Bring Nature Back Home, Get Rid Of Chemicals!

Are you familiar with this situation? After spending a delightful weekend in nature, we jump straight back into our ‘toxic routine’ at home. We eat processed food from factories, we wear artificial fabrics, and our kids play with toys full of heavy metals.

However, one step after another: you have the power to change it. I suggest you begin where the risk is highest — with detergents. Why detergents? Simple: detergents based on acids represent the purest sources of toxicity in your household. After being persuaded by commercials for decades, we started to believe that if we do not disinfect our house with weapons of mass destruction each weekend, we would be eaten alive by germs.

Would we? Not really. Hygiene is extremely important, but nature offers simple solutions for everything. Unless you plan to perform heart surgeries in your living room, natural products can keep you and your family safe from both bacteria and toxic substances. Here are several tips.

• Black mould is very dangerous, and you have to take countermeasures. Is there any alternative to standard acid treatment? Yes, there is! White vinegar will kill both fungi and bacteria, and it is completely harmless and biodegradable. Moreover, it is pretty cheap.

• A dirty microwave is the most unpleasant place to clean. Its lack of accessibility and close contact with food often mean that we helplessly spend hours scrubbing off the grime. Here is a little trick: place a bowl of water with lemon and orange slices inside your microwave and run it at max power for 4-5 minutes. Voila! The citruses will absorb grease, and the vapour breaks the dirt crust. After five minutes, just wipe it off.

• A dirty stovetop causes lot of problems, especially if you have an induction one, since you want to avoid scratching it. If you have not cleaned it right after cooking, you will find a hard layer of burnt dirt. Help comes in the form of a mixture of baking soda and water. Let it react for a while, then scrub with a soft plastic scrubber.

• A dirty oven is even worse than a dirty stovetop. When you look properly, you will be able to identify the remains of the 2007 Christmas cake (hopefully not, but you know that feeling of looking into an oven). Take baking soda again, but this time add a few drops of liquid soap and a few tablespoons of white vinegar. Turn it into a paste and rub it inside the oven. Let it sit there for several hours (ideally overnight) and then try your luck.

As you can see, the most basic natural ingredients that you find in your kitchen can help you to clean your home efficiently, safely, and much more cheaply than traditional commercial products based on chlorine and sulphuric acid.