Alternative Household Cleaning Products

I feel I have always been health conscious, especially when it comes to my boys. After having our second child I even went to the extent of making all of baby K’s food organically. For two reasons 1) It was less expensive & 2) I knew everything that went into it. The second reason being the biggest driver. However, I can’t say I put the same effort into understanding the ingredients used to make the cleaning products I used to clean our home.

Last year, I remember my husband deep cleaning the kitchen with 409 and the fumes were so potent that I literally took the boys upstairs and told my husband to stop spraying it. I’ve had that same reaction when cleaning the bathroom. I think that if you need to leave the room after spraying something because it is affecting your breathing, that you should probably not be using it, especially in enclosed spaces.

One night this past December I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs and turned on Netflix. I browsed through the documentaries and saw one that caught my eye, “The Human Experiment”. It was about harmful chemicals in the household cleaning products we use everyday: window cleaner, all purpose cleaner, laundry detergent, bleach, disinfectant spray, dish soap. The list goes on.

It was scary watching how chemicals used to make household cleaning products have and can effect people. It’s more scary that the United States does not have strict laws put into place regarding the making of these household products. After watching it, I made a decision to stop purchasing the mainstream store bought cleaning products. Since I will still need something to clean my house, I started researching on how to make my own or use more eco-friendly brands that didn’t have all the harmful chemicals.

I mean, have you ever attempted to read the ingredients in your household cleaning products??? Most of the words you cannot pronounce, and if you can, chances are you have no idea what they are. So after researching and finding DIY all natural alternatives I started the journey of only using more natural & eco-friendly cleaning products that I was ok with and ok using with my boys in the house.

I am a visual person, so I snapped a photo of the products I was previously using and the products I replaced them with. See below.

All Purpose Cleaner

I randomly stumbled across the Meyer’s brand at Target when I was picking up some more Honest dish soap for baby K’s sippy cups. The multi-surface cleaner was next to the Honest products, so I picked it up and read the label. After reading it, I was sold. Mainly because I understood the list of ingredients used to make the product. I also loved that the label pointed out the harmful chemicals that were NOT included. It was refreshing.

Side note, I am LOVING the lemon verbena scent! It smells so fresh!

Dishwasher pellets

Dish Soap

Room Freshner/Disinfectant Spray

Hand Soap

Bathroom Cleaner

Window Cleaner

The window cleaner I was using states on the front label that it has ammonia in it. 😳 Needless to say, that was the first to go.

So I found a glass cleaner recipe on Pinterest and made my own. It was super simple. I purchased the spray bottle at The Container Store and used a blank label I already had on hand.

In all my research I found that vinegar was a commonly used alternative. It is a wonderful alternative component to making household cleaning products, but my husband hates the smell, so I used essential oils to mask the smell of the window cleaner. Worked like a charm! I used Tea Tree oil from Trader Joe’s for the window cleaner, but also found a couple other oils from Whole Foods that I will be experimenting with for other cleaning supplies I plan to attempt.

Now that you have read all this, you’re probably wondering “do they really work?” Well, I have used all of these alternative products and in my opinion they clean just as well as the typical mainstream products I was using. Bonus, they don’t make me want to leave the room after using! My rule of thumb if I can’t pronounce the ingredients or don’t know what they are then I don’t buy it.

I am still working on my DIY laundry detergent and will post it separately when I’m done, but I am so excited that I started this journey. I feel better knowing that I am not subjecting my boys to all the harmful chemicals.

Well that’s it for this post friends. Thank you so much for stopping by. I put a lot of time and effort into this post and hope you enjoyed it and find some inspiration from it. Have a great day. Until next time. Xoxo