Donna Duberg, Tork Green Hygiene Council Member, Offers Ways to Clean and Green Your Home this Spring
As flowers begin to bloom, birds start to chirp and the weather slowly cooperates, it’s time to consider freshening your home from the winter blues. Spring cleaning is a tradition that allows us to cheer up our homes and get a head start on the hectic seasons of spring and summer.
Tork Green Hygiene Council member Donna Duberg – an Assistant Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science at Saint Louis University, and a leading hygiene expert – provides several tips to help you get your cleaning job done the green way.
Switch It Up. Simply changing the direction of your ceiling fans from clockwise during the fall and winter to the standard counter-clockwise direction in the spring and summer provides a pleasant breeze and cools your home more efficiently by redistributing the air throughout the room and blowing it downward.
Vinegar & Water. If you clean regularly, you won’t need industrial-strength cleaners to cut through household grime. As vinegar is almost 100 percent effective at killing germs, use a 10 percent solution of vinegar to disinfect floors, chairs and other indoor structures while doing less harm to the environment. Another wonderful remedy for cleaning washing machines, dishwashers and coffee pots is to run one cup of white vinegar through each cycle to effectively flush out backed up sludge.
Green Your Ducts. Even if you diligently clean your house daily or weekly, it’s important to give your home’s infrastructure a regular cleaning. Be sure to get your home’s heating and cooling air ducts inspected and cleaned on a regular basis. If you’ve been in your home for a while and have never had your air ducts inspected, it may be time to do so. After all, the air that circulates around your home affects your health as much as dirt and grime buildup! When possible, ask the duct service if they use a citrus oil-based cleaning agent. It’s a natural cleaner that will help remove the greasy film on the duct walls that easily collect dust and germs.
Shape Up Your Closets. Storing your clothes well means they’ll always look their best. And if you organize your closets and drawers, you’ll find you wear more of your clothes more often.
- Divide the closet into zones and stack cubbies across the closet floor to create additional space for shoes.
- Remove dry-cleaning bags, which trap moisture; use fabric bags instead.
- Before storing heavy coats, stuff the arms with acid-free tissue.
Wash Fruits & Veggies. Although this is a year-round must, be sure to properly wash your fruits and vegetables before eating. Produce is known to carry harmful bacteria that may cause mild to severe gastrointestinal disease from sources contaminated with fecal material, like fruits and veggie fields, irrigation water, insects and/or human handling of the crops. Be sure to thoroughly rinse delicate produce such as berries in lots of cool water. You can also soak vegetables in a 10 percent water-to-white vinegar solution for 20 minutes, then rinse with cool water to kill nearly 100 percent of the bacteria.
Give Your Houseplants a Bath. Plants need showers, too, as they can become dusty or dried out by indoor heating. Washing away plant dust also decreases the number of mites which may help those who have significant allergies. Use a shower-head attachment to spray large plants lightly with tepid water. For smaller plants, wrap the pots in paper towels, turn plants upside down and gently swish the leaves around in a pot of water.
Recycle Old News. Did you know 38.2 percent of our total waste is from paper and paperboard? Thankfully, Tork products are made of paper that is 100 percent recycled from 750,000 tons of wastepaper. More than 50 percent of this wastepaper is post-consumer waste. Even so, do your part and steer clear of sending unnecessary waste to our nation’s landfills by shredding or properly discarding used newspapers, magazines, mail, cardboard and cereal boxes.
Donna Duberg is a member of the Tork® Green Hygiene Council ™ (TGHC), Assistant Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science at Saint Louis University and a leading hygiene expert.
