Household Cleaners

Why not just buy cleaning products?

Our culture has become interested in making cleaning products at home (instead of buying them in stores) due to a developing distrust in chemicals. Humans have become very wary towards the possibility that there are harmful chemicals in the products they own – whether this is our food or our household cleaners. While these chemical anxieties are not unwarranted, as chemicals can be hazardous, it is worth reminding ourselves that everything, at its very basic form, is going to be a chemical.

Chemicals, therefore, are not inherently spooky! Rather, there are just some chemicals that are not as healthy for us to be around, especially in large quantities. When we’re considering what we do and do not want to be in our cleaning products, one thing we should consider is volatile organic compounds.

What are Volatile Organic Compounds?

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are simply gases that are emitted from some solids and liquids. We can find VOCs in a number of our store-bought cleaners! Some of these compounds are known to cause asthma, headaches, allergic reactions, and maybe even cancer or organ damage. According to the EPA, we see consistently higher concentrations of VOCs indoors – up to 10x higher indoors compared to outside.

Cutting out cleaning products, while potentially a valid way to reduce VOC exposure, is not the only way. The EPA also lays out some specific measures you can take if you’re interested in cutting down on your potential exposure.

Follow label instructions carefully
Throw away partially full or unneeded chemicals safely (You can find information on the City of Knoxville’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility here)
Buy limited quantities
Keep exposure to emissions from products containing methylene chloride to a minimum – this is going to be stuff like paint strippers, adhesive removers, and aerosol cans
Keep exposure to benzene to a minimum – you can find this in tobacco smoke, paint supplies, and stored fuels
Keep exposure to perchloroethylene emissions from newly dry-cleaned materials to a minimum

Cleaners can also contribute to water pollution. This can happen when we throw away cleaners that aren’t empty as they end up in the landfills. But water pollution can also happen as a result of our cleaners moving through our drainage systems. The chemicals inside these cleaners can end up in our lakes and rivers.

How do we know if a product we’re buying has VOCs or other dangerous chemicals?

This is often the trickiest part!

Companies who make cleaning products are, unfortunately, not required to provide an ingredient list. Since it’s not required that a company share this valuable information, many of them choose to keep the information to themselves. The Environmental Working Group – which is discussed below – did a review and found that out of 2,000 cleaning products, only 7% appropriately disclosed their ingredient information.

What makes it even more of a struggle, though, is that we can’t always believe what is on the label. A company can say that a product is “green” or “natural” but that doesn’t always make it so. For instance, some companies will broadcast that one of their products is “plant-based” (meaning the product is derived from plants) when in actuality, the plant-based substance has undergone extensive chemical manipulation. This manipulation can make it so that the original plant-based material is not safer than the synthetic alternatives.

Synthetic doesn’t inherently mean evil or damaging. We have to remember that these products are tested and produced by scientists.

How can we protect ourselves then?

There are a few helpful resources!

The easiest and most reputable way to make sure that your household cleaners are certified safe is to look for the EPA’s Safer Choice Program label. Companies who wish to participate in the program have to go through an approval process to don the label. The Safer Choice program takes a look at the product’s ingredients while considering both performance and sustainability. The program even does regular audits through the EPA to make sure that the companies and their products are maintaining the set standards.

There is also the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The EWG, while not a regulatory body, is still a non-profit dedicated to research and transparency for the products that we use regularly. While the EWG is a great resource to use, we would also advise that you look into ingredients on your own. We all have our level of acceptable risk and having a greater understanding of what we’re using, the purpose the product is serving, and whether or not we can find an alternative substitute is only going to do us good in the long run!

A really good resource to use as a starting point for more natural cleaning products is The Good Trade. They’ve compiled a list of “13 Natural & Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products For The Conscious Home”.

So when can we use DIY household cleaners?

You can use household cleaners for just about everything! Not all DIY (do it yourself) cleaners are made equal, though. We can trust in our DIY cleaners when we need to clean up everyday messes (our counters, etc.), but we should consider more heavy-duty options when we’re trying to fight off things like the flu or other sickly germs.

It’s also very important to note that you should not mix things up in your kitchen on a whim.

Where can we find solid DIY cleaners?

There are a ton of resources available to you if you’re interested in creating a household cleaning concoction! In essence, though, it boils down to just a few pantry staples. Two good starting points are vinegar and baking soda.

Vinegar is a disinfectant that is also capable of breaking down residue that we may find as a result of grease or soap scum. For a list of acceptable vinegar-cleaning-tasks, check out this blog post from Bon Appetit.
Baking soda is great at deodorizing! You can put a box of baking soda in your fridge to help alleviate any unwanted odors – though you should not use the baking soda after it’s been in the fridge because the baking soda will carry some of the fridge odors. Baking soda also can act as a mild abrasive.

Be mindful not to mix the two, however. When you mix an acid (vinegar) with a base (baking soda), you end up with what is essentially just salt water!

Making the Jump from Cleaning to Cosmetics

You might be wondering what in the world cosmetics have to do with our household cleaning products. The problems that we deal with concerning our household cleaners, like ingredient lists, are very similar to what we deal with when we enter the beauty industry.

The assumption that natural = better have overwhelmingly permeated the beauty industry, creating the use of the term “clean beauty”.

What does clean beauty really mean?

Clean beauty is a term meant to denote organic, natural, non-toxic, safe, and ethical. However, these terms are often misleading. Consumers have an idea of what these terms should mean but, due to lacking legal definitions and standards, these terms are essentially meaningless when it comes to beauty products.

Clean Beauty might not be better for you

As the industry exists now, clean beauty is often correlated with plants. We love to see “natural” ingredients in our products because, as consumers, we tend to think they’re going to do better things for our skin. But this is a false notion!

The natural ingredients that we find in clean beauty products – ingredients like botanicals and essential oils – can massively irritate our skin. They can sometimes even cause allergies! These negative outcomes can occur for a few different reasons. Sometimes these ingredients are used in heavy doses and we don’t know beforehand (because we don’t have access to a holistic ingredient list!). We can also experience a negative reaction because these ingredients don’t belong on our skin. Essential oils, for instance, are only added to products to provide a nice scent. In the end, they do nothing for our skincare. While some of us might be able to use nice-smelling products and experience zero negative reactions, we still don’t have the full picture of the product. We aren’t always privy to knowing the growing conditions of the plants, their health, or even the extraction method.

On the flip side of the coin, we know the exact parameters for synthetic ingredients (i.e. preservatives) because they are created under lab conditions.

And then there’s the environmental toll

Natural ingredients have to be sourced, and this sourcing typically comes from conventional agriculture. There are two problems with sourcing natural products:

We strip habitats that our wildlife relies on.
We take land and maybe even products that we could be used for food.

Natural ingredients are also going to have a higher carbon footprint. Rose oil, for instance, is going to require land and water to grow, possibly machinery to pick, processes to condense into a usable product, and then transportation. Synthetic ingredients, on the other hand, are created in a lab, with not nearly as many environmental requirements.

Some brands that are doing cool things to get their natural ingredients, though! Some brands are using waste from other industries (like fruit seeds from juicing brands from the brand BYBI) to make the products that we want to use!

So how do we choose the right products?

There are so many brands now that have an interest in being transparent (i.e. The Ordinary). The most important thing is just to remember that chemicals are not inherently bad. After all, we need chemicals to ensure that our products are what we want them to be! To maintain good and long shelf lives, we’re going to need preservatives. Not to mention, everyone’s skin is going to be different so we also need to focus on finding the products that work for us!

But, the products that we use have an environmental toll and if we’re interested in maintaining real clean beauty, we need to consider what the ingredients are, where they came from, why we’re using them, and if it’s worth it in the long run. When it comes to beauty, research is a much-needed friend!

For information on some sustainable beauty businesses, you can check out those who might be B Corps or LEED Certified!

Natural Cleaning + Clean Beauty