Homemade window cleaner --- What are the most effective, environmentally friendly cleaning products?
Our home is a place for rest and for sharing precious time with our loved ones. It can be quite surprising to know that this home where we are supposed to be safe can also be one of the most toxic places due to products we use everyday.
By using a lot of chemical products, our homes have literally become a toxic waste dump. The cleaning products we normally use at home contain harmful ingredients like:
- Neurotoxins that poison the brain and nervous system
- Carcinogens that cause or aggravate cancer
- Teratogens that interfere with fetal development
- Endocrine disrupters that interfere with our body’s hormonal and reproductive system
- Mutagens, that are also typically carcinogens, and cause permanent genetic change in a cell
These chemicals also make their way to the environment when they are flushed down the toilet, poured down on sinks, sprayed into the air, or thrown into the trash. They cause harm to plant and animal life and contribute to pollution of groundwater, contamination of the soil, and depletion of the ozone layer.
Homemade or natural cleaning products can be used, instead, as an inexpensive, effective, and environmentally friendly way to keep our babies, pets, and loved ones safe, while also protecting the environment. If you are interested on how you can clean and be green, read on…
Homemade window cleaner and other homemade substitutes
A lot of the traditional home cleaning products are very effective, safe, and inexpensive. There are many resources in the Internet and in books where you will find homemade recipes to solve a lot of your household cleaning needs such as Papa’s homemade window cleaner recipe of white vinegar and water, wiped to windows using old newspapers.
Here is a list of common, green cleaning products that can be used alone or in combination for a wealth of effective and environmentally friendly household applications.
- Baking Soda - cleans, deodorizes, softens water, scours.
- Lemon - one of the strongest food-acids, effective against most household bacteria.
- Borax - (sodium borate) cleans, deodorizes, disinfects, softens water, cleans wallpaper, painted walls and floors.
- White Vinegar - cuts grease, removes mildew, odors, some stains and wax build-up.
- Cornstarch - can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs.
Messy Bessy: I clean. I green. I educate.
Other homemade window cleaner solutions are available over the Internet and we can also buy available nontoxic and biodegradable cleaners sold commercially.
A growing number of commercial non-toxic home cleaning products are also becoming available here in the Philippines, and my favorite has been Messy Bessy’s line of cleaning products.
Messy Bessy is a line of worry-free household cleaning products made with safe, non-toxic, all natural, biodegradable ingredients that are good for your health and for the planet.
For example, their Squeaky Clean Window Cleaner is made only of natural ingredients like lemon essential oil, tea tree essential oil, distilled white vinegar (sugar cane, water), extra virgin coconut oil, olive oil, anti-oxidants, and water.
Messy Bessy works closely with experts to ensure that all products remove dirt and kill bacteria without leaving toxic fumes and chemical residues. I myself use their products at home, and boy, do they clean!!!
Their environmental responsibility goes beyond their products. They make sure that every step of the business is done with a “green mind” like choosing labor over machinery, recycling their waste, pricing the product line to encourage refills, and choosing sustainable packaging.
What’s more interesting about this business is that they do not only clean and green. The business was put up by Krie Lopez in November 2007 in order to educate, train, and employ young adults and the disadvantaged youth of Manila through development programs that the business funds.
By using Messy Bessy products, I clean, I green, I educate!
Start having your natural household cleaning kit by using the ingredients I mentioned earlier or checking out Messy Bessy products. For cheaper, safer, and more nontoxic cleaning recipes, environmentalist Karen Logan's "Clean House Clean Planet" offers a lot of good recipes to help clean your home while keeping your loved ones and our environment safe.
By using natural cleaning products. we can all clean, green, and even educate! Doing good can all start through ways as simple and inexpensive as a homemade window cleaner.
References:
http://www.messybessy. com/index.html
