Seven Good Reasons For Making Your Own Household Products

By household products I’m referring in particular to cleaners, detergents and air freshener, but also cosmetics and other products that are usually manufactured with chemicals like bug spray. I mean bug spray! This is a product designed to kill things. And yet we breath this in, believing that it is safe for human consumption?

For me, this is a no brainer. Many of the people I know smile indulgently and think I’m a bit of a wacko. They think that my concerns and beliefs about synthetic products are unfounded. Do the reading and make your own decision. Below are the reasons why I find making my own household products is a no brainer.

1. Making your own saves you money

It’s been a long time since I’ve bought commercial cleaners so I checked out Coles online to compare costs. The cheapest all purpose cleaner was their home brand cleaner in a spray bottle for $1.99 for 100ml. I estimate the one I use to cost about 10c for 100ml. Cheapest air freshener: home brand $2.11, I use a few pricey essential oils but the cost would be less than 50c per 100ml.

What makes commercial cleaners and other household products really expensive is that they are made up of mostly water. Up to 80-90% water in some cases – then add chemicals. For me, I question the legitimacy of paying $2+ for a bottle of mostly water.

2. Homemade products are effective.

I’ve been using home made cleaners for years and find them to be effective. Bicarb soda is a little miracle cleaner, it will clean anything.

I know that a lot of people are worried about bacteria. Watch a few minutes of TV and this fear is exploited by advertisers pushing their products. While good hygiene is essential, as a society we’ve tended to take this too far. If you’re concerned about using home made products because of bacteria, you may wish to read up on the subject on the net. There is a plethora of information about how this fear of bacteria is not only for the most part misplaced, but is also hazardous to our health. Having said that, I do use tea tree oil in my cleaner. Tea tree oil is a very powerful natural anti bacterial agent. I try aim for a balance between good hygiene and over doing it. Where some people see a bench with bacteria (no thanks to advertising) I see a bench laden with chemicals that comes in contact with the food that I eat. Mmm yum.

3. It’s easy.

To whip up a bottle of cleaner or air freshener takes less than 2 minutes, it’s just a matter of mixing the ingredients in the bottle and away you go. Some cosmetics take longer, although if you’re moisturising with olive oil or exfoliating with sugar, then there is really no effort at all.

4. You reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals you and your family are exposed to.

The average person is exposed to thousands of synthetic chemicals a day, most of which are inside the home. Despite thinking about pollution as being something ‘outside’, the inside of our homes are often more toxic. There are literally tens of thousands of chemicals in everyday products most of which have never been tested for safety. Products are often deemed unsafe only after there have been complaints made by consumers.

Not only have most individual synthetic chemicals never been tested for safety, no chemical has ever been tested over time. There is no understanding of what these chemicals are doing to our health over years of exposure. What we do know is that the population’s health issues are growing worse. Some people believe this is linked to chemical exposure. If you’re interested in reading up on this, a great book to read is Paula Baillie-Hamilton’s Stop the 21st Century Killing You: Toxic Chemicals Have Invaded Our Lives. Fight Back! Eliminate Toxins, Tackle Illness, Get Healthy and Live Longer. Is our worsening health really due in part to exposure to household chemicals? Maybe. Maybe not. But I don’t want to take the chance.

Further to this, the synthetic chemicals in our products are not tested in combination. Remember high school chemistry? You mix two chemicals together and you get an entirely new chemical. So what affect does exposure to the combination of chemicals in our household products have on our health? And not just those in a single product. But what is affect is the chemical combination of my moisturise  in combination with my cleanser? And these products are all absorbed into the body and interact on a cellular level. So what is the affect of the chemicals in the household cleaner  combined with the artificial flavours in the food that we eat?

Just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it is safe. And the same could probably be said for synthetic chemicals – just because it’s synthetic, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s toxic. But our natural products have been used by humans over thousands of years, their safety and effectiveness tested over that period. Synthetic chemicals, on the other hand have only been used for the last 50 years or so. They have not been rigorously tested and their long term safety will not be adequately assessed for many years to come.

5. You reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals going into our environment either air born or down the drain or leaching into the earth at landfill.

Every time we use a spray with synthetic chemicals, it’s air pollution. Every time we wash cleaner down the drain, it’s water pollution. Chemicals leaching out of containers in landfill is pollution of the land and the underlying water table. Environmental awareness is certainly increasing, but I’m not sure we really think about the cumulative impact of such small everyday actions that millions of people make has on the environment. As ‘consumers’ we have a lot of power when it comes to what big business do and don’t do. If we say “no, this is not good enough, the ingredients you put in your products does not conform to my personal values,” then business will be driven to change, because they will do whatever it takes to make a profit.

6. You use the same container over and over reducing the amount that you contribute to landfill and also the environmental impact of producing the container and the product.

Spray and wipe, floor cleaner, shower cleaner, toilet cleaner, washing detergent, air freshener, shampoo…I’m not sure how many bottle of each an average household goes through each year, but they add up. (Most of these cleaning products are almost exactly the same with different labels so that the companies can make more money out of us!) Times that by how many households in Australia. Times that by 10, 20, 30, 100 years. That’s a lot of landfill.

But it’s not just at the landfill end that endlessly consuming these products impacts the environment. There is the pollution from the extraction of resources and the manufacture of the product and the packaging. Plastic is made from petroleum by-product. The impact on the environment for a single bottle of cleaner that we thoughtlessly toss away when it’s finished is huge.

Yes we can recycle the packaging of many products. Recycling is good. We should recycle as much as we can. But recycling pollutes and it’s not an overall, long term solution.

Making your own stops the cycle of waste. Yes, I use a plastic bottle. Not ideal, I know. But I have used the same plastic bottle for all my cleaning purposes for over 5 years now, so our waste is significantly reduced.

7. Essential oils are purported to having medicinal qualities so if this is true, then there is a possible health benefit to making your own.

I love the smell of my toilet spray. It is mostly citrus essential oils because these are the cheapest! But I like citrus, it’s a refreshing smell (and is considered safe during pregnancy!) According to the essential oil book that I have, citrus oils are meant to energise and relieve fatigue. I’m not sure I believe in the therapeutic benefits, but if it’s true, then it’s a bonus. And the smells are enjoyable. I love hanging out the washing with the fresh smell of lavender wafting around the yard. This smell goes away once the clothes dry, but comes back again when you iron them. So even if there are no therapeutic benefits, essential oils still smell good and smell is one of those little things that make a house a home.

I’m sure there are other good reasons for making your own household products. I can’t really think of a downside. Essential oils can be expensive up front, but a little goes a long way and last ages, so the cost is mitigated. You do have to be careful with essential oils, keeping them away from children, not ingesting them etc, so I guess ‘safe’ and ‘non-toxic’ is relative. But overall, the benefits of making your own household products from natural ingredients far outweighs any possible downsides.

Have you read these posts?

1. what’s in our products? – parabens
2. what’s in our products? – sodium lauryl sulphate
3. household recycling 101
4. what’s in our products? – petroleum
5. 5 reasons why you should declutter