Spring Cleaning with Homemade Cleaners

Comparative risk studies performed by the Environmental Protection Agency have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. Many cleaning products, which we inhale, are prime indoor air polluters, as well as poisonous, if ingested. Companies are not even required to list all the ingredients and their concentrations on the bottles, even if they are hazardous. But spring cleaning can be easy, cheap and toxic-free by using basic ingredients such as club soda, olive oil, vinegar, and baking soda. For example, Consumer Reports Books (a division of Consumers Union) has found plain water, as a glass cleaner, to be more effective than commercial equivalents. Use olive oil (with lemon essential oil for fragrance) to polish your furniture; vinegar, water and an essential oil for fragrance to mop your floor; or salt and lime juice to remove rust.

If you are going to make your own homemade cleaners, here are some helpful hints from Karen Logan's new book Clean House, Clean Planet (Simon & Schuster, 1997, $12): label the cleaners properly, don't reuse commercial containers, never mix commercial products with homemade products, and don't concoct your own mixes--mixing two safe ingredients together may give you unexpected results. Logan tested all her homemade cleaning products and has included an effectiveness rating with every recipe (ratings are unscientific, based on her own opinion and the opinions of housekeepers, family members and friends). Logan provides price comparisons between homemade cleaners and commercial products in the book.

Other resources, all of which include lots of recipes:

• Life on the Planet, Logan's company, sells empty bottles with cleaning recipes on them. 818/880-5144.

• Clean and Green, Annie Berthold-Bond, Ceres Press, 1994,(available through Mothers & Others, $8.95).

• Clean Up Your Act!, League of Women Voters of New Castle, P.O. Box 364, Chappaqua, New York, 10514, (1994), $10.