Trying to create a complete natural cleaning kit for your home? All it takes is a few essentials to make it both easy and safe to keep your home clean!
If you’re wondering why natural cleaning products are so important, we’d encourage you to read our articles on switching from conventional cleaners to natural alternatives, the chemicals in common household cleaners, and our story about how our business began.
(For more reading, we’d also suggest our articles on how to reduce plastic and paper towel waste too.)
We realized that we talk about ‘why’ often, but haven’t spent as much time talking about ‘what’. If you want to switch to natural cleaning essentials, what do you need? What products should always be in your home cleaning kit?
This article is going to answer exactly that — our recommended natural cleaning essentials for every household.
Natural Hand Soap
Hand soap may seem like it goes without saying, but that’s exactly the problem. When you’re just starting out on transforming your home cleaning arsenal to natural alternatives, many people don’t think about this basic necessity that’s a feature in every bathroom and kitchen — but you should!
Many hand soaps contain harsh chemicals and dangerous synthetic fragrances that are harmful to your health. Beyond that, many consumers consistently choose antibacterial hand soaps, thinking they will keep their family safer.
They don’t.
The Food and Drug Administration confirms that antibacterial soaps are no better at preventing illness than plain soap and hot water. In fact, not only have no benefits been proven, but also the use of these products is shown to have potentially negative effects on your health and the environment.
If your soap indicates it is antibacterial or contains triclosan or triclocarban, time to throw it out. Instead, choose a simple, natural hand soap or alternative such as Seventh Generation, Method, or other natural option.
Natural Dish Soap
Most big brand dish soaps are packed with harsh chemicals that are hard on our hands, our bodies, and the environment. If you pick up a bottle of conventional dish soap, you’ll likely find phosphates (hazardous to ourselves and marine life), triclosan (a hormone disrupter), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (linked to rashes, allergic reactions, and 1,4-dioxane contamination), ammonia (a known toxin), chlorine (is released into the air when doing dishes), formaldehyde, and artificial fragrances.
These chemicals coat your hands and your dishes with chemical residue and can also get into the air as you ‘clean’ your dishes. Instead, choose a dish soap that meets the following criteria
- Safe for you
- Safe for your family (including immuno-compromised and newborns!)
- Safe for the environment
It’s hardly surprising that we would recommend our own Dish Soap — we spent a lot of time and care to create a safe, effective, and affordable formula. We made ours using only plant-derived ingredients. It has all the cleansing and grease-cutting power of conventional dish soaps, but with none of the health hazards.
Organic Flour Sack Towel
Flour sack towels have been a kitchen staple for decades and there’s an excellent reason for that. These towels are soft, incredibly absorbent, and lint-free polishers.
Honestly, we can’t think of anything not to love about these towels. Use them for dusting, cleaning, mopping up spills, and as a replacement for paper towels.
Organic flour sack cotton towels are soft and scratch-free, making it perfect for use on glass surfaces and stemware. The fact that these towels are so large (typically measuring 30” x 20”) is also handy. They can easily dry even your biggest pots and pans.
And let’s not forget that they dry incredibly quickly and last seemingly forever.
Eco-Friendly Dish Scrub Brush
Get rid of your plastic dish brushes and reach for an eco-friendly option instead! Natural bristles, coconut fibers, wood, union fiber, bamboo — these are all biodegradable options that won’t damage the environment and can be manufactured using sustainable harvesting methods. Best of all, natural dish brushes work even better than cheap, plastic alternatives. For heavy-duty uses, choose a heavy-duty brush like this one.
All Purpose Natural Cleaner
So many household cleaners are overflowing with harsh chemicals and toxic ingredients. These products — that are supposed to clean household surfaces — often leave behind a toxic residue instead.
Choose a biobased cleaner made with natural plant or earth derived ingredients, like our All Purpose Natural Cleaner. It offers deep cleansing power for every area of the home. You can use it in the bathroom, the laundry room, the kitchen, and anywhere else you find yourself reaching for a specialized cleaner. There are no chemical residues that can irritate the skin, no synthetic fragrances or VOC’s to inhale, and no worries about safety.
Sink SCRUB™
If you’re looking for a multi-purpose cleaning tool with a myriad of helpful uses, you’ve found it. Sink SCRUB™ is gently abrasive which makes it perfect for scouring surfaces. It can remove tough stains while also eliminating stubborn, unpleasant odors.
It’s safe for use on natural stone, ceramic, porcelain, steel, aluminum, cast iron, and copper. Use it for its odor-crushing abilities on carpeting, mattresses, and some fabrics! Read more about our top uses for Sink SCRUB™ here.
Toilet Brush
A toilet brush will always be on every cleaning essentials list. It’s not as if you want to use that brush anywhere else in the home, right?
Here’s how to go natural with this tool. Choose a toilet brush that’s made out of natural fibers, such as union fiber, coconut fiber, bamboo, wood, or natural bristles. These materials are just as effective as plastic alternatives, but won’t spend a thousand years or more in a landfill. Instead, they are biodegradable and eco-friendly. (And we think they look nicer too, but that’s just us.)
Natural Laundry Powder or Detergent
No house can function for long with laundry detergent. Whether you prefer laundry powders or liquid laundry detergents, it’s always considered a level-one essential in every house, period.
There are a variety of specialized laundry detergents available, but many homes can get away with the staple. We suggest our Super Powder or our Original Laundry Powder as your laundry room staple. From there, choose the specialized products your family needs!
Oxygen Whitener
Remember what we just said about specialized laundry care? Well, our list starts here because Oxygen Whitener has SO many uses. It’s an effective stain remover, brightens dull colors, and lightens whites. It can even be used to lift stains from hard surfaces, such as hard water stains in the toilet or on countertops.
Oxygen Whitener is the perfect bleach alternative, one of the most common harsh chemicals found in laundry rooms across the US. Ours is made from plant and earth-derived ingredients and is 100% safe for both people and the planet.
Mesh Laundry Bag
How anyone gets along with a laundry bag is beyond us. We use these bags for so many things. They’re perfect for washing lingerie and delicates, sneakers, and even kids’ toys! We use them to store dirty clothing when we’re on the go or traveling.
We’re so into laundry bags that we designed our own, with all the features we love best. Our mesh laundry bag is washable, reusable, durable, and breathable. It’s made from 100% BPA-free and phthalate-free polyester and has a heavy-duty safety zipper that doesn’t snag fabrics and won’t break. We even added a large loop for easy hanging.
Glass Spray Bottle
If you’re going to be making up your own cleaners, pest repellent sprays, or other DIY recipes, you’re going to need something to put it in! Make sure you’ve got some high-quality glass spray bottles on hand.
Why glass? Non-porous glass is impermeable, with an almost zero rate of possible chemical interactions and no residual odors. This means that after you finish off one DIY recipe, the bottle can be washed and reused over, and over, and over again.
Distilled White Vinegar
As far as we’re concerned, no household should ever be without distilled white vinegar. It has so many uses in the kitchen (both cooking and cleaning!) and throughout the whole home. It can be used to create your own DIY countertop spray, to clean glass, to soften hard water, and so much more.
We’re serious — the list goes on and on.
Essential Oils
We love using essential oils to help clean our homes. We even use them in some of our own laundry and cleaning formulas!
But you can put the power of essential oils to use as cleaners yourself, too. There are hundreds of essential oils to choose from. We recommend choosing a variety of oils that provide a range of cleaning benefits, such as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties.
Some of our favorites include:
- Lavender
- Lemon
- Orange
- Tea Tree
- Eucalyptus
- Peppermint
- Oregano
- Grapefruit
- Citronella
Questions About Our Ingredients and What Makes Them Safe?
Excellent! We love questions like that. Get in touch with our team regarding what we use and why we use it. In the meantime, check out this comprehensive ingredient list we created to make sure our customers always know what they’re putting in their homes.