Cleaning for Better Health & Wellness

I’m Marla, the Green Home Coach. Right now, health & wellness are everything, so I’m excited to have the opportunity to help you explore some things around your home that you may be able to do a little differently.

We are all spending much more time at home lately. That means that we are putting a lot more wear and tear on our homes than we did before, so you may be cleaning things up, changing things around in your house, or even redecorating.

Today, I will be focusing on the health and wellness aspect of cleaning your home. I will be walking you through the process of how you can clean because how you clean matters.

Cleaning impacts various aspects of your home

The way we think about our homes is changing. Today, I heard that healthy is the new green, and that resonated with me because cleaning your home is one of the ways you can impact the health and wellness of everyone living in it. Cleaning also helps with the maintenance side of your home.

The way you clean matters

The way that you clean makes a difference. You want to use something that truly works without requiring any extra work on your part, and you also want to use something that will not contain harmful chemicals that could harm your health and wellness or on that of your family or your pets.

Choices

There are many choices that you can make in the non-toxic, chemical-free space. And many subscription services are coming up in that space.

Step one

The first thing you need to do is to remove all the debris and dust. I never use paper towels unless there is something very nasty to be removed, like pet mess. I use microfiber cloths because they work well, and after using them, I can simply throw them in the wash.

Polishing

I follow up by polishing stainless steel appliances, glass items, and mirrors with all-natural linen or a cotton tea towel.

Better life

Better Life Cleaning Products was founded in St. Louis, and they make natural cleaning products.

Cleaning floors

We vacuum once in a while to remove the dust. Then we use washable mops to clean our floors. The mops were made by Bona, which also makes other natural cleaning products.

Specialty tools

You can use some specialty tools with microfiber cloths to clean things like blinds and the tops of your ceiling fans. After using them, the microfiber cloths can go into the wash.

Getting rid of dirt and debris

You want to get the dirt and debris off the floors, countertops, bathroom surfaces, faucets, ledges, window sills, blinds, ceiling fans, lamps, and light bulbs.

DIY

Many people make their own cleaning products out of cleaning vinegar. There are many recipes online for making different cleaning formulas, using vinegar, lemons, and baking soda.

Baking soda

Baking soda is abrasive, so it also makes a great scrubby powder to put in with any of your cleaners. And you can sprinkle some baking soda onto your rugs to freshen them up.

Sanitizing and disinfecting

It is best to use an EPA-registered disinfectant. Go to the EPA website to look for registered products. We found two different cleaning products that work similarly.

One is Force of Nature, which is an appliance that rearranges the molecules in water, vinegar, and salt, to make a safe cleaner that also disinfects and sanitizes. The other one is the Tersano iClean, which uses technology to electrolyze the water to create a safe disinfecting and sanitizing agent on the spot, out of tap water.

Preventative measures

We have several doormats, both indoors and outdoors, to capture the dirt and keep it out of the house, so we don’t have to clean as much.

Cleaner air

You also capture a lot of dirt in the filter for your heating and cooling unit, so you should clean it regularly. A MERV 13 filter will make for even better filtering if your cooling unit can handle it. I use a Green Screen air filter, which works on a different system from the pleated filters. You can also get HEPA filters with air purifiers to clean the air in your home.

Plants

Having lots of plants in your home also helps to clean some of the chemical toxins and pollutants out of the air.

A schedule

It helps if you can create a schedule where you spend just a few minutes each day doing some quick cleanup tasks so that you don’t have to do as much when you do a full house clean. Then you can have weekly tasks like mopping and cleaning the bathroom. You can do a deep clean once a month.

Simplifying and decluttering

Simplifying things, and decluttering, means that there will be fewer things for you to have to clean.

Referral Links:

My website Green Home Coach