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Reducing toxins in your home

Children with special needs often are sensitive to environmental factors. It is difficult to identify which environmental toxins may be causing behaviors in your home, so here are some non-toxic cleaning recipes. They are excellent alternatives to adding chemicals in your home. They are better for our environment, too.

Consider these alternative cleaning methods in your home:

  1. Surface Cleaner: For tile and bathroom fixtures, use baking soda dissolved in water, applied on a damp cloth.
  2. For cleaning your toilet bowl, use baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice and borax. Cola that has gone flat can be poured in the bowl, left to sit for one hour, brushed, and flushed.
  3. Drain Opener/Cleaner: Pour boiling water directly down your kitchen drain, not into the basin, twice weekly to prevent clogs. Use a drain trap/strainer to catch food or hair. To clear a clogged drain, use a metal snake or plunger.
  4. Drain Opener: Pour 1/2 cup baking soda into the drain. Add one cup of plain vinegar and let it work. Follow with a minute of hot water.
  5. Oven Cleaner: Clean your oven often with baking soda (mix three tablespoons soda with one cup warm water). Rub gently with steel wool. Use oven liners or tinfoil to catch spills. Sprinkle salt on spills while oven is still warm. When the oven cools, scrape and wipe the area clean.
  6. Chlorine Bleach: Use dry bleach, borax, or washing soda to whiten clothes. Never combine bleach and ammonia together, as they produce a toxic gas. Borax is also a good grease cutter.
  7. Window Cleaner: Apply vinegar and water (two teaspoons vinegar to one quart water), squeegee off, and dry with a soft cloth or newspaper.
  8. Linoleum Floor Cleaner/Wax: Mop with one cup of white vinegar mixed with two gallons of water to remove dull, greasy film. Add a small amount of skim milk to the rinse water. This will shine the floor.
  9. Rug and Upholstery Cleaner: Club soda works well as a stain remover as does a solution of water and vinegar (1/4 cup each). Upholstery shampoo can be made by combining 6 tablespoons of mild soap flakes, 1 pint of boiling water, and 2 teaspoons of household ammonia. Mix and whip the mixture with a beater. Brush only the foam into the soiled upholstery. Be sure to wash kitchen utensils completely after use.
  10. Carpet Spot Remover: Scrub the spot with water, pour on powdered Borax. Let the borax absorb the liquid, vacuum when dry.
  11. Furniture Polish: Polish with one teaspoon lemon oil or almond oil dissolved in one pint of baby oil. Wash with oil soap or Castile soap and water.
  12. Spot Removers: Use club soda to remove fruit juice, tea, gravy, ketchup, and mud; cold water immediately for blood; lemon juice for ink, and perspiration; beaten egg whites for spots on leather. Use the oil from crushed walnuts to conceal nicks and scratches.
  13. Shoe Polish: Avoid polishes which contain trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, or nitrobenzene. Instead, rub shoes with lemon juice and buff with soft cloth.
  14. Metal Polish (Aluminum, Brass, Copper, Silver): Soak silver in one quart of boiling water with one teaspoon baking soda or cream of tartar, one teaspoon salt, and a piece of aluminum foil. Polish with toothpaste and rinse. Pour lemon juice or vinegar and salt over copper and rub. For brass, use one-half teaspoon salt and one-half cup white vinegar with enough flour to make a paste ? let it sit 25 minutes to 1 hour. Wipe clean. Soak aluminum in one quart boiling water with two teaspoons cream of tartar.
  15. Insect Control: For an effective insect spray, blend six cloves of crushed garlic, one minced onion, one tablespoon dried hot pepper and one teaspoon pure soap in four quarts hot water. Let the mix sit one to two days and then strain it before using. To control roaches, place bay leaves around cracks in the room. Set out a dish of equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar or equal parts of oatmeal flour and plaster of Paris, or chopped bay leaves and cucumber skins, or crushed tobacco and water. As for ants, pour a line of cream of tartar, red chili powder, paprika, or dried peppermint leaves at point of entry. To control fleas, give your pets brewer's yeast, garlic tablets, or vitamin B and wash them regularly in herbal baths prepared with fennel, rue, or rosemary to repel fleas from animals. Finally, cedar chips, newspaper, and dried lavender are good substitutes for moth balls.
  16. Simmer a mixture of cloves and cinnamon or use vinegar and water as a safe and environmentally friendly air freshener.
  17. Use reusable unbleached cotton towels, rags, and non-scratch scrubbing sponges for all-purpose cleaning instead of bleached disposable paper products.
  18. Instead of more complicated detergents, try using a combination of washing soda and borax in your machine. These are usually as effective as more complex formulas and are also usually cheaper.
  19. When possible, hang clothes to dry outside to avoid using the dryer, which uses energy and depletes resources. In winter, fluff the clothes in the dryer, and then hang to dry indoors. You get the added benefit of increased humidity. Note: For children and adults with seasonal allergies, allergists do not recommend hanging clothing outdoors because of the pollen and other allergens.
  20. Avoid bleach when possible. If whitening is needed, use non-chlorine bleach, which are oxygen -based and often highly effective.
  21. Buy clothes that don't need drycleaning or use an alternative called "wet cleaning." Clothes that have been drycleaned emit perchlorethylene, a chemical that can cause cancer. The wet cleaning process uses water so there are no harmful gases emitted from the cleaned clothing. MnTAP maintains a list of cleaners that use the wet cleaning process: http://mntap.umn.edu/drycl/consumer.htm.
  22. Don't rely on dryer sheets for freshening your laundry. Clotheslines are a great way to keep clothes, sheets and towels smelling clean. Try the new dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. They really work on the static and can be purchased at your local drug store in the cleaning supply aisle.

    23. Reducing toxics in the yard

  23. Mowing your grass to a height of about 3½ inches is the most important thing you can do to improve the health of your lawn. By keeping grass length longer, the roots grow deeper and can reach more water during dry periods. Longer grass also creates shade, making it harder for weeds to get established.
  24. If you use a lawn service, consider a service provider that uses less-toxic alternatives.
  25. Test the soil to see what your soil needs. Apply only as much fertilizer as is needed. Soil test kits can be purchased at a lawn and garden store or through the University of Minnesota Extension Service: http://www.extension.umn.edu/.
  26. If your grass grows in heavy clay soil, aeration can be very beneficial. Aeration decreases compaction and allows air and water to get to the roots.
  27. Weeds such as dandelions can be removed easily by digging them up with a fishtail weeder when the soil is damp.
  28. Top dressing your lawn with a compost-soil mix will reduce your lawn's water needs and make it more resistant to drought and disease. You will need to fertilize less often, and when you do, you can use less fertilizer.

Recipes compiled from numerous web sites. Google "make your own cleaning supplies" and peruse the many options available.