While chlorine bleach breaks down faster in the water system than many detergents and other disinfectants, it’s still not a great choice, since it can have significant environmental effects before it breaks down.  Choose a sanitizer that has less of an impact, or skip disinfecting entirely - while it’s important for a hospital, it’s much less so for your own home.  In fact, the wide spread use of antibacterial soaps is resulting in less effective water treatment and stronger germs!  That’s one good reason to disinfect less often.  There are a lot of cheap, healthy, and environmentally non-damaging substitutes that can do just as good a job with cleaning most of the time.  Let’s take a look at a few.

Simple, Non-toxic Cleaners You Can Make At Home

Vinegar - this simple acid is a great cleanser and won’t hurt you, most surfaces, or anyone who comes in contact with it.  It doesn’t cause serious problems with the water system, either.  It’s great either straight out of the bottle or in a solution for cleaning floors and windows, and works well when combined with baking soda for stain removal.

Vinegar, baking soda, and very hot water can even be used to fix a clogged sink, depending on what’s causing the clog.  Just pour a quarter cup of baking soda and salt into the drain, followed by a half cup of vinegar, then stop up the drain.  Wait fifteen minutes and pour the hottest water you can down the drain.  There’s a good chance the clog will disappear!  This works best for slow drains rather than complete clogs.  To deodorize a toilet, pour three cups of vinegar into the bowl and allow to stand for a half hour.

Mix a quarter cup of baking soda in a cup of vinegar for an easy toilet cleaner, as well.  Vinegar in the refrigerator works as well as baking soda to deodorize - just put an open cup into the fridge.  Use heated vinegar to get food off of dishes.  Glass and ceramic can be put into the microwave with a mix of vinegar and water, then heated.  Metal can be simmered on the stovetop with the same mixture.  Stuck on food comes off easier when you use vinegar and heat.  Simple white vinegar is a great choice, though some people choose cider vinegar, too.

If you’ve been told that white vinegar is a petroleum derivative, you’ve been misinformed - food grade vinegar comes from grains, though laboratory acetic acid may use petroleum in its production process.  If you don’t care for the smell of vinegar in cleaners, there’s an easy way to fix the problem.  Just mix a little peppermint oil or another essential oil into your cleaners.  You’ll get to enjoy a “clean floor smell” without the headache that comes from many commercial cleaners.

Baking Soda - This cheap, useful abrasive works well with vinegar or on its own.  It makes a great air and fridge freshener, can help you get odors out of furniture and carpets, can help with scrubbing porcelain surfaces and dishes, and reacts with acids to create a bubbly cleaning solution.  There are all kinds of uses for baking soda and its somewhat harsher cousin, washing soda, that allow you to avoid using commercial cleansers with greater side effects.  A cloth dipped in hot water, baking soda, and a little dish soap is great for cleaning walls and kitchens.  Mix two tablespoons of washing soda in three cups of water for another window cleaner that won’t streak like plain water.