Been missing the MINIMALIST prompts (and community), so decided to check in, and came upon an interesting question, regarding cleaning products. Now, I am forcing it a bit here, since I'm not sure how much of it is minimalism per se, and how much is just distrusting commercial cleaning products, in general.
Did you know that your average, old, trusty household cleaners contain dangerous ingredients like phtalates, ammonia, or triclosan? There's also chlorine, but I'm guessing you knew that one, eh?
While maintaining a clean, healthy living space is essential, our society has developed a worrisome fear of germs that's doing us more harm than good. There's a woman lives in our building who'd douse her house (and the external communal landing) with chlorine during the pandemic. Now, as to the dangers of the Covid-19 virus per se, I don't know, but surely, it can't be healthy inhaling all that chlorine a few times a week for a few years, right? Ergo, doing us more harm than good, I feel, which is why I prefer as little chemicals in my cleaning agents as possible.
Not a cleaning pic, I know, but hey, at least these flowers smell like the actual stuff, not whatever nauseating aroma they're putting in those commercial "flower-scented" cleaners.
I'm a firm believer in baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar.
Personally, I don't think there's much you can't get clean with these things, so most of my cleaning products, drain cleaners, rinses, etc will contain some mixture of the above. These three appeal to me for a bunch of reasons.
1. They're naturally sourced. That's an automatic point for me.
2. They're safe enough to ingest. No Tide-pod challenge here, folks, but I'm more confident about cleaning my eating surface, the clothes I wear on my skin, and the fabrics I lay my face down on with something I could safely ingest. It just makes sense for me.
3. They're a one-size-fits-all. Cue, finally, the minimalist aspect of it all. Some people have an entire shelf of cleaning products which just seems like overkill to me. These are three ingredients I'll typically have on hand, that can be used for a bunch of purposes.
4. They're budget-friendly. I don't know what it's like where you are, but the above ingredients are readily available and quite cheap here, which is a great plus. It also ensures I get good bang for my buck, as it were. Diet-wise, I'm not too much of a vinegar person. Maybe I'll sprinkle it occasionally, maybe I'll do a hair mask with it, but that's not, in my opinion, enough use to justify buying an entire bottle of it. But if it's also a cleaning product, it may just be worth it. Baking soda's the same. I use it for scrubs, masks, sore throats, dental issues, and cleaning. Lemons, I admit, I just plain like.
That being said, I do use some commercial cleaning products.
Detergent is one as is dishwashing liquid. Not great, I know, but those are two areas I won't compromise on. I am however actively looking for safer, healthier alternatives for all such products (so if you've got any recommendations, I'm all ears).
To be fair, depending on where I've lived, I have used whatever was on hand. I will also resort to commercial products when the dirt is significant. The windows on my new balcony, for instance, hadn't seen a good clean in years, it seemed. Luckily, my ex-tenants had left behind a load of cleaning products (which was useful, as I wouldn't want to invest in a product I'm unlikely to use again).
The way I see it, you should prioritize cleanliness and good health. Good health as in not dousing your home in known carcinogens, not as in thinking oh, this thin layer of dust might just kill me. It's not just unhealthy on a physical level, but also a mental one. We've come to live in a society where we're encouraged to fear everything around us, even the dust on the desk. And that's putting some serious strain on our psyche, people.
Anyway, not sure it's a minimalism thing, again, but a subject I've got opinions on (again), so I thought I'd air them.