Baking soda
Spring is also the time of year to open all the windows and doors and get some fresh air into your house. Baking soda makes an excellent scrub when used with water or lemon concoctions, and it also absorbs smells instead of just masking odour. Keep a box of baking soda in fridges, shoes, closets and any place you store garbage.
Instead of using caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) to unclog drains, use baking soda to prevent your drains from clogging. The salts produced by caustic soda, says Ha, "are harmful to our freshwater ecosystem. It's much better environmentally to prevent drains from becoming clogged in the first place. Once a week put 1/4 cup of baking soda down the drain followed by 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Allow the two to fizz for a couple of minutes, and then flush with a few litres of hot water."
Vinegar
While vinegar may not smell so appealing in powerful doses, it can dissolve grease and disinfect hard surfaces of your home. Plus, the smell goes away when it dries. Fill a spray bottle with half water and half vinegar to create a tough cleaning product. Always dilute vinegar because it can be too harsh on some surfaces when used on its own.
Chemicals in your cleaners
Besides saving money and the environment by using natural cleaning products, there are also many health benefits. Three of the most common chemicals used in household cleaners are: formaldehyde, ammonia and chlorine.
Formaldehyde is used in many cleaners, paints, and waxes, says Amilya Antonetti, author of Why David Hated Tuesdays, and it continually releases toxic vapors into the air. This can lead to headaches, dizziness, and insomnia. A natural way to eliminate these vapours in your home is by getting an aloe vera or golden pathos plant, which will absorb the toxins, she says.
Ammonia is also found in many cleaners, and it can be extremely irritating. Inhaling it can cause headaches and nausea and burn the inside of your lungs, causing asthma, Antonetti warns. You must be cautious when cleaning with ammonia-based products not to mix them with a bleach-based product, because the combination creates mustard gas (first used in World War I), which can be fatal in high doses.
However, one of the most dangerous chemicals (often found in bleach) is chlorine. This chemical has been linked to cancer, miscarriages and birth defects, says Antonetti. It was also one of the main ingredients in Agent Orange, used to defoliate forests during the Vietnam War.
Partly due to the many household chemicals being used to clean the home, the Environmental Protection Agency says that the quality of indoor air is often worse than outdoor air. There are many indoor plants you can buy that help absorb toxins, such as the spider plant, which absorbs carbon monoxide.
So, load up on baking soda, lemons, and vinegar in bulk on your next trip to the grocery store and spring-clean your way to an environmentally friendly home.
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