as plant-based or natural doesn't necessarily mean they are safe.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-green28apr28,0,4434710.story

Cleaning Products Can Harm Your Children

2008-01-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

Wheezing in young children and the development of asthma may be linked to cleaning product exposure while in the womb.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/jan/8/cleaning_products.htm

I think it's vitally important that you use natural cleaning products, particularly if you're pregnant . Why use products can that potentially affect the development of your child in a negative way?

Washing Your Hair May be Dangerous to Your Health

2007-08-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

When you shampoo, do you ask yourself how it may be affecting your nerves? Some shampoo products contain methylisothiazolinone (MIT - that's much easier to pronounce), which has been shown to restrict growth of axons and dendrites in rat nerve cells. Whether MIT is harmful to humans in the amounts found in household shampoo products is another story. But why take the risk? Do you think there's something hairy about that?

Hazard warning on home cleaners / Study says many use chemicals linked to fertility problems

2007-07-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article stating that some household cleaning products contain ethylene glycol butyl ether or EGBE. This chemical has been linked to reproductive problems, nose and eye irritation, headaches, and vomitting.

If you're using a household cleaning product, it's hard to tell whether your product has EGBE in it because manufacturers aren't required to list it.

If you want to be safe, go with a natural cleaning product.

How Toxic is Your Average Laundry Detergent?

2007-07-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

Here's what you typically get from your average laundry detergent from the grocery store:

petroleum distillates
phenols
artificial fragrances
phosphates
optical brighteners

Find out more about these ingredients at:
http://www.violatedrights.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=628&Itemid=2

Sweep, Scrub, Scrape, Rinse

2007-07-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Cleaning the kitchen floor doesn't have to be hard. Here's an easy four step plan to clean your kitchen floor. I call it sweep, scrub, scrape, rinse - a very not original name.

1. Sweep - using a broom, sweep away the loose dirt, food droppings, dust, etc.
2. Scrub - scrub the floor with your natural cleaning product
3. Scrape - scrape away the dirty water/cleaner you've left behind
4. Rinse - go over the floor with a final rinse of clean water

While you're cleaning the kitchen floor, you may want to turn on all available lights so that you can see the floor better.

You may think of just doing the floor in one go. If you do that, you'll just move the dirt around instead of cleaning the kitchen floor.

Why are natural house cleaning products good for the environment?

2007-07-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

How are natural house cleaning products are good for the environment?

1. They are biodegradable - Natural cleaning products can be broken down by living organisms. They become a useful addition to the environment instead of building up and becoming waste.

2. They are nontoxic - Some household cleaning products need to be disposed of in a special manner because they are actually toxic and can harm other living organisms. On the other hand, natural cleaning products are made from substances that don't harm the environment.

3. They reduce waste and pollution - If the natural cleaning products are concentrated, then they help the environment by reducing packaging waste. Since concentrates require less transportation, they help reduce carbon dioxide emissions as well.

Steel Hard Substance Scoured Away

2007-07-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

I don't own a house but am renting a room in a house with a shared kitchen. When I was taking some vegetables out of the bottom tray of the fridge, I noticed something. It was a large black stain on the bottom of the fridge.

The fridge is white, so the stain was more than noticeable. It was probably some sauce or marinade (or some strange concoction of liquids). Whatever it was, it was hard and tough.

Regular dish soap had no chance of fighting this steel-hard substance. I decided to give this natural scouring cleanser a go (I currently have the discontinued version as there is a new brand). It smelled great and I didn't need to use gloves.

I simply used my fingers, put some of the natural scouring cleanser on a rag, and wet the rag. I then started rubbing the stubborn stain with the rag. Almost as if by magic, the stain started softening and turning liquid-like. I kept rubbing and eliminated all of it (or at least 99%).

Some people worry that natural cleaning products aren't as effective, but clearly this natural scouring cleanser shows that they can be just as effective (if not more effective) than traditional cleaning products.

What's In Those Household Cleaning Products?

2007-07-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Have you actually wondered about what's in some of those household cleaning products you may be using? You could be risking the health of yourself and your family by having certain toxic chemical-laden cleaning products in your home instead of natural cleaning products and supplies. To find out what's actually in a specific product, check out this household products database.

Here's an example of what you can find in the database. This came from a pot and pan detergent.

Health Hazards (Acute and Chronic):

Ingestion: Ingestion may cause transient gastrointestinal irritation.
Eye Contact: May cause mild, transient irritation.
Skin: Transient irritation with prolonged exposure to concentrated material.

Signs and Symptoms of Exposure:
Ingestion: May result in nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.
Eye Contact: May cause stinging, tearing, vomiting, and/or diarrhea.
Skin: Prolonged contact with concentrated material may be drying or transiently irritating to the skin.

Would you want to risk throwing up, running to the washroom, or irritating your skin? Here's another thought for you: this product is meant to be used on pots and pans, which are used to cook your foods! What if you used this pot and pan detergent on your pot and left some residue behind?