Although it’s a fact, it’s not very well known that your skin is the largest organ, and it absorbs what you put on it. That means that in addition to the soaps, shampoo, lotions and cosmetics you apply to it, cleaning products that you use to clean your home are also absorbed. Even if you use cleaning gloves, you are still going to breathe the fumes that those products give off, so it’s a really good idea to ‘go green’ when cleaning your home…not only for the environment but also for you and your family’s health.

What I thought would be best to do here is to list off some recommendations for each category…for products you can buy but also some suggestions in products you can put together, yourself, to clean areas of your home, where applicable. There are more options out there…these are just a few.

General Purpose 

Dr Bronners Magic Soaps: The Castile Liquid Soaps are good for not only cleaning your body but also for general cleaning purposes. You can use it as a laundry soap too. But an even better solution is their SAL Suds Cleanser. It cleans even tougher jobs, but remains safe on the skin.

https://www.drbronner.com/

Green Shield Organic All Purpose Cleaner Degreaser: The ingredients are safe and it does a good all around job.Rated highly by the Environmental Working Group.

http://www.greenshieldorganic.com

Alternative: White Vinegar mixed with water and Essential oils in a spray bottle

Abrasives

Bon Ami Powder Cleanser: According to Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning (http://www.ewg.org/), this abrasive has an A+ rating, which makes it very safe to use for jobs that need that extra tough cleansing power. 

Alternative: Baking soda, table salt, or a combination of the two. I have found them both to be very effective. Table salt is stripped of minerals that natural salt has, but it’s fine to use for scrubbing.

Kitchen

See General Purpose Cleaners, above

Bathroom

Seventh Generation Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner: Rated highly by EWG. This company has been making Eco Friendly products for many years.

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/

Green Shield Organic Toilet Bowl Cleaner

http://www.greenshieldorganic.com/

Alternative: I’ve had much success in just using a mixture of a spray bottle of water/essential oils and baking soda and salt in cleaning the toilet bowl, as well as all parts of the bathroom.

For all other surfaces in the bathroom, see General Purpose and Abrasives

Floor

Dr Bronners SAL Suds (for tile and other non carpet areas)

Carpet

Eco Me Carpet Refresher

http://www.eco-me.com/

Simple Green Naturals Carpet Care

http://simplegreen.com/products/naturals-carpet-care/

Alternative: Baking Soda 

Furniture

Lemon Oil or Coconut Oil are great, eco friendly, non toxic furniture polishers

Laundry

Dr Bronners Magic Soaps

Grab Green Laundry Detergent Pods: These are very effective pods to use. 3 in 1, it cleans, removes stains and brightens clothes. Also leaves them lightly scented, but there’s also a fragrance free option.

http://www.grabgreenhome.com/laundry-care/

Dishwashing

Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Detergent Concentrated Pacs

Green Shield Organic Squeez Automatic Dishwasher Liquid Detergent

Eco-Me Dish Soap 

Glass Cleaner

Green Shield Organic Glass Cleaner

Alternative: Vinegar or Rubbing Alcohol, sprayed through a bottle