Have you ever gotten into your car, taken a deep breath and realized that there must be a piece of food rotting under your seat somewhere? Anyone with children has experienced this particular odor.
Or how about when you lift up the corner of a rug in your office and catch a whiff of the bug that was under there rotting away?
True story of a woman whose guest bathroom had a lingering odor that she couldn’t get rid of. She scrubbed the toilet, she mopped the floors, she scrubbed out the sink, took the toilet apart to clean the hard to reach spots under the seat, and even went to the lengths of putting bleach tablets in the toilet tank (yikes!). The odor persisted. She called Mother Nature‘s Cleaning asking about tile and grout cleaning and described the tight confines of her bathroom and the issues that she was facing. The office woman asked her, “Did you think about wiping down the walls of your bathroom, because boys don’t always hit the mark…” Sure enough there was old pee on the wall and once she gave it a good scrub, the odor went away.
Many of the foul odors that you experience around your home are all related to bacteria feeding on some forgotten organic substance. The waste of the bacteria is what you smell. People are often pleasantly surprised when MNC cleaners leave the home after a job and it smells really fresh and clean despite the fact that we use fragrance free and green non-toxic products.
More and more, as the reality of the toxicity in our environment is starting to hit home, people are looking for nontoxic and organic ways to freshen up their homes. The truth is, when you clean your home with very simple ingredients that are free of fragrances (phthalates), phosphates, chlorine, and other endocrine disruptors (EDCs) you will still end up with a fresh and clean, odorless result because you are removing the substance that is the root cause of the odor!
If a cleaner comes to your home, does a quick In and out job and leaves a beautiful smelling fragrance behind, it could be there to mask the odors of what he didn’t clean. Once the fragrance dissipates, the odor will come back because he didn’t eliminate the source.
When it comes to cleaning, unfortunately nothing replaces skill and a little bit of elbow grease. That combined with the right equipment and you don’t need powerful chemicals and overpowering fragrances to make your house look and feel fresh and clean.
I have been teaching people how to clean effectively in a nontoxic way for a decade and NO – you don’t need to get all homestead crazy and make your own, or spend a ton of money on a designer brand. Below are my top five household cleansers. I have been using these cleaners for years and they are all fragrance and EDC free and I don’t have to find them in a health food store or mix from my own ingredients.
TIP: When shopping for your cleaning supplies, avoid misleading labeling – you want simple ingredients, no fragrances, and maybe a formula that hasn’t been developed within the last two decades – don’t fall into the trap of something claiming to be nontoxic – read the ingredients. Just because it has a natural looking label, doesn’t mean it is. Don’t spend money where you don’t need to and clean with really simple products.
Water I can tell you without a doubt that cleaning things with water is usually enough. I don’t use a lot of soap. I use soap after things don’t clean up all the way with water, but by then there’s only a little bit left so I don’t need a whole lot of cleanser. Water by itself is an excellent detergent!!
(USA) Citrus Clean It – this is my go to household cleaner, and is the go to spotter for my technicians. I use this heavily diluted because a little bit goes a long way, but I can use it on any non-porous surface. This one is throughly vetted as we have been using it at Mother Nature’s Cleaning for years. This is a big one time purchase, but one case will literally last you for 10 years.
Baking soda and white vinegar – I use this in my bathrooms. It shines up the toilet bowl like nothing else and eliminates all the old odors. Vinegar is highly acidic, so dilute it well. Vinegar is also a fantastic window cleaner when diluted 1:1. I recommend mixing this with distilled water to avoid the minerals.
Murphy’s Original Oil Soap – if you must have a detergent on hand for your porous surfaces, this works for your hardwood, vinyl and linoleum dusting and floor cleaning needs. Murphy’s oil soap has had the same formula for the last 100 years. It is nontoxic, BPA free, and there are no hormone modifying components . There are no artificial fragrances or colors, and while it does have a distinct odor that dissipates quickly, it is a nontoxic fragrance made from citronella and other essential oils . This is the go to for more sensitive surfaces where you don’t want clean off the finish! Stay away from the Lemon Fresh.
BioKleen Free & Clear Dish Liquid – I stopped using Dawn because the ingredients they use don’t support the claims they make. This product is actually cheaper, free of phosphates, chlorine, ammonia and brighteners. It is made in the USA and has no artificial colors or fragrances and it does a good job.
Tip: if you have clogged drains, I have a non-toxic and plumber recommended product for that too – it is a product called Bio-Clean and I have been using it for years. It works better than anything else and doesn’t damage your pipes, or leave toxic fumes in your bathroom as it works.
In closing, I would like to say that it is really difficult to wrap our heads around the amount of toxicity in our environment, but every small thing that you do to help reduce that exposure for your family and your children is going to help them in the long-term. Not only does it reduce their exposure, but it creates habits and lifestyle choices that will be carried on for generations to come. I still use some of the same beauty and cleaning products that my mother did and her mother before her. During this recent refresher of detoxifying my life I’ve found that many of them are still good today. By just changing one thing at a time, it is less overwhelming and manageable. And not everything that is healthy costs more and these cleaning products are just one example. So if you just replace one of your cleaning ingredients with something on this list, you’ve already made a huge difference. Start small and keep working on it!
Happy cleaning!
