Healthy Cleaning, Healthy Living

Using environmentally friendly cleaning products—and getting rid of toxic ones—goes a long way toward ensuring a spotless home with clean fresh air. Clean air rejuvenates and revitalizes. If you live in a home free of toxic chemicals, you'll sleep soundly, concentrate better, and have a higher overall sense of well-being. You can reduce your household's toxic burden by following the steps below:

Look under your kitchen sink.

Almost every home in the world has a cabinet full of poisons: waxes, polishes, oven cleaners, insect spray—these are the items one often stores under the kitchen sink. If misused, they are extremely hazardous to one's health. Remove any toxic products you may have and replace them with safer versions in the future.

Dispose of toxic products properly.

Hazardous materials shouldn't be thrown away in the trash or poured down the drain as they can cause serious environmental pollution. To dispose of your toxic products properly, simply call your local recycling centre or town/city hall. These days, most communities have services that pickup hazardous waste materials from residents at least once every year.

Replace toxic cleaning products with better versions.

Be wary of signal words on labels such as “caution”, “danger”, “warning”, or “poison”. Choose instead the products with labels that signify that the ingredients are effective and safe for the environment. The Design for the Environment label and the Green Seal are examples of these labels.