EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

There are certain bacteria and parasites that I want nothing to do with. But since meningitis and malaria are not realistic threats in my personal toilet bowl (despite consumer advertising), I question if sanitizing against them is a necessity. Use of chemical cleaners in the home can be replaced in most cases with a little common sense. Optimizing your home's health does not involve buying a greener cleaning product (or buying any products at all), but rather understanding life's natural hygienic processes.

In reality, 75% of my at-home cleaning combats not bacteria and parasites, but street grime: dust and dirt brought in by air, hands and feet. The great news is that dust and dirt are not contagious, so there is no reason to sterilize against them. That means no chemicals are needed for three-fourths of my household cleaning. So go ahead and use up that last bottle of Pledge and Mop ‘n Glo and vow never to replace them. There are plenty of natural alternatives.

Indoor Air Purifiers
In my Hollywood home, I leave the windows wide open for most of the year. Many of my windows do not have screens. Although insects are not a concern in SoCal's major metropolis of LA, the occasional bird and airborne street pollution is. To combat dirt (which is my personal, single-biggest cleaning concern), I could simply close my windows and install an electricity-hogging air purifier. Instead I rely on the natural purification of house plants. I inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide; plants breathe in carbon dioxide, filter impurities, and breathe out clean oxygen. It's as if we were born to sustain each other.

The air-purification rule for plants is 'the more, the merrier.'  In my 30' x 20' living room alone—with wide open windows in dirty LA—I have five large house plants and five small. In all, I care for over 40 houseplants (yes, my home's air is very clean), ranging from common ferns to exotic orchids to entheogenic cactuses.

All plants breathe the same way, so variety is unimportant. However, some are particularly good at absorbing benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene (chemicals used in dry cleaning, flame retardants, inks, plastics and adhesives). According to a study done by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA), 80% of formaldehyde introduced into sealed plexiglass containers was removed within 24 hours by Spider Plant, Golden Pathos and Philodendron plants. NASA research scientist, Dr. Bill Wolverton, estimates that 15 to 20 Golden Pathos and Spider Plants can clean and refresh air in the average 1,800-square-foot home.

Other plants exceptionally well known for absorbing these perpetrators include the easy-to-grow Ficus, Peace Lilly, Snake Plant, Dracaena, English Ivy, Rubber Plant, Bamboo Palm and Chinese Evergreen.

Clean Up Your Act
Let's face it: I'm lazy. I don't like cleaning at all. So I've figured out how to maintain natural cleanliness rather than have to restore it. Why waste time cleaning our own toxins indoors when we could just stop producing them? Furniture, carpeting, building materials, mattresses, clothing and paper give off gas as much as autos, and because of their direct proximity to our daily lives, they are far more harmful to our health. I do not have a child, but the last thing I would want is my kid crawling across a formeldehyde-dipped carpet or teething on a benzene-based toy. It is safe to assume that if you have not gone the extra mile to choose healthier alternatives, your home design and lifestyle products are likely causing in-home air pollution.

Let's remove the sources of our interior air pollution before expecting house plants to do it for us. Non-VOC building materials, natural fiber clothing and organic bedding will go a long way in this regard.

Used items are another option. Besides saving the Earth from the pollution caused by manufacturing new products, you also will lessen your indoor pollution. Why? Because much of the toxic gas from building materials, carpeting, clothing, bedding, etc., is significantly reduced after 10 years, depending on the product. Beginning to acquire previously owned yard-sale, thrift-store and Craigslist items, which may have already off-gassed their chemicals, cleans up not only your living space, but also landfills.

Hand Washing and Shoe Wiping
Other dust and dirt invaders are brought in from the street on your clothes and body. If you've ever ridden the New York City subway, and have had that 'I need to wash my hands' cootie feeling, you know exactly what I mean. The natural hygienic way to assure that your hands aren't dirtying up doorknobs, cabinets and cushions is simply to wash your hands with a gentle, vegetable-based bar soap upon returning home. Every time.

And to reduce the amount of street dirt walked in on our shoes, we could have a 'no-shoes' rule, like my next-door neighbors. But that is far too bothersome for my in-motion lifestyle, so I wipe my shoes on an entry mat instead.

Surface Dust and Dirt
Obviously, there is still dust and dirt in my home. Houseplants, hand-washing and shoe-wiping reduce the need to clean my home considerably, but once every six weeks I still sweep for crumbs and dust for incense ash. To clean remaining dust and dirt from household surfaces, there is nothing wrong with the old-school feather duster or damp rag. For wood surfaces, you can shake up a per-use combination of one cup water (the world's natural cleaner), ½ tablespoon grape seed, almond or olive oil, and ½ tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice in a reused, lidded jar. Shake frequently to keep the solution mixed and either dampen your dust rag with it, or place it in a manual spray bottle.

Wood, Tile, Linoleum and Slate Floors
Wood floors like the hydration of a little oil, too, so I use essentially the same formula to mop as I do to dust, only in larger quantities: two gallons warm water, ½ cup almond or olive oil and ½ cup fresh-squeezed citrus juice. Tile, linoleum and slate flooring don't appreciate the oil formula, so I add one tablespoon  of natural dish soap to two gallons of warm water for these mop applications. To remove hand prints from walls and cabinetry, diluted dish soap and light friction works wonders every time.

Cleaning and Deodorizing Carpeting
Vacuuming carpeting is a no-brainer. If there are animal smells, scatter baking-soda powder across the carpet and allow it to absorb odors for an hour or so before vacuuming. If you ever spill wax on carpet, like I seem to consistently, place a sheet of newspaper over the dried wax and iron it at high temperature, replacing newspaper as often as necessary. It will readily absorb the wax. The amount of newspaper you’ll need will be proportional to the magnitude of your wax foible. Again, dish soap and warm water have removed almost every stain left on my carpets and comforters. Spot-clean those stains—and don't be afraid to get serious. It may take longer, but in 99.9% of cases, elbow grease works just as well as any chemical stain-removal product.

In the end, you will find that your water, lemon juice, vegetable oil, dish soap and house plants are doing most of the house cleaning for you. And instead of scrubbing the floors with chemically manufactured consumer products, you can spend your time once a month wiping off the leaves of your houseplants, helping those natural filters clean themselves and reciprocating carbon dioxide to them by exhaling words of appreciation for the oxygen they give you. Now I know why talking to your plants works.

Next week: tips on cleaning kitchens and bathrooms.

Read Part 2: Think Like a Germ
Read Part 3: More Tips and Tricks

Also see: My Body Is a Self-Cleaning Organism: Natural Body Cleansing Tips

[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

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