The more we learn about the planet and the environment, the clearer it becomes that our actions are having a negative effect on the world’s health and the health of humanity.

It’s not just the overuse of fossil fuels and other less desirable sources of energy, there are many everyday things we do that are causing damage without us even realizing it.

One of those things happens to be the way in which we keep our homes clean. It’s unsettling to think that our efforts towards personal cleanliness could have the opposite effect, but it’s true.

We take it for granted that we should just go to the store, buy popular cleaning products and use them in our homes, but when we do that we don’t really know what toxins we’re releasing.

The practice of green cleaning, is using eco-friendly, chemical free products in the place of the normal cleaning products you would use.

It might sound like more work, but it’s not actually as big of an overhaul as you might think. Here’s 5 reasons why you should try it:

1.    It’s Cost Effective

If you switch to green cleaning, you will be making most of your own cleaning products and potentially even some of your own cleaning utensils.

A lot of the stuff that you will need to make these products you will have in your house anyway, so it will really be cutting down the costs

Consider some of the cleaning products that you can make and what ingredients that you are going to need for it. You may have heard of us? MamaSuds? 

Take this list for example. While not everything listed here is entirely chemical free, there are a few things here that are pretty common to the various different recipes that are.

You’ve got white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice and table salt. All things that you could probably find in your kitchen right now if you look.

Think about how much you actually spend on cleaning products, and then consider that you can almost cut all of that out of your expenses if you start making your own.

It’s a pretty worthwhile change.

2.    It Detoxifies Your Home

So many people are living in a toxic environment without even realizing it. They pump all of these chemicals into the air, unaware of the damage they could be doing to their health.

A lot of store-bought cleaning products, in particular antibacterial sprays and fabric softeners contain quaternary ammonium compounds.

This stuff can contribute to people getting asthma and it’s an especially dangerous environment for children.

It’s not just your lungs you need to worry about though, the spray cans that you use can often contain volatile organic compounds too, which are dangerous in many ways.

They can cause long term damage to your kidneys, your liver and even your central nervous system and leave you susceptible to a number of illnesses.

Cutting out those products and just using ones that you’ve made yourself can keep the air nice and clean.

3.    It Helps the Environment

This is probably the main reason why so many people want to switch to green cleaning and it’s definitely one of the biggest incentives.

All of those chemicals we discussed earlier? They’re just as bad for the planet as they are for your health, but the problems run deeper than that.

Think about the packaging of all these products. Plastic bottles and aluminium cans mainly, that stuff isn’t eco-friendly either.

Of course we are making an effort to recycle, but our oceans are full of plastic that people have thrown away and it’s a problem that’s getting bigger and bigger.

Do the recycling in your own home. When you make your own products, you can use the same bottles over and over.

You can minimize your ozone depletion and do you own part towards preventing the negative effects of climate change.

Of course, it’s not entirely up to individuals to stop global warming, but if everybody switched to green cleaning it would definitely be a step in the right direction.

4.    You Won’t Contaminate the Water Supply

Ammonia, phosphorous, petroleum, these are some of the chemicals that you’re using when you clean with store-bought products.

And they are also some of the worst chemicals for our water supply. That’s where some of this stuff ends up.

You use a rag or a sponge to clean and then you wring it out over the sink. Down the drain and into the water it goes.

If you use it to clean the toilet or the shower then your going to end up flushing it or washing it down the drain there too.

It will end up in the lakes and the rivers where it can hurt the wildlife and also can end up back in your drinking water.

That’s a scary thing to think about but you won’t be contributing to it if you switch to green cleaning.

Cleaning your bathroom is never going to be a fun job so the thought of having to overhaul your method is probably annoying, but it’s worth the effort.

Take a look a this guide from Complete Home Spa on how to clean your shower head, it would be a good place to start with.

5.    You Know Your Ingredients

It’s hard to know what exactly is in the products that you’ve been using. There could be a lot of chemicals in there that you’re unaware of.

Despite the ingredients list that you see on the back of the packaging, there’s no way of being certain what’s in there.

Sometimes there’s less than desirable chemicals hiding behind ambiguous names. You could see a word that you don’t recognize and it’s actually something you wouldn’t want in your home.

But you are entirely in control of the ingredients when you make the products yourself. You know exactly what’s in there.

And if there’s a particular ingredient that you don’t want for whatever reason, it’s as simple as picking an alternative.

You have way more control and that’s something that you should want considering it’s your home and your family.

Conclusion

And there’s many other reasons to switch too. Green cleaning is the healthier, safer option and it would benefit the planet in a big way if more people were putting it into practice.