A Cleaner Clean.

9/30/2011

"The ammonia vapour from concentrated ammonia solutions is severely irritating
to the eyes and the respiratory tract, and these solutions should only be
handled in a fume hood. Saturated ("0.880") solutions can develop a significant
pressure inside a closed bottle in warm weather, and the bottle should be opened
with care; this is not usually a problem for 25% ("0.900") solutions.
Ammonia solutions should not be mixed with halogens, as toxic and/or explosive products are
formed. Prolonged contact of ammonia solutions with silver, mercury or iodide salts can also lead to explosive products:
such mixtures are often formed in qualitative chemical analysis, and should be
lightly acidified but not concentrated (<6% w/v) before disposal once the
test is completed." - www.wikipedia.org

Why, oh why, would people want to clean with substances that are so bad for us? These chemicals we are using to "clean" our homes are potentially very harmful for us. I don't know about you, but when the bottles of cleaners have hazardous written all over it, it makes me rethink using them. Why not trying a greener choice?

There are many products these days that do a great job of cleaning- personally tested! But more importantly, they do a great job of caring for the environment.

I prefer the ingredients in my cleaners to be something like "corn and coconut derived biodegradable surfactants" and "corn alcohol" (whiskey?) than "petrolium distillate". I feel much safer using non-toxic, ammonia-free , natural cleaners, where the only symbol on the bottle is a little triangle with arrows instead of symbols that show skull and crossbones and some liquid that burns though your hands. Gross. Bring on the vinegar and water!!

I love the idea of cleaning with vinegar. It's a great, natural cleaner, but I'm not going to lie. It's not the best smelling stuff. If I wanted my house to smell like pickles, I'd be cool with using it, any day, every day. Then I saw the vinegar- Dawn soap pin. 50-50 mix of the two and you've got a pretty effective cleaner. At first, I was skeptical. I didn't dedicate a whole bottle to making the concoction. It was about a table spoon of each, just to test it out. I really didn't want my house smelling like pickles. So, it tried it out, and it actually is pretty awesome stuff. I'll keep using it for sure. My toilet is gleeming thanks to this stuff. Also note, the bottle is now full. I believe.