Cleaning non-toxic
An easy and very inexpensive place to start cleaning up the toxins around your home is to change the way you clean, more importantly, change what you use to clean. Reducing these toxins in the home will also impact the earth, because everything we flush down a toilet, sink or tub, also ends up in our water table where it can effect our environment. When we sit our little ones in a nice warm bath, imagine their pores opening up and absorbing whatever is in that water…do you want the bleach or chemical cleaner you just coated the tub with to enter your child’s bloodstream? If you used it on the tub, it is doing just that!
The EPA ranks indoor air quality as a top five environmental risk to public health. EPA studies found indoor air pollutants were generally 2-5 times greater than outdoor pollution levels and in some cases, this soared to 100x greater! Many things contribute to this air pollution, like: poor ventilation, the use of air fresheners, chemical laden household cleaners, toxic paints, varnishes and furniture treated with fire retardants, mold biotoxins and so on. So, if you can work to reduce this burden in your environment, one step at a time, you will increase the quality of your indoor air.
There are many healthier products coming to the commercial market, but you must also be careful, because many of them advertise one thing and deliver another. I always use the Environmental Working Group website to help me navigate healthy options for the home and body.
Air Purifiers
Depending on the environment, it’s often helpful for those who are sensitive to have a good air purifier running regularly.
We’ve tried a few different styles and have settled on running hydroxyl generators for our family. You’ll find different styles of the best brands of air purifiers here.
Environmental Probiotic Cleaners - PureBiotics by Chrisal
Environmental probiotics. Yes, there is such a thing! Our indoor environment suffers from toxin overload due to building materials and stale, closed up conditions resulting in recycled air. This isn’t good news for the microbiome of the indoor living environment. The outdoor environment doesn’t typically endure this phenomenon, because of a balanced ecosystem. When we see that ecosystem suffer from water damage, the resulting imbalance creates an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, fungus and viruses. Many indoor environments are subject to mold growth due to the nature of building materials. Learning from nature, soil-based beneficial bacteria which are critical to our outdoor microbiome balance, can be used to balance and harmonize the indoor environment too! Here you will find all purpose cleaners and mists to use throughout your home. We have used these probiotics religiously to clean and mist just about everything. Considering we have successfully remediated our home from mold contamination, I’d say these are an essential addition to anyone’s routine.
You can literally clean just about anything with them. We use the All Purpose Professional cleaner concentrate (which literally lasts forever) to clean and we use the Mist to spray upholstery, carpets and anything fabric. We have even fogged them throughout our home, basement and attic.
The applications are endless: you can spray your furniture regularly to keep it free of dust mites and microbes, spray the soil of your plants (or pour it into their water), put a few sprays into your garbage can after putting food in it to prevent odor from bad bacteria, sponges, showers and tubs, dishwashers, they are great for pet beds and toys and even to spray right onto your pets, you can use it for musty front loading washing machines, for cleaning off new furniture (or used) that enters your home for the first time, spray your damp bath towels down, your door knobs, handles and light switches, and for those of you who have guests from moldy houses visit for the weekend, you can even spray them and their belongings down! We also like to periodically clean our phones (cell phones and house phones) as well as any remote controls with it. The probiotics will continue to clean the surfaces you spray it on for days! I don’t travel anywhere without my probiotic spray. Hotels are host to all kinds of travel buggies.
Enzyme Cleaners
Enzymes are very similar to using a probiotic cleaner. They use non-pathogenic, “good” bacteria to digest waste and stains. The bacteria do this by producing enzymes specifically designed to break down certain molecules (waste/soils) into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces become “food” for the bacteria. So you will want an enzyme based cleaner specifically for mold. These can even be used in your laundry! I tend to use both enzyme cleaners and probiotic cleaners. I choose based on the need and my intuition in the moment. When the freezer in our garage started growing a small area of mold where the humidity was creating the perfect conditions for mold growth, I cleaned it first with an enzyme cleaner, then wiped it down with the probiotic spray as well. The mold has not grown back and it’s been months. This particular cleaner uses only enzymes, water and natural surfactants.
