We are bombarded with ideas, guidelines and instructions to make our lives Greener and reduce our Carbon Footprint. But should we be making our Cleaning Eco Friendly, and if so, why?

Green Cleaners Use Fewer Resources

It makes no difference whether you are a believer in climate change or not. There is simply no denying that the fact that there are far too many souls on our little planet to allow all of us to use resources at the rate the developed world has been doing so for the last fifty years. Now, we are used to having certain things, and using certain products it is difficult to give them all up. The realm of housework and domestic cleaning is something that has come a long way over the last century. I doubt there are many who would be happy to revert back to the days when looking after the home was a full time job, not just for the wife of the family, but also her daughters or staff. But, all that being said there is still plenty that could be done, if not to eradicate our impact on the planet, then certainly to reduce it.

Switch to Safer Greener Cleaners

Turning to Eco Friendly Cleaning Products and Methods is just one part of reducing the load our family is on the environment. But, there is a more immediate gain too. Many conventional cleaners are full of allergens, poisons and toxic chemicals. These are all problematic to store and dangerous to use. Read the instructions on any conventional cleaning product and you will see how we should use them in well ventilated rooms, not in conjunction with anything else, and avoid breathing in the fumes. This is all much easier said than done, particularly for the busy house husband or wife. Most accidental poisonings affecting American children are related to chemical cleaning products. In addition, many scientists now blame the surge in cases of childhood asthma, allergies and other respiratory problems on the chemical cocktail in the average home. Even if you are not trying to save the planet, switching to less toxic cleaners is a great way to help save your kids.

Now of course, the average Eco Friendly Cleaning Product is unlikely to be suitable for human consumption. But, the key thing is overall they give off fewer dangerous fumes and contain less toxic chemicals. Still reading the labels is a must. Simple things such as citrus extracts are often used in both green and conventional cleaning products. They cut through grease and give a wonderful perfume. But, be warned many of us are allergic to these citrus oils, so even though they are natural and obviously less dangerous than a bottle of bleach, they can still be a concern.

Avoiding Petrochemicals with Green Cleaning Products

In addition many are composed of petrochemicals. While I know not many of us wish to give up our cars just yet, using less oil is something we all need to try before it is too late. It is not just that oil is hugely polluting as both an industry and in itself, there simply is not enough of it to go around. Pretty soon we really will need to prioritize its use, and surely an oil based detergent is a whole lot less important than keeping emergency vehicles running?

Detergents are often the cause of many sensitivities and allergies to things such as laundry products. Switching to palm oil derived detergents or better still natural vegetable oil based soaps is far kinder to your skin and the environment.

So Why Make Cleaning Eco Friendly?

We should all make Cleaning Eco Friendly because it is one small thing we are all capable of achieving. Our household cleaners account for a huge volume of the pollutants our family is responsible for. Change those and we change a big part of our problematic behavior. Moving to less toxic products keeps ourselves and our families safer too. Avoiding petrochemicals is something we simply must do whenever possible as there are so many alternatives that are not finite resources.

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1. Eco Friendly Cleaning
2. Make Cleaning Eco Friendly
3. Make Cleaning Eco Friendly – The Dark Green Approach
4. So Many Different Green Cleaning Products
5. June’s Eco Friendly Cleaning Tips

Old fashioned cleaning products are often the cause of allergies and reactions, making them unpleasant to use.  Fine spray products such as window and glass cleaners are particularly problematic as they form such a fine mist it gets just about everywhere.  Breathing in something designed to dissolve grease is far from ideal, but who honestly can say they take all the necessary precautions to ensure they do not succumb to such obvious hazards.  Let’s be honest not many of us clean  the bathroom in a face mask and breathing apparatus, though if we use traditional cleaning products we probably should.

Using Green Cleaning Products helps enormously as they tend to be not just kinder to the environment, but kinder to us too.  This is not too say they are completely benign, but, on the whole green cleaners are a whole lot safer to be around than their ‘non green’ equivalent.

All Natural Green Cleaners are generally far less toxic to breath, and less likely to cause reactions if spilt on the skin.  Though we should still be careful with storage and use, that spillages are kept to a minimum and all cleaning products are safely out of reach of both children and pets, we can feel much safer in the knowledge that using the greener cleaner keeps the home a much healthier and less hazardous place to be.

Green Cleaning Products should still be treated with respect and used with care of course.  The key way to make your Cleaning Eco Friendly is to use less of whatever cleaners you choose, and even the greenest cleaner is far from beneficial to the environment.  Using less resources in our day to day lives is key to helping the planet keep us all thriving for as long as possible.  Every little bit helps and that includes using a little less ‘product’ and a little more elbow grease!

Related posts:

1. Green Cleaning Products – Better for You and the Earth
2. Eco Cleaning Products
3. Why Make Cleaning Eco Friendly?

Now as you would expect they really do have a wealth of knowledge over there on all things green and Eco-friendly.  However, it is not the easiest site to navigate, but every so often I find something incredibly useful there.  This is one of those things:

Eco-Cleaners – Environmental Attributes to Look For

• Minimizes exposure to concentrates
• No ozone depleting substances
• Recyclable packaging
• Recycled-content in packging
• Reduced bioconcentration factor
• Reduced flammability
• Reduced or no added dyes, except when added for safety purposes
• Reduced or no added fragrances
• Reduced or no skin irritants
• Reduced or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Reduced packaging

Now, the spelling mistakes are all theirs (for once).  But I thought the list a really useful one when considering purchasing Eco cleaning products or anything else at all really.  A simple list to make cleaning Eco friendly and hopefully one to use when buying other household items too.

If you feel like navigating your way around their site click here.  They do have product lists and so on, but as far as I could find a lot of the information was out of date or contained broken links.  However it is a good place to start looking for information (nearly as good as here!).

So if trying to make cleaning Eco friendly make sure you consider the points listed above.  Thanks to the EPA for sharing their information on how to chose a Safe Cleaner.

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