Quitting Store Bought Chemicals

I grew up in America like most folks. My home was filled with dish washing soap named after a time of day, the classic blue window cleaner,  bleach, washing powders, and everything else you need to clean the house.  We cleaned every Friday night with the chemicals that the cleaning industry has advertised to us over the years. Cleaner, brighter, faster, grease cutting, lemon scented, bubbling, chemicals with unknown ingredients have filled our homes and our lives for many years. They wouldn't advertise if it wasn't safe, right?  Like everyone, my family growing up meant no real harm to ourselves our our planet.

Recently, I had a few questions. Do you ever stop to think about what makes some glass cleaners blue? Or the long term effects of strongly lemon scented wood polish? Who makes it in the factory? What are the affects on our health? And what about all of these aerosol cans?  Is it good for the environment?  If some people are allergic to certain scents, how do they clean their homes in a world were everything seems to be fruit scented? 

 I asked my self these questions when I first embarked on my vegan journey in hopes of finding cleaning products that were not tested on animals. Finding products not tested on animals was a difficult task in itself, but finding products with ingredients I trusted seemed to be impossible. 

What do I mean? 

The American Lung Association, says that many chemicals we use around the house give off dangerous chemicals volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These chemicals are known to adversely affect people with respiratory problems. In some cases, these products may actually cause problems long term! You can do the research yourself, there is a lot out there.  It was even more surprising to me that most "green" products didn't really have set standards. So goodness knows what to do with that. I guess the makers of the products figure a "green" label will attract consumers.

I will admit, I was only buying green cleaning products for a while. After seeing a documentary called Chemerical.  I started researching. Boy, did I research. The more I thought about it, the more I had questions. What are the long term affects of working with these chemicals like for the folks working in the factories? If I can barely tolerate bleach, what on earth is making it a factory like? Are the workers given premium insurance? I run by the policy of having as few store bought chemicals in my home as possible. With a husband who is exposed to the chemicals in MREs, the pollution in Afghanistan, and all the shoots the military loads him up with, I want to keep him free of harmful chemicals as much as possible.

Finally, I asked the right question. How can I stop using the chemicals?  That question came with a little bit of remembering my chemistry class and a lot of reading from other green bloggers. It took a lot of experimentation, tweaking,  patience, and baking soda. All of my recipes are my are my own after a lot of tweaking and giving them my own signature style on each one of them..I'm not promising my recipes will work for you or that they are the best you will find. My DIY cleaners are the products of reading a lot of green blogs, readying biology and chemistry articles on cleaning and just plain old experiencing.   I feel safe using these ingredients in a house with J and Lola (our  dog, AKA: Puppy Girl): Lemon juice, baking soda, castile soap, vinegar, olive oil,  essential oils, borax, corn starch, salt, water, and rubbing alcohol. These are all of the ingredients in every home cleaner in our house.

Yes,  it takes work and time to make, but I know what I'm putting in my home. I'm not the perfect environmentalist yet, but I'm always working to improve. In the following weeks, I will show you how I make these chemicals and the results I get. Listed below are the cleaners I use around my house. If you see one you want to know more about, just comment below.

Dish Washing Liquid
Dishwasher powder
Furniture/Faux leather cleaner
Fabric freshener (works great on J's PT's, gym clothes and ACU's) <---Works great on stinky man suff lol
Carpet Freshener
Kitchen disinfectant
Bathroom Scrub (toilet, tub, shower)
Bathroom Disinfectant
All purpose cleaner
Lola Be Gone (removes Puppy Girl's smells from a stinky and her kennel)
Doggie Shampoo
Window Cleaner
Foaming Hand Soap

Okay, second blog down....I wonder what will happen from here...