In the past, keeping your home clean typically revolved around noxious chemicals that not only scoured, they also made toxic everything they touched. Today's eco-homes no longer kill germs at the expense of our health. It's never been easier to be both clean and green. To help you get started, we cleaned up at Planet Green's "How to Go Green: Cleaning."
Top Tips for Greening Your Cleaning
Go Old School: Call it "sodium bicarbonate" or "sodium hydrogen carbonate," but for most of us, it's good old baking soda. With more applications than can be listed here, baking soda has re-emerged?in this era of green solutions?as a cleaning staple.
Even Flow: We now take for granted the need to filter and/or purify our air. That's where an eco-friendly air filter comes in handy.
Shoeless: If you were to contemplate what might be on your shoes—human and animal waste, toxic chemicals, etc.—you wouldn't even consider wearing them in your house (or anyone's house). Plus, less shoe-related dirt also means less sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming, which means less work, water, energy, and fewer chemicals. Win-win, as they say.
Did You Know?
- The number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home is 63
- According to US EPA estimates, indoor air pollution levels can be 100 times higher than outdoor air pollution levels
- The institutional cleaning industry uses 5 billion pounds of chemicals each year
For more on Cleaning Tips check out Planet Green's Guide, How to Go Green: Cleaning. For more on Going Green, check out the Planet Green How to Go Green Archives.
