B00AFU6252 EBOK (30 page)

Never sand old paint yourself without first making sure that it doesn’t contain lead!

W
HEN
I
WAS GROWING UP
, my mom or grandmother always scoured every surface of our homes. Their idea of “clean” was a floor you could serve dinner on—meaning bleached to within an inch of its life. But now we know that conventional cleaning products are actually making your house dirtier—because they contain hundreds of toxic chemicals that you don’t want to inhale or absorb through your skin. Frankly, even back then, I had to suspect something was up—when you can’t be in the same room as a freshly “cleaned” sink or bathtub because the chemicals make your eyes water and your nose run (not to mention the label’s marked poison) . . . how is that
clean
?

S
O NOW THAT
you know how to style up your house—and know what you definitely
don’t
want in your house—let’s talk about how to take care of your lovely home. Keeping your house Honest Clean doesn’t have to mean floors you can eat off of and everything perfectly pin-straight at all times—we don’t make every bed every day at my house, and you’ll certainly find the occasional pileup of clutter (although too much clutter makes me crazy!). The Honest Home is lived in. It’s tidy, yes, and clean in a safe and healthy way—but also laid-back, friendly, and sometimes overflowing with (organized) chaos.

In fact, you don’t want a completely sterile, germ-free house. Christopher Gavigan is a big proponent of raising kids with “a dose of dirt” to help prevent allergies—because our overcleaning, sterilization, and sanitization can get in the way of building healthy, mature immune systems. More and more science is suggesting that there’s some hard truth in the “hygiene hypothesis,” that our culture of antibacterial soap and obsessive allergy monitoring has only led our kids’ immune systems away from fighting infection to developing more allergic tendencies. And all of this germ killing may end up leaving us
more
vulnerable to infection, as those antibacterial products get overused and kill off the healthy bacteria we really need. Besides, the active ingredients in antibacterial products have been linked to everything from thyroid damage to the explosion of superbugs (bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics).

So when you clean, don’t worry about whether you’re getting everything 100 percent science-lab sterile. That’s not the goal. Instead, focus on using healthy products to clear up obvious dirt (the kind that leads to ants in the kitchen!) and dust (that can be filled with those toxic chemicals). This means using nonpetroleum-based cleaning products, like the ones we’ve designed at Honest, or even simple homemade cleaning solutions you can mix up yourself.

F
OR AN EVERYDAY CLEAN
, there are a few low-effort and high-impact things you can do to make sure your home environment stays low on toxins and irritants.

Open the windows.
VOC (volatile organic compound) levels are higher indoors than out, so opening your windows for even just a few minutes every day—even in the winter!—can significantly improve your indoor air quality.

Take off your shoes.
I love shoes, of course, but their bottoms are nasty. Lead dust, animal feces, gasoline, fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals all pack into your soles. When you enter your house, leave your shoes at the door and keep this grossness there, too, instead of tracking it all over. (At the very least, keep your bedrooms and kids’ rooms shoe free!) You might even consider leaving a basket of slippers or brightly colored socks at the door for guests to use, if that’s your thing (in my house, we go barefoot).

Kick your chemical habit.
Switching to nontoxic cleaning products is just about the single most important thing you can do to purge your home air quality of
VOCs
and other toxic chemicals. Embrace label reading and avoid products with all the stuff listed in the Dishonest Ingredients charts—the biggies in this category are chlorine and ammonia, though cleaning products contain hundreds of other “inert” ingredients that you won’t find on labels.

Dust.
Most of the stuff in your house, plus the materials used to make the building itself, is slowly degrading and breaking down into microscopic particles that wind up in your dust. So wipe up surfaces regularly with a damp cloth and wipe hard floors with a damp mop (you typically only need water for these tasks). Swipe your screens (some of the most contaminated dust is found on TV and computer screens) and vacuum regularly with a machine outfitted with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter, which tightly traps the dust rather than flinging particles back into the room.

Wiping shoes on a mat and removing them at the door can cut lead dust tracked into the home by 60 percent, according to the EPA.

H
ERE’S A SURFACE-BY-SURFACE
guide to cleaning up every room in your house healthfully. Virtually every synthetic chemical-filled product you use can now be replaced with a nontoxic alternative. It may take you a while to get used to not having that aggressive pine forest or lemon smell that has signaled “clean” for oh, your whole life, but trust me—an odorless (or naturally scented) house is so much better for your and your family’s health.

Sweep or dry-mop often (daily in your kitchen) to get up the big stuff. Then damp-mop at least once a week to stay on top of dust; plain old water works amazingly well. When things get scummy, I like to add a bit of our Honest Floor Cleaner; whatever you use, make sure it’s natural and biodegradable.

Vacuum using a machine outfitted with a HEPA filter, which traps small particles and keeps them from spewing back into the room. If you sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and let it stand for 15 to 30 minutes beforehand, you’ll naturally deodorize the carpet at the same time.

Area rugs can also be hung outside on cold, breezy days for several hours—this will freshen them up, release toxins, and, if temperatures dip below freezing, also kill dust mites.

For deeper cleaning, professionals tend to use really toxic cleaners on carpet. Instead, rent a steam cleaner from a local home improvement store or supermarket.

Pretreat spots with lemon juice and
1
⁄
8
cup of liquid soap to 2 gallons of hot water (skip the conventional rug cleaners—they’re full of harsh chemicals—although I do like Earth Friendly Products Carpet Shampoo and, of course, Honest Stain Remover). Make sure the carpet is thoroughly dry before children are allowed back in, and if your carpet is in a damp room, run a dehumidifier regularly to discourage mold growth (inhaling mold spores can trigger allergies and asthma—or worse, make you seriously sick).