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Going green is good for your family. Simplifying the products you use in your home can help keep your family safe, save you money, and save the planet.
One of the best ways to save money and create a safe home environment is to multi-task some of the ingredients and materials you already use. This allows you to buy key items in bulk to save money, and also limits your family's exposure to dangerous chemical compounds. Understand Your Grocery StoreGrocery stores have grown their product offerings by providing shelf space to products with more-and-more specific applications. This is great for sellers because it creates new markets. For the consumer, however, it is more expensive because you need more and more products that do fewer and fewer things. These products cost you money, take up valuable space in your cabinets, and are often under-utilized because they have such specific applications that the prepackaged quantities are much more than you need. Save Money by Using Multi-TaskersLime and scale removal products are a good example. These products do a great job of removing mineral deposits from your sinks, showers, glassware, and faucets, but that's all they do. If you purchased white vinegar in a half-gallon jug, you could use it to remove scale as well as the professional products, but it would also be a great multi-tasker that could be used to clean your floors, counters, and coffee pot, as well as polish chrome, kill weeds, treat bee stings, reduce the discomfort of sunburn, and much more. Products like baking soda, salt, dental floss, wood soap, toothpaste, clothespins, olive oil, mineral oil, petroleum jelly, and lemon juice, can be used in many useful and inexpensive ways to stretch your dollar and limit your exposure to dangerous chemicals. Reduce Your Exposure to Caustic ChemicalsIt's not uncommon to be confronted with an evening news segment warning against the hazards of using substances that you've trustingly brought your home. As medical research explores the ways that complex chemical compounds affect our health, our collective idea of what's safe continues to evolve. Sometimes that means being confronted with the fact that we've inadvertently put ourselves at risk. Exploring ways to use basic, natural ingredients creatively is a good method for keeping our families and the planet safer. The next time you reach for the furniture polish, spot remover, air freshener, silver polish, copper cleaner, scale remover, bug spray, weed killer, or carpet shampoo, think about whether or not you already have the ingredients you need to do that household job. A little vinegar or lemon juice might serve just as well. Rethinking your choices will save you money, and save your family needless exposure to caustic and possibly dangerous substances. Not only that, but reduced packaging and chemical waste in landfills is good for everyone.
The copyright of the article Go Green in Your Home in Natural Products is owned by S. Elliott. Permission to republish Go Green in Your Home in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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