TweetWe all want our home to be healthy and natural. However, no matter how hard we try, people are going to get sick and throw up (whether this is courtesy of a bug brought home from school/work or courtesy of too much homebrewed cider, we won’t enquire). And if we try to create a household containing more than one species, the inevitable will happen while we try to teach our cats and dogs the appropriate places to dispose of body waste.
Now – how do you deal with this naturally without resorting to all those artificial disinfectants and deodorants? Most of us will, let’s be realistic, abandon our back-to-nature principles when confronted with a pile of poop, pee or puke, but it is possible to deal with these naturally.
Step one is to remove the offending substance. Don your rubber gloves and hold your breath. Use a towel to scoop up larger piles of ick (e.g. vomit) and use loo paper or a paper towel to scoop up smaller bits (poop). For pee, pop a very absorbent towel over it and let the towel soak it up. Then flush the solid ick down the lavatory – it’s biodegradable and will break down without any bother. Clean up any remainder with loo paper.
Don’t use a good towel for this process. Use an older one or sacrifice one. Once you’ve cleaned up the mess, the best way of dealing with lingering germs is pouring boiling water over it. This will kill the germs. After that (and after all the visible grot is off the towel), then wash as normal. The towel may end up a little stained, but it will be safe to use.
The second step is to remove any visible mess or stain on the carpet or floor. This is easy on a hard surface such as linoleum, but a bit harder on carpet. The easiest way is to use a stout scrubbing brush and some soapy water. Make sure the soapy water is not hot – blood heat at the warmest – as hot water can set a stain into the carpet, especially in the case of vomit, which may very well contain protein. Scrub like heck and then blot up the remainder with another towel.
Next, you’ll have to kill any germs and deal with any lingering smell. Getting rid of the lingering smell is especially important in the case of animal pee – if the place still smells of pee (to a dog or cat’s nose, not yours) then the pet in question will conclude that this spot is OK to use as a toilet.
Killing germs is best done with one of the disinfectant essential oils such as lavender, eucalyptus or tea tree oil. Add a few drops to some dilute vinegar and spray on. If you can haul the dirtied item out into full sunshine, this will also work wonders. Hard linoleum can also be sterilised with boiling water. And remember that the soap will have done a lot of work. Germs won’t survive if they don’t have food and water, so if the area is thoroughly cleaned and dried, you’ll be OK.
The final touch to rid soft surfaces of any lingering smell is to sprinkle baking soda onto the spot. This absorbs smells. Then vacuum it up.
Never, ever try to vacuum up vomit. Even if you’re blind drunk, try to remember this. The vacuum cleaner will stink of puke forever.
TweetBack in the day who knew about Mr. Muscle or Flash? People used natural products to clean their homes. These products were inexpensive, they were used for multi-purposes and honestly, in my own opinion many of these products clean much better than the newer products that cover the shelves in the grocery store.
In addition, natural cleaning products offer environmentally sound, cost-efficient alternatives to the poisonous and potentially lethal house cleaning products used in many homes today. Use of these natural options is especially critical as most traditional cleaning products eventually contact the air, water, and/or soil, where they can cause major and permanent harm to animals, plants, drinking water, and food supplies.
So what should you consider using?
Vinegar
Vinegar naturally cleans like an all-purpose cleaner. Mix a solution of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar in a new store bought spray bottle and you have a solution that will clean most areas of your home. Vinegar is a great natural cleaning product as well as a disinfectant and deodorizer. Always test on a not easily seen area.
It is safe to use on most surfaces and best of all its incredibly cheap. Improperly diluted vinegar is acidic and can eat away at tile grout. Never use vinegar on marble surfaces. Do not worry about your home smelling like vinegar. The smell disappears when it dries and if you want, you could always spray the relaxing scent of lavender to rid the smell. Here are some uses for vinegar in the rooms of your house.
Places to use vinegar in your home…
1. Bathroom – Clean the bathtub, toilet, sink, and countertops. Use pure vinegar in the toilet bowl to get rid of rings. Flush the toilet to allow the water level to go down. Pour the undiluted vinegar around the inside of the rim. Scrub down the bowl. Mop the flour in the bathroom with a vinegar/water solution. The substance will also eat away the soap scum and hard water stains on your fixtures and tile. Make sure it is safe to use with your tile.
2. Kitchen – Clean the stovetop, appliances, countertops, and floor.
3. Laundry Room – Use vinegar as a natural fabric softener. This can be especially helpful for families who have sensitive skin. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle in place of store bought fabric softener. Vinegar has the added benefit of breaking down laundry detergent more effectively. (A plus when you have a family member whose skin detects every trace of detergent.)
When you choose to use natural cleaning products like vinegar, you help keep our global home a bit cleaner and safer for this generation and those to come.
TweetNowadays everyone is suffering from allergies. I know at least 10 people of the top of my head whose kids suffer from asthma. Did you ever ask yourself why? Why do so many people suffer allergies, medical conditions, and various illnesses? Could it stem from the house cleaning products and the chemicals we use inside and outside our home?
How healthy is your home? Your home may sparkle because it is clean, but in the end, those chemicals might be damaging you and your family’s bodies more than you are aware.
The problem is in today’s world everyone is always on the run. Your either working, running to school events, running to after school activities, chauffeuring the kids to wherever, and tending to daily responsibilities. All these responsibilities fill up your daily schedules. With all this going on in your busy schedule honestly who has time to research how hazardous each cleaning product might be. Who has time to examine each chemical in every product and the long-term effects it might have on people and animals. How many people have the time to seriously think about what cleaning products are safest to use in the home? Who has the time to research this topic come on now?
But if you really want to protect the one’s you love than the health of your home is crucially important and this is why you need to know what products you are using to clean them. Even though your busy, make time, your family health comes first. Nothing matters more than a healthy home with happy people living in that home. This is why I have created a quick list of the three reasons why you should be cleaning your home with natural cleaning products.
Do it for yourself, your family and the environment:
- Safer & healthier: Do you know what is in the household cleaning products you are using? The fact is, most house cleaning products on market shelves today contain many harmful and hazardous toxins and chemicals. These hazardous toxic substances can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation or absorption through the skin, which can affect the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and the brain and have the potential to cause many serious health problems. Natural cleaning products on the other hand are non-toxic and much safer to use because they are made from natural, wholesome, ingredients. In addition, when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting your home, they work just as effectively if not better than the chemical products that sell in thousands of stores.
- Better for the environment: Most retail brand household cleaning products are made from harmful chemicals and these substances later become pollutants for our air and our landfills. Natural cleaning products on the other hand are made from natural ingredients, which are non-toxic as well as biodegradable and thus have a reduced impact on our environment. In addition, most natural cleaning products are frequently made from recycled packaging and materials.
- Save you money: It should come as no surprise to you that the average costs for keeping up a family and a household are continuing to rise. However, you do not have to endanger the health of your families or your homes by using expensive, toxic chemical cleaning products. Natural cleaning products are not only safer to use, they also save you money because they last longer and cost less. In addition, to have a pretty scent in your home add 100% natural essential oils to your home made recipes such as tea tree oil, lavender or lemon oil which not only provide a fresh aroma and scent, but also have natural antiseptic, antifungal and disinfectant properties contained within them.
