Are my allergies just an excuse not to clean?

September 12, 2008 3:06 PM

What are your favorite unscented or allergy-friendly home products?

I'm getting my own place and will finally have the opportunity be free of chemicals, cigarette smoke and other nasty stuff that give me problems. I am specifically allergic to perfume, but can handle things that smell like food (pumpkin, cinnamon) and sometimes gentle scents (baby powder, vanilla, mint). Unfortunately a lot of scents that I could normally stand have gotten more "chemically" in products (orange, lemon and sometimes a flower base seems to be added to vanilla). I don't have to touch or even notice the smell of perfume to have a reaction, I can merely walk by a store in the mall and start swelling up. I also have problems with chemicals, if I walk into a home store with lots of new upholstery or carpets or down the laundry detergent aisle I could almost faint.

So what products do you suggest I use for my new apartment? I'm located in the USA so anything that I can buy at a regular grocery store, Target or perhaps online would do. I like Method's "Go Naked" hand soap but that's all I've tried so far. What do you suggest for an all-purpose cleaner, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, dish washing liquid, etc.? I like the idea of going old-school and cleaning with ammonia but I'm not sure I could handle that either.

posted by Bunglegirl to home & garden (14 comments total)

I'm not allergic, but I have a sensitive nose, and while its not perfect, Arm and Hammer Baking Soda detergent does it for me. They also have a 'Washing Soda" but I'm not familiar with that.

I'm pretty sure Dr. Bronners is hypo-allergenic too. And its minty-fresh!
posted by elendil71 at 3:24 PM on September 12, 2008

White vinegar is a very good all-around cleaner.
posted by Carol Anne at 3:29 PM on September 12, 2008

White vinegar, baking soda, 20-Mule Team Borax, and plain white soap from your friendly neighborhood soapmaker are all good.

There probably not one thing you can use for every surface and material.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 3:34 PM on September 12, 2008

When you dust, use the "microfiber" cloths. You can get all the dust without using any chemicals. When they're dirty, just pop 'em in the washer and line-dry them (DO NOT machine dry them, this melts the microfiber). No dusting spray = no allergies.

Don't use dryer sheet-type fabric softeners. They just put wax on your clothes which eventually destroys their ability to absorb moisture. Instead, use distilled white vinegar in your washer as fabric softener. If your washer has an automatic dispenser, great; if not, figure out how normal fabric softeners are dispensed and use about two-thirds that amount of vinegar.
posted by infinitewindow at 3:44 PM on September 12, 2008

Method makes a good basic surface cleaner without scents or dyes.

Also pick up one of the Queen of Clean books, she has recipes for making your own cleaning compounds that are cheap and less toxic.
posted by mattholomew at 4:02 PM on September 12, 2008

I too have allergies, chemical sensitivities and reactions to perfumes, so I can relate. I was thrilled when I got my own washer and dryer, since it meant I would no longer be exposed to perfumed laundry detergents and dryer sheets in apartment building laundry rooms.

I use Ecover brand laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid. I like Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for laundry, too - it has a very mild pine scent. I don't use dryer sheets at all, and don't miss them.

For hand and bath soap I use Dr. Bronner's peppermint or Baby Mild (unscented). For housecleaning, I use only baking soda, white vinegar, and Dr. Bronner's.

Various recipes for homemade, unscented personal care and household cleaning products can be found in Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living by Annie Berthold-Bond. I love this book, and refer to it often!
posted by velvet winter at 4:16 PM on September 12, 2008

Adding to the Dr. Bronner's love, you can also use an empty "foaming soap dispenser", fill it 1:4 with Dr.B and water and it still works as fabulously for hand soap and small scrubbing jobs.

I second (third? tenth?) the vinegar, baking soda and borax recommendations, too. For the vinegar, visit a dollar store and pick up an empty spray bottle to fill so it'll be just as convenient for cleaning as any other commercial product. Heck, fill a couple and put one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, etc.

Microfiber cloths ROCK and, when used with plain water, have been shown to clean just as well as many commercial, chemical-laden products. I buy them by the stack whenever I see them on sale (apparently they're easier to find in Canada, where I am, than they are in the US..) (I do not understand this.)

I currently make my own laundry soap (I use recipe #1) and I use white vinegar for fabric softener.

If you do a search on "make your own X cleaner" or "homemade X cleaner" you can find a lot of great recipes AND reviews for assorted homemade cleaning products. The tipnut site is one of my favourites.
posted by VioletU at 6:57 PM on September 12, 2008

Thanks for all the great responses. I knew there were other people like me out there! I use Dr Bronner's Tea Tree Liquid Soap right now, the peppermint looks fun.

If you don't use dryer sheets do you get a lot of static electricity? That's my only concern. I got some dryer balls, not sure how they will help. If I put distilled white vinegar in the washing machine (I'm in an apartment and I'm not sure yet if they will have a softener dispenser) when would I do this? Do I put it in during a certain cycle? I'll look into those books and website for natural cleaning methods so I understand just what to use for what.

Are you filling a spray bottle with 100$ vinegar and spraying it on a counter top or sink? Is it diluted with water?
posted by Bunglegirl at 7:23 PM on September 12, 2008

Not Martha has a pretty good review up about one brand of dryer balls. I still haven't gotten around to buying some, I should!
posted by sararah at 9:13 PM on September 12, 2008

My favorite homemade cleaner, use for disinfecting hard surfaces, keeping mildew from growing on shower curtains, and for misting on furniture to freshen it up is:

2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 teaspoon tea tree essential oil
1/4 teaspoon lavender essential oil

Shake it all up a spray bottle.

I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener. If you don't have a fabric softener dispenser in your washer, add it during the rinse cycle.
posted by All.star at 7:03 AM on September 13, 2008

All.star -- Is the lavender added for the smell? I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to lavender scents. If it is just a scent maybe I could put mint in there instead.
posted by Bunglegirl at 8:23 AM on September 13, 2008

For cleanser, consider Bon Ami, which has no chlorine, perfume or dye, and is available at your grocery store. For hand and shower soap I swear by Dove sensitive skin unscented. Nthing that White vinegar is your friend for many cleaning purposes, also baking soda.

We've been using Williams-Sonoma grapefruit dish soap. The scent is pretty mild, at least to me, and I am sensitive to some fragrances and react to chemicals similar to you. The nice thing is that if you go to a Williams-Sonoma store, there will be testers there and you should be able to tell right away if it bothers you.
posted by gudrun at 8:55 AM on September 13, 2008

I loathe scented products, and I've tried so many unscented ones that I could probably write a book -- on the bad ones. The good ones wouldn't fill up a page! Fortunately, we don't need many.

My #1 for dishwashing liquid is Method's 'Go Naked.' It really, really cleans even greasy pans; even better, it's very concentrated so you use less than most other brands. (I haven't tried Ecover.) This version of Method dish soap is harder to find than their scented ones, so I stock up.

Some "free" laundry detergents, like Tide liquid, have a definite odor. It's a lot milder than the regular fragrances, but still noticeable. So take a whiff before you buy. I use Planet detergent -- no smell, cleans well.

Microfiber terry-type cloths: unbelievably great! You almost never need cleaning products with these, I swear.

Sometimes baking soda isn't enough to remove unwanted odors, like the time I saved some Indian food in my fridge for two days. You can buy a huge pack of activated charcoal at a pet-supplies store and put a dish of it in an enclosed smelly area. It's amazingly effective.
posted by wryly at 9:20 AM on September 13, 2008

I use 100% white vinegar in a spray bottle for cleaning, but you can dilute it with water if you prefer. It works especially well for cleaning mirrors and windows - no streaks!

As for static electricity, I don't have any problems with it, but that may be because I use a ventless dryer (or hang my clothes on a clothesline). Living in a moist climate (Portland, OR) probably helps too.

Tea tree oil is great! It has many uses. I once bought a blouse on Ebay that arrived reeking of perfume, and soaking it in tea tree oil was the only thing that removed the perfume smell.

More natural housecleaning tips can be found here.
posted by velvet winter at 10:36 AM on September 13, 2008