Eliminating Household Chemicals

It took a while and I still cringe when I am buying new supplies of expensive, but non-toxic household cleaners, but I am proud to say that I have eliminated most harsh daily household cleaning products.

Motivated by skin irritations in family members, I started with the laundry detergents. Because I was a sucker for the nice smell of fabric softeners, I weaned myself very slowly from the product. Using less and less and finally diluting the product with water...until my last bottle was used up...Gulp. I don't think anybody in the family noticed.

Next on my list was the laundry detergent. I researched and shopped around and found VIP laundry soap at the local supermarket was affordable and met my criteria. VIP is a local company based in Mission. Their laundry detergent is Scent free, dye free, comes in a recyclable bottle (I actually used the granules that come in a plastic bag), biodegradable, septic safe, no Phosphates, no NTA or EDTA, not tested on animals and no optical brightener. The other product that I since have found is by Nature Clean. They have a whole line of household products which now are available at my local supermarket.

Laundry under control, I moved to find a general cleaning product. I do use Baking Soda and Vinegar, but do find that for dishes, floors, toilets I need a bit of sudsing action. Nature Clean, also a Canadian company (based in Ontario), has a great All Purpose Cleaner. I replaced my household cleaner, bathroom cleaner and dish detergent with this one procuct. Apparently, one can also use it for laundry. Eureka.

The last item on my list was the dishwasher detergent. The natural products for this purpose seemed shamelessly overprized. I finally caved in and bought a box of Nature Clean dishwashing detergent.

Because the products are quite a bit more expensive, I am using minute amounts. Luckily, the softness of Vancouver's water lends itself to that practice. Using about a teaspoon of dishwasher detergent per load, my box has lasted almost a year, or about 150 loads. Ditto for the laundry detergent. I eliminated the cost of softener and have cut down on the amount of granules used per load. A teaspoon full is about all I need for a normal wash.

Since embarking on this quest, sustainability and ecofriendliness have become part of everybodies vocabulary. Hopefully, with more and more people switching to less toxic alternatives, these products will become more affordable and widely available.