Four kitchen basics can clean entire house

A little digging in the kitchen cupboards is all that's needed to round up enough supplies to polish, clean and disinfect every room in the home.

Not only effective, these few items — lemons, distilled white vinegar, baking soda and olive oil — are inexpensive. Additionally, they are ingestible and non-toxic. Store brands generally are not.

Somewhere during the past few decades, we forgot this.

"At some point in our collective history, we bought into (the notion) that we need Pine Sol and bleach to clean our homes," said Jennifer Taggart, an environmental lawyer and author of "Smart Mama's Green Guide: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Child's Toxic Chemical Exposure" (Center Street, 2009).

Taggart attributes Americans' dependency on single-use cleaners to fear — and good marketing by the companies that tout these products.

"We seem to be terrified of germs," she said. "We think if we make our own (cleaning supplies), they won't clean as well."

And that, according to Taggart, 40, is simply untrue. Homemade cleaners do exactly what prepackaged cleaners do: They pick up and carry away germs.

Lemons make excellent deodorizers. And because they're acidic and have antibacterial properties, they can clean certain surfaces, such as cutting boards, according to Anne-Marie O'Neill, deputy editor at "Real Simple" magazine.

Distilled white vinegar also is acidic and performs as a gentle cleanser on most surfaces, including wood floors. (Do not use vinegar to clean limestone or marble surfaces.) O'Neill recommends adding ¼ cup of distilled white vinegar to laundry to neutralize strong odors. Add it to the final rinse in lieu of a fabric softener.

Baking soda is gritty, so cleans a little harder than white vinegar, according to O'Neill, and it deodorizes. Make a paste with water, and use baking soda to scrub away grease and grime, to gently polish silver or to brush your teeth.

Olive oil can be used to polish wood furniture and leathers, says O'Neill, but she advises doing a test spot first. She says it's excellent at removing scuff marks from leather shoes.

"You would think that it would be sticky but it is not," O'Neill said. "It's such a light oil."

Additionally, Taggart touts plain soap and water for many household cleaning chores. It's as effective as the costlier antibacterial cleaners, and in the long run, soap and water may be healthier to use because they don't over-clean. Antibacterial cleaners only clean bacteria, not viruses, and their use may encourage the growth of antibacterial-resistant superbugs.

Taggart would like to see more families turning to natural, nontoxic cleansers to improve the quality of their indoor air.

"Conventional household cleaners are believed to contribute to the elevated levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) found indoors," she says in her book. The potential health effects vary depending on the product and its usage, so Taggart suggests reading product labels to steer clear of the most harmful chemicals.

"If the label is marked 'danger' or 'poison,' look for a safer product," she said. The same goes for items that require wearing protective gloves or eyewear.

She also warns about buying products marked "nontoxic," because that word, in itself, doesn't say much.

"Basically, 'nontoxic' means there's no information to suggest toxicity in the regulatory realm," Taggart said. "Nontoxic means 'nothing that we know of right now.'"

On the Web:

www.thesmartmama.com

www.realsimple.com