5 Non-Toxic Spring Cleaning Tips!

Beth Conway Communications Director

Spring cleaning season is here! Now is the time of year many of us get the urge to scrub away the winter blues. But unfortunately, many conventional cleaning products contain ingredients that are bad for our health, and bad for the planet—chemicals that are linked to asthma, hormone disruption and even cancer. These harsh chemicals wash down the drain to contaminate waterways, and disperse into the air, contributing to urban air pollution. 

Thankfully, making the switch to safer options is easier and cheaper than you think! Here are 5 simple ways to wipe out the toxic chemicals from your cleaning routine this spring and all year round!

1. Make Your Own Non-Toxic Cleaning Products

When you are in control of your cleaning products and their ingredients, you can help put a stop to harmful chemicals entering your home and your body. Swap out harsh chemicals for healthier and affordable staples such as vinegar and baking soda, or follow our Green Cleaning recipes here.

2. #QuitQuats

Powerful disinfectants and antimicrobial chemicals like quaternary ammonium compounds (quats) are commonly found in household cleaners like disinfecting wipes and sprays, despite research warning us about potential serious health consequences, such as increased antibiotic resistance. In many cases, disinfectants are simply unnecessary — plain soap and water will get the job done, with significantly less health risk.

3. Throw a Green Cleaning Party

WVE’s Green Cleaning parties are a chance to get friends together to make non-toxic cleaners — but more importantly they are a chance to take action to demand companies remove toxic ingredients from their cleaning products, and support government policies that truly protect us and put our health first. Learn more.

4. Ditch the Dryer Sheets

Dryer sheets can contain harmful chemicals – including VOCs, quats, and hidden fragrance chemicals that many people are sensitive to – that vent off into the air we breathe and rub off on our clothes and then onto our skin. What’s more, dryer sheets aren’t even necessary to clean our laundry – so they’re just an extra source of exposure to toxic chemicals. Let’s take the pledge to ditch them for good!

Need an extra incentive? As a special THANK YOU for taking on toxic chemicals in cleaning products, when you take the Ditch the Dryer Sheets Pledge anytime between March 26, 2019 – April 30, 2019 we will email you a special code to receive discount off your next purchase from Molly’s Suds!

5. Choose Transparent and/or Fragrance-Free Products

There is no federal law that requires cleaning product manufacturers to disclose their ingredients. Umm sorry, but toxic secrets are not OK! Find a company that has nothing to hide and lists all their ingredients. And that includes fragrance. Cleaning products with fragrance run the risk of containing allergens, hormone disruptors, and chemicals that lower your ability to fight general toxic exposure. So make sure scented products are transparent and don’t simply list “fragrance” or “parfum” on their ingredient label. Or consider just skipping fragrance all together. After all “clean” doesn’t have a smell.