Cleaning Your Home…Is it healthy?

Making a few small changes in the way you clean your home can end up changing the world.  Like many of you, I grew up thinking that using powerful toxic cleaning products was the only ‘true’ way to get your home clean and disinfected.  I felt so strongly about helping others have a clean home that my husband and I started Contemporary Butler Cleaning Service.  After several years of using ‘standard’ cleaning products and suffering from ever-worsening allergies, frequent headaches and serious skin irritations, I began researching healthier ways to clean my clients’ homes.  My goal was to continue offering a meticulous cleaning service, but to do so as naturally as possible.  After extensive research (many thanks to CleanPeers.com) and trying a variety of products, I found several products and natural recipes that really do the trick!

Some facts to consider:
·          The EPA estimates that the air inside your home can be 3 to 70 times more polluted than outside air. 

·          More than 7 million accidental poisonings occur each year, with more than 75% involving children under age 6!
—The Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons

·          According to the U.S. Poison Control Centers, "A child is accidentally poisoned every 30 seconds at home..."

If you look around your home, you’ll likely find anywhere from 3 to 25 gallons of toxic cleaning and personal care products.  Many of these items release toxic fumes even while being stored in your cabinets.  Our children are particularly vulnerable.  These pollutants tend to collect close to the floor, so children are breathing in greater concentrations than adults.  This is true for your pets too.  And keep this in mind -- within 26 seconds after exposure to chemicals in cleaning products, traces of these chemicals can be found in every organ in the body.

More facts to consider:
·          In the past 50 years more than 75,000 chemicals have been introduced into the environment. Today 300 synthetic chemicals are found in the bodies of humans. Even newborn babies have synthetic chemicals passed on from their mothers.
—REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, a European Union program)

·         Of chemicals commonly found in homes, 150 have been linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer, and psychological abnormalities.
—Consumer Product Safety Commission

Now let me assure you there are alternatives!  As awareness about these dangers and concern over the environment increase, it has become much easier to find natural and green cleaning products, and at prices everyone can afford.  If you’re so inspired, you can even go back to basics and make your own – the use of vinegar, borax, washing soda and essential oils are truly powerful cleaners.  One of my favorite recipes is to mix 1 tsp of natural dish soap, 5-10 drops of tea tree oil with 2-3 cups of water – this makes a great all-purpose cleaner!

Concerned about mold and mildew?  Don’t use bleach!  Yes, you read it right…’don’t use bleach.’  The National Organization of Remediation and Mold Inspectors has concluded that bleach does not kill mold spores, it only changes the color, thus ‘hiding’ the mold and enabling the micro flora to return under the right conditions.  According to Spore°Tech Mold Investigations, since bleach is 99 percent water and water is one of the main contributors to growth of harmful bacteria and mold, use of bleach will actually cause regeneration of the mold.

If you use a cleaning service, be sure to ask them what products they are using and whether they would consider using green or natural products in your home.  Not only is it important for you and your family, you’d be doing them a favor as well.  If your service is not open to making these changes for your health, maybe it’s time to consider one that will.

As an experienced professional in the cleaning industry, I would be glad to assist you in identifying green and natural cleaning products.  Please feel free to contact me via my website at www.contemporarybutler.com.

Lori Garcia
Contemporary Butler
www.contemporarybutler.com
(678) 557-3795