A ‘green’ clean: Harsh chemicals are not required to clean your home

Jeff Broddle | Cadillac News Leslie Bell cleans a window in a door to her garage, using a solution of white vinegar and water. There are alternatives to cleaning with toxic cleaners.

We don’t have to rely on hazardous chemicals to keep our homes clean. Instead of using harsh cleaners that fill the air of our homes and workplaces with toxins, we can make our floors shine, our bathrooms sparkle and laundry white with the array of green products on the market today.

We may as well get used to it, according to professional cleaner Tom Thompson, owner of the Cadillac ServiceMaster franchise, who foresees it becoming the new standard.

“It’s coming,” he said. “I don’t see Al Gore going away anytime soon.”

While natural household products account for only 1 percent of the household cleaners market, the industry has grown in the U.S. to $100 million annually, according to one retailer of natural goods, Seventh Generation.

You can easily replace the chemical lab beneath your kitchen sink. Environmentally friendly cleaning products are readily available locally or can be purchased online or through catalogs. Consumers will find some of the natural cleaning products are more costly than conventional cleaners while some are more economical.

Make an Earth Day resolution to learn more about green cleaning products starting right here.

When temperatures turn mild, we instinctively fling open the windows to bring the clean, fresh, sweet spring air into our homes. With this simple gesture, you are on your way to spring cleaning the natural way.

The typical home is two to five times more polluted than the air outside, largely because of household cleaners and pesticides, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But a green movement has taken hold, providing a variety of environmentally friendly cleaning products for the home as well as commercial purposes.

“I see it coming across the board,” said Tom Thompson, owner of the ServiceMaster cleaning franchise in Cadillac.

ServiceMaster has pioneered environmentally safe cleaning methods by working directly with manufacturers to develop products. The conversion began about five years ago with floor products.

“They seem to work as well as old products,” Thompson said. “I see no discernable difference.”

However, some stubborn cleaning cases require stronger measures.

“If it doesn’t do the job, we have to step up the additives,” he said.

Thompson pointed out that there is more to green cleaning than using certain products.

“It’s not just a change in products,” he said. “It’s a change in process.”

The goal is to reduce the amount of chemicals used. One of Thompson’s secrets to reducing product use is the microfiber cloth. They have more surfaces to pick up soil, he explained.

BUDGET TIP: The professional cleaner suggests you go the auto department of a discount store to purchase microfiber cloths where they are less expensive than in the cleaning aisle.

A Shaklee dealer since 1973, Millie Thompson has been promoting green cleaning for 34 years, long before the term was coined. Shaklee has been selling Basic H biodegradable household cleaner since 1965.

“Jacques Cousteau used Basic H on his journeys because it didn’t hurt the seas,” Thompson said.

Basic H is a concentrate used to clean anything water-safe. Its long history has proven it not only a popular cleaner, but cost effective. A 16-ounce bottle of Basic H concentrate sells for $11.95 and makes 64 gallons of cleaner, according to Thompson.

Shaklee has expanded its green product line to include laundry soap, dryer sheets and germicides.

“The most important part is that the family is not going to have to smell (breathe) these toxins,” Thompson said.

HEALTH TIP: Cleaning products were responsible for nearly 10 percent of all toxic exposures reported to the U.S. Poison Control Centers in 2000.

Thompson warns consumers to check a label carefully to know what they are buying.

“Not all natural products are green,” he said, “like not all natural foods are organic.”

Apple Valley Natural Foods in Cadillac stocks 38 different cleaning products including dish soaps, laundry soap, vegetable cleaner, grease cleaner, bathroom cleaner and others. Store clerk Linda Esche reports the products sell quite well.

“When people repeatedly buy products, it works, or they wouldn’t buy them again,” she said.

BUYING TIP: Support Michigan producers. Apple Valley Natural Foods sells a laundry product made in Suttons Bay and an enzyme cleaner to replace chlorine produced in Kalamazoo.

For a return to grandmother’s simpler methods to make your home sparkle, stock up on vinegar and baking soda.

“Vinegar and soda are standbys at my house,” said homemaker Martha Bontrager.

Bontager buys soda in 50-pound bags. She adds three cups to a load of laundry as a softener. Sometimes she adds vinegar to the wash water to soften clothes and remove rust stains.

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