Good morning, I sure hope your day is off to a great start. Today I plan on sharing about Green Cleaning and why we all should be finding out more about it. With all we do in a day now days the last thing we want to worry about is what type of toxic chemicals we use in our homes.
We are all guilty of just picking up a cleaner, like the smell and take it home to clean everything with. Next time you go to the grocery store take two minutes and read what is in the ingredients of the cleaner you are planning on buying. I did, most of the words I had no idea how to pronounce or let alone knew what it was!
Why should I care about Green Cleaning?
Why I Green Clean Now
I was working full-time outside the house and also working part-time at another job this was in early 2003. Someone had spilled something on the carpet and I cleaned it with water and a little dish soap. I made a note to pick up carpet cleaner at a local store so I could clean the carpet with the shampooer. I came home and started cleaning the carpet and I started itching between my fingers! Then I started breaking out in hives. Well with in 15 minutes I was in serious condition with my throat swelling shut. I called a friend and they were able to get hold of my family to come take me to the hospital. At the hospital I had a lot of test run and they gave me a lot of medicine to stop the swelling and hives. I looked horrible!
After a lot of allergy testing and months later they were able to find out I was seriously allergic to most chemicals found on your grocery shelf to clean things with. I had to change the way I do things or risk more allergic reactions. The doctors told my husband and I that the reactions will get worse with every allergic reaction I would have. Just the simple act of cleaning the counter and getting the cleaner on my hands and putting my hand near my mouth, just to swipe away my hair out of my face could potentially send me to the emergency room. That was scary!
We Had to Educate Ourselves
The first thing we did was git rid of everything we had that was a chemical. Every cleaner had to go! I started using vinegar to clean with. I was able to still use a few brands of dish soap but I put vinegar in my dish water to kill the germs. I have always used vinegar in my dishwater it just works.
Several months later I had another reaction, I bought some corn at the farmers market and fixed it for dinner, I again broke out in hives and started itching! This is when they found out I was allergic to glyphosates. Well this changed everything. I now had to check every type of produce I ate, eating out became hard due to most restaurants don’t use organic produce. Our family had to eat organic. We started a garden and loved gardening it was a lot of fun and we were able to eat the fruits of our labor. This is my family’s story of why we are an organic house hold.
Studies show that using a common house hold cleaner (you take your pick) used just once a week raise the risk of a child developing asthma. With every cleaner you use you release harmful chemicals into your home environment and chemicals last a very long time, you may not smell it any more but it is still there. When you use a cleaner to clean your floor, a sink scrub, an oven cleaner, then a antibacterial kitchen spray to clean all the germs from your cabinets and appliances you have released multiple chemicals into your home and into the air in your home. What are they doing to you and your children?
There Are Great Green Cleaners You Can Use
Today there are a lot of companies that try to create cleaners that are safe for you and your home. Here are a few examples of the ones I personally have used. Mrs. Myers, and Method Both these cleaners work very well. When you compare them to other cleaners that clean as well as they do they are in the same price range it really doesn’t cost more to clean with Green Cleaners.
I now make and use my own cleaners, hand soap and dish soaps. I make my own laundry soap and love the way it cleans my laundry. I used Mrs. Myers Laundry for a very long time and loved it. I still use it for delicate items and things I hand wash. The fabric softener is excellent! I also use dryer wool balls with essential oils on them for drying my clothes, this is one of my favorite essential oil blends for the dryer balls.
More Post to Come all about Green Cleaning and How to get started
I will have two more post coming soon on how to start green cleaning and a post with my favorite home-made recipes for cleaning things in my house.
My Favorite Dusting Spray
Here is a link to my Dusting Spray. It works so well and it actually repels dust so you don’t dust as often. I have wood floors in every room of my house, even the kitchen and I dampen my mop and spray this on the floor and mop as usual and my floors just shine. I personally love mopping now because I love the peppermint smell through the house. I will share more of my recipes in another post next week so be sure to check back and get your recipes.
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