my simple home: 5 small hazards to avoid

OK. Another installment in my new My Simple Home series. For those of you new to things, I’m doing a series of posts that follows my journey to create the cleanest, most eco, minimal home possible and sharing each step, figuring you might like to learn from the process, too. This time I’ve got building biologist Nicole Bijlsma to share a few of her favourite tips for cleaning up our home act. I asked her to share easy, everyday stuff – some simple, inexpensive swaps or choices to make.

As with every step of this process, I don’t advocate throwing stuff out. Me, I’ll be using up the things I already have (not tossing them), then switching to other options as they need replacing. I implore you to do the same. If you’ve lived with Ajax until now, it won’t kill you to finish up the bottle!

The salient points from the video are these:

1. Cleaning products. Use Microfibre cloths.  Avoid ammonia, bleach, and fragrances. PS if you’re after some totally clean, lean and green cleaning products, check out below.

2. Packaging. Plastic containers – they’re not meant to be heated in microwaves or put in the freezer. Check the identification codes on your plastic – 2, 4, 5 are ok. Avoid the rest. Glass, or ceramic containers are best. Me, I use old glass jars a lot.

3. Baking paper.  There are new concerns about baking paper, as the non-stick aspect is like non-stick teflon.. You’re better off using something like plain brown paper and a layer of coconut oil. This I didn’t know!

4. Digital alarm clocks. Don’t use a mobile phone as your alarm clock. Just don’t. Ever. Switch to a battery-operated digital clock.

Read more