You worry about the ingredients in your cosmetics and nutritional bars, and if your product is covered with pesticides. So why does your house still fill with toxic fumes every time you clean the bathroom?
When it comes to unpleasant ingredients, products made for washing and disinfection are some of the worst offenders, and they are also more difficult to vet.
We’ve made the job easier for you, with our list of the 8 best eco-friendly household cleaners.
1.) Common Good Soaps (Amazon)
Sacha Dunn co-founded Common Good, with her husband Edmond and the duo have won a prize for the most elegant packaging and the simplest formulas. (The products include only three ingredients, which is unprecedented in home cleaning.
2.) Method – All Purpose Cleaner (Amazon)
Established in San Francisco in 2000, the Method line is a Target store staple and you might recognize its popular hand soap. Their products are an excellent alternative to serious polluting ingredients, such as exfoliating beads, as they look, feel and function just like more conventional brands (and are one of the most affordable options).
Method are known for producing products that are good for the environment; they are all checked independently and certified which means they are generally better for you, too.
The company maintains a detailed glossary ingredient on its website which provides definitions and explanations for 113 ingredients, and while making the ingredient summary list they highlighted fragrance (which is often a gap in labeling where bad things can hide). A brand representative said all fragrance materials should be presented to be non-irritating, non-toxic and non-allergenic, and should be fully biodegradable.
3.) Meyers Soaps (Amazon)
If you’ve ever been to a hip restaurant, taken a class in a modern gym, or simply bought it at a grocery store because of its distinctive look-you will recognize Mrs. Meyer.
The company has, as its essential products items such as dishwashing soap, toilet cleaners (which I have found to be really effective, without that bleach smell), multi-purpose sprays, all with the aromas of fresh flowers such as geranium, basil and lemon grass .
The formulas are clean and ingredients are clearly indicated on the bottle (transparency, yay!). They say their products are made a combination of essential oils and safe synthetic perfumes.
4.) Grab Green (Amazon)
When conventional cleaning products were causing her children to suffer from allergies, Patricia Spencer decided she could do better and launched her own brand.
Grab Greens products include general purpose cleaning, window cleaners, detergents, kitchen soaps, and more, and they are all on the affordable side, with a complete list of ingredients available on the website.
5.) Honest Company Products (Amazon)
When elegant, grounded super-celebrity Jessica Alba became a mother, her baby’s allergic reaction to a detergent led to a road that would eventually lead to a new enterprise: a non-toxic household line along with skin care products for babies, which she co-founded with Christopher Gavigan, the former director general of Healthy World Healthy Child.
As the name implies, the company is honest and super transparent. The list of ingredients are printed on each bottle (good news!) And the products do not contain synthetic fragrances, so they leave behind a beautiful natural smell.
The company educates, too, by providing a list (on-line and with deliveries) of super toxic ingredients like phthalates, formaldehyde, parabens, phosphates and chlorine, where they promise that these will never appear in their products and tell you to avoid purchasing and using them elsewhere. They also invest in research to help shed more light on how chemicals in consumer products affect health.
6.) Seventh Generation Cleaners (Amazon)
Seventh Generation is the grandfather of natural cleaning brands. It was founded in 1988 and over time has grown into a multi-million dollar brand, making recycled paper towels, herbal soaps, and chlorine bleach, all filled with biodegradable or recyclable materials and made with a low carbon footprint. (It probably did not hurt that the company recently received a $ 30 million investment from Al Gore.)
7.) Gaia Natural (Amazon)
Brand Cluster #B 003
When her twins were born, Karen Troutt hated the idea of using anything synthetic or chemical filled around them (detecting a topic here? ). And so began the development of lots of natural home-made cleansers with ingredients like baking soda, soap, distilled white vinegar and essential oils.
Now she makes them for everyone, with the help of her husband, who happens to be a biochemist. I’m using the same ingredients our grandmothers used, says Troutt. They also make a powdered soap, which is a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of pump dispensers.
The independent brand initially attracted attention because of their sleek design, which you can look for on the shelves of local stores or Whole Foods.
8.) Caldrea Aroma (Amazon)
The luxury Caldrea colored bottles look great, but their unique scents are their main selling point. Think detergent for clothes and bedding in pear, ginger and damson or sprays of plum scented bergamot. Delicious!
The company avoids the main criminal ingredients such as phthalates and ammonia, but does not release the full list of ingredients when it comes to perfume. Although they do say that they use a combination of natural essential oils from flowers and herbs with safe ingredients along with some some synthetic stablisers.