How to make a earth friendly home just takes some exchanges. Look around your home for cleaning product, laundry soaps/conditioners, air fresheners, new furniture, bedding, drapes, or even flooring. All of these things have chemicals that cause air quality in your home to be toxic. On the new items you have in your home you can use a mild dilution of essential oils to help absorb the toxins with only a light spay daily for a few days.
For an all over house toxin collector a container of charcoal briquets placed in each room will help to attract bad odors and chemical gases. This works extremely well for closets and smaller rooms that are closed up. It will also draws moisture out of the air to prevent the opportunity for molds to grow.
House Plants To Cleanse Our Homes
House plants can give us some real protection as they absorb carbon dioxide and gives off purified oxygen. The spider plant is my favorite as it is a hearty species and almost everyone can grow them, even without a green thumb. This plant is great to pick up formaldehyde and xylene that sometimes are in cabinets and furniture.
The mighty Aloe Vera is also fantastic as besides cleansing the air it is a medicinal plant for burns, minor scratches and insect bites. Other plants that are also beneficial to air quality are snake plant, garden mum, peace lily and bamboo palms(these grow a bit larger so keep that in mind if you have small space).
Keeping Chemicals Out Of Living Space
I have taken all the heavy cleaning product from the kitchen, bathroom and the garage. If by chance you just can not give them up totally put them in an outside shed if possible. If freezing is a problem where you live place them in a cooler. This works great also for any kinds of paints, varnish, brush cleaner or products that we know have strong odors and give off toxins.
Let’s Fix The Laundry Room
The laundry room is another source of toxins that is easy to fix. Instead of using commercial soaps, whiteners ,and softeners we can save money and make our own for pennies a load. We can use pure castile soap ,Fels-Naptha soap, borax and washing soda. You will be surprised at how clean your clothes are with no odor and no chemicals to breath as you wear them. I have enclosed a couple recipes that you might like to try. It takes a bit to put them together but they will last a long time and you can rested assured that your family will be breathing cleaner air.
EASY POWDER LAUNDRY SOAP
1 Box Borax Detergent Booster
1 Box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 Bar Fel-Naptha Pure Laundry Soap
Grate the bar or put in the food processor then mix a little at a time of each. Stir until well blended. It is concentrated so only 1-2 tablespoons per load.
How to Make a Earth Friendly Home!
LIQUID LAUNDRY SOAP
1/2 C Borax Detergent Booster
1/2 C Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 C Dawn Liquid Detergent
4 Boiling hot water
Place Borax and Soda in a quart jar, add dawn then pour in the boiling water. Stir until all is dissolved and WOW you are done and ready to get super clean laundry. It is super concentrated so about 1 tablespoon is all you need. This is my all time favorite and you will love it too!
There are also many eco-friendly organic products on the market that is an alternative if you just don’t want to take the time to make your own laundry soap. I have found that some of these usually are low suds products and sometimes they don’t clean as well as I would like. Shop around and find the one that suits you the best.
Now On To The Garage
Since there are many garages connected to living space we have to take into account the amount of toxic things that are found in the garage. It will amaze you if you just walk around and see how many things that are there that could be causing your family some health issues.
It seems harmless enough as we can not see them but trust me they give off some toxins no matter how good they are sealed. Here we usually find old paint, glues, unused flooring, sprays for the bugs and weeds, and petroleum products. Gather them up and seal them in a cooler even if you have no other place to put them.
Bathroom & Kitchen Here We Come!
With one all natural cleanser you will be able to clean the shower, sinks, counter tops, walls and mirrors. You will be done and gone in a flash!
I have found this very cool all purpose cleaner that works like a charm. It will SAVE YOU MONEY and time to just use one all purpose cleanser for all your cleaning needs. There is also less pollution to our environment when we reuse the spray bottle and just mix new from the concentrate. This will make your home more earth friendly and a safer home for your family. Since this is not chemical you can let the children help if they would like. Then of course we also have to remember our furry friends it is safe for them too.
One more thing did you know foaming soap again save you a ton of money and best of all there is less mess to clean up. I use them in the kitchen and bath an I love how clean your hands feel. Great in the shower as well!
OK, we did it and now we have a wonderfully clean environment for our families. Thanks for following along and it is my hope it will get you on your way to a healthier lifestyle.
There will be something special in the next post so hang in there with me and we can learn together.
