When it comes to cleaning products, there are tons of options…
… especially many with major greenwashing going on.
Greenwashing is when the label makes it seem clean and good, but when you read the ingredient list you find out that’s not true.
I prefer to keep it simple, but given the wide range of needs from laundry to dishes to the house in general, here is the range of products I currently use.
And I have to say currently, because that can change (like when a company gets bought, ingredient lists change, or something better crops up).
It may seem odd to some that I’m writing an email about cleaning products, but as some of you know, cleaning products are a huge source of toxins.
The best way to decrease our body toxicity is to not put the toxins in in the first place.
That’s why cleaning products are a really important aspect to our health nowadays – because our skin can be exposed and we inhale them.
We have to be so careful about these toxins because they can disrupt hormones, affect fertility, cause cancer, cause obesity, etc etc etc.
Some of the toxins we DON’T want in our cleaning products include:
• Fragrances (because this term can hide a plethora of toxins, if you find a product that says “fragrance” and everything else looks good, reach out to the company and ask how this fragrance is sourced)
• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Sulfates (like Ammonium Laurel Sulfate and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate)
• DEA and TEA
• Triclosan
• Polyethylene Glycols (PEGs)
Note: I always go with unscented, I don’t care which company it is.
Laundry is an area where I have hugely varying needs.
The base product I use for a lot of laundry is Molly’s Suds.
I do also use Dirty Labs’ Bio Enzyme Liquid Laundry Detergent for general laundry purposes.
Especially if you notice some items needing a refresher and you want to strip your clothes, these enzymes with Molly’s Suds work great for this type of soaking.
But if it’s wool, like my beloved Merino Tech or alpaca wool sweaters, then it has to be Outback Gold Wool Wash.
The lanolin in it is one of the key reasons it’s so great for wool items.
I also use Outback Gold Wool Wash for my period underwear, as the top layer is merino wool (switching to this cleaner was a game changer here).
In terms of cleaning the bathrooms, I like Branch Basics at this point.
If you happen to be in one of my bathrooms, you’ll notice the bottles say something different – Branch Basics comes hyper-concentrated, so I just refilled the bottles with Branch Basics.
When it comes to doing dishes, I usually prefer block soaps because they drastically reduce the amount of trash.
For example Branch Basics is a good step in reducing waste, but it does still create some plastic waste.
The block soaps I use come from Etsy, and every so often I look around for other options when prices get too high.
This is the block soap I have right now.
Sometimes liquid or foamy dish soap is needed, for that I use the one from elcove.
And for the dishwasher I use Rosey Laundry Detergent Powder.
You’ll notice a lot of these companies do cover more cleaning needs than what I use them for.
There is no particular need to use so many brands, it just slowly built as different needs came up, or I saw the chance to decrease waste.
The end goal, aside from getting things clean, is to be toxin free and reducing waste.
