Indoor mold exposure contributes to the development of asthma in children, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health. Mold can also cause eye irritation, skin irritation, nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing and wheezing in otherwise healthy people. While mold is a naturally occurring fungus that plays an important role in the environment, you should always take measures to get rid of it the moment you suspect that it could be growing in your home. When it comes to mold removal, experts recommend using natural and ways instead of toxic chemicals such as bleach or borax. Using natural and non-toxic methods will get rid of mold without hurting your family, pets, or the environment. 

Use baking soda 

Baking soda does a lot more than just keeping your fridge smelling fresh. You can also use it to get rid of mold without harming your health or the environment. Before you get started, it's recommended that you hire a professional mold inspector to help you know all the mold-infested areas. Once you know where the mold is, mix about 3 tablespoons of baking soda with two cups of water and one cup of vinegar. Spray the mixture onto the moldy areas, allow it to sit for about 30 minutes, and scrub it off with a sponge.

Tap into the immense power of essential oils 

Essential oils have been used for ages by people to boost energy, relieve headaches, aid digestion, and calm nerves. You can add "remove mold" to the list. Tea tree essential oil, in particular, has powerful anti-microbial properties that make it an effective mold removal solution. Just add a teaspoon of tea tree oil to two cups of water and use it to clean the moldy areas. Grapefruit seed extract essential oil is another antifungal and antibacterial agent that can work wonders on any mold-infested surface. Just add 10 drops of the oil to a cup of water, pour it into a bottle, and spray it onto the moldy areas. Keep the essential oils on the mold-infested areas for as long as you need to until your mold problem is gone. 

Got vinegar in your kitchen? 

Vinegar is one of the best eco-friendly solutions to a mold problem. It is cheap, non-toxic, and there's a good chance that you already have it lying around in your kitchen. First of all, vinegar can be used to prevent the growth of mold by spraying it onto the surfaces where you suspect it can grow. Vinegar can also be used to kill a large amount of mold in your home. Just spray it on the moldy areas and leave it for a couple of hours to settle. Use a brush to scrub the mold off and make sure the area dries properly. Many people tend to dilute vinegar with water to reduce the pungent smell but this can weaken it and make it ineffective against the mold. If the smell of vinegar is too strong for you, you can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil. 

Mold is a danger that should be eradicated as quickly as possible, but you shouldn't introduce more dangerous substances into the environment when doing so. By following the eco-friendly methods above, you can get rid of mold permanently without affecting your family's health or the environment. 

Sometimes it can be hard to find the time that you need to give your home a good, thorough cleaning.

It can be a slow, sometimes tedious process and we often like to resort to the easiest methods possible to get it done as quickly as possible.

It’s hard to fault anyone for doing this, but the problem with the easiest route is that it does tend to be the least healthy one.

It’s a lot more convenient to tackle your house using all of the common store-bought cleaning products. And that stuff is packed with chemicals and ambiguous ingredients.

And the same applies to washing your clothes, cleaning dishes and spraying scented substances to enhance the aroma of your house.

You never know what kind of potentially harmful material you are releasing into the air when you clean like that. It’s detrimental to your health and the environment.

Green cleaning is the way to go. And with the right blends of essential oils, you can put together your own cleaning products that are way more healthy.

Here’s five essential oils that are great for green cleaning:

1.    Lavender

People have been using lavender for a lot of different reasons for many, many years now. It’s one of the most popular essential oils.

It’s good for your skin and hair, and it’s also good for fighting against nausea as well as things like the common cold.

It works against these because it’s antibacterial and antiviral. This makes it a great choice for cleaning your bathroom or your kitchen.

You want to use it in places where bacteria is prone to build up and also where people eat. If you mix it in a spray bottle with water and white vinegar it makes a great cleaning solution.

It’s also useful as an insect repellent as well as an air freshener that you can spray around your house.

2.    Peppermint

Much like lavender, peppermint is a popular way to deal with headaches and nausea, but many people don’t realize that it’s also a powerful disinfectant.

It makes for a great surface cleaner. If you mix this with some vinegar and water in a spray bottle you can use it to clean countertops.

You’ve probably noticed by this stage that vinegar, white vinegar specifically is something that you will need to have for a lot of these blends.

I know that the smell of vinegar isn’t necessarily popular but it’s useful in cleaning solutions and the oils will usually mask the smell anyway.

You can also use this particular mixture to clean the floors too. If you mix it with water in your mop bucket it should do the trick.

3.    Lemon

Lemon is a terrific oil for cleaning around the house because it’s got antibacterial properties but is also a low pH.

It won’t do any damage to your surfaces but is still effective in killing bacteria and disinfecting things.

Lemon is actually something that you could use to clean all of your appliances, and also ceiling fans and trash cans.

You could clean the microwave with it by just microwaving a cup filled with water and lemon oil and then wiping down the inside of the machine.

And if you want to treat the dishwasher with it, mix distilled vinegar with a few drops of lemon oil and place it in an empty dishwasher.

These are notoriously hard to clean but lemon oil gets the job done with minimal hassle.

4.    Eucalyptus

This is yet another oil that has antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties so you can use it in a lot of the ways that you can the others we discussed.

But it’s also very good at getting rid of grease and grime. Areas like the oven top, the kitchen sink and the microwave are places where this could be a problem.

Mix eucalyptus with water and, you guessed it, white vinegar in a spray bottle and then use that on these surfaces to get rid of all that grease.

It’s a good way to remove adhesive too so if there is any sticky residue stuck to countertops or windows then the eucalyptus mix will deal with that.

And on top of all that it’s good for keeping away pests and dust mites.

5.    Tea Tree

We can sing the praises of tea tree oil all day. It doesn’t smell particularly strong, it’s minimally invasive in terms of leaving stains or causing damage and there’s many uses.

You can use it to put together a multi-purpose, disinfectant cleaning spray which you can use on pretty much any surface.

And it makes for a very strong bathroom scrub because it’s a natural mold fighter. So it would also be great for cleaning the kitchen sink too.

Because it’s a disinfectant, you could put it to good use cleaning things like yoga mats or other pieces of exercise equipment too.

Conclusion

Put the days of letting all of those nasty fumes pollute your home and your body behind you. Give green cleaning a try, you won’t regret it.

If you want to find out more about green cleaning and how to implement it into your routine, check out this article from Groom & Style.