These DIY solutions can replace a closet full of chemical cleaners

Without much thought, Americans have built up potent arsenals in their homes worthy of a chemical weapons treaty.

I’m talking, of course, about your cleaning cabinet.

When I investigated mine recently, I found mixtures containing ethoxylated alcohols and quaternary ammonium compounds, also known as “quats.”

While regulators consider these products safe, some ingredients are also irritants, or even toxic, at high doses. Worse, quats and other common ingredients such as fragrances (often undisclosed trade secrets) are getting a second look as potentially harmful for the environment and us.

It seemed like too much firepower for wiping down my kitchen countertop. So I set myself a challenge: Find DIY cleaning formulas that use nothing but common, safe ingredients in my pantry. I would not compromise on effectiveness nor pay luxury prices — preferably, I’d pay much less. And, ideally, they should smell nice.

The internet is full of misleading claims and dubious advice about cleaning products. But I brushed up on my organic chemistry classes, sought counsel from researchers and ran grueling tests on mysterious messes in my toddler-ravaged home.

I was able to replace almost all my cleaning chemicals with a couple of homemade, nontoxic solutions. A few ingredients proved key: vinegar, castile soap, baking soda and a little extra scrubbing among them. While I’ve kept commercial products in reserve for the nastiest jobs, my home cleaning routine is now mostly a DIY affair.

Here’s how you can clean up your home while protecting your health and the environment.

Reassessing the chemicals in our cabinets

Cleaning once meant soap and a wet rag. But millions of Americans now blast away any speck of dirt and sterilize surfaces until they resemble the lifeless surface of the moon.

That’s just fine with the $50 billion U.S. household cleaning products industry, which didn’t grow rich selling vinegar and baking soda. The industry has spent decades developing powerful, proprietary chemical combinations, said Darren Williams, a chemist leading the Cleaning Research Group at Sam Houston State University. Hence the exotic ingredients in its bottles.

That isn’t inherently dangerous. “Most of these (cleaning products) are formulated to be used in household situations on a periodic basis,” Williams said. “Incidental contact is not going to be a problem.”

But enough exceptions exist to give one pause. Endocrine disruptors such as phthalates — chemicals that mimic hormones in our body by interfering with everything from reproduction to brain development, even at infinitesimal doses — are still found in many cleaning products. Microplastics, added to cleaners for their abrasive properties, have invaded the environment and our internal organs.

Even ostensibly safe cleaning chemicals have been found to be not so safe after all: 2-butoxyethanol, nonylphenol ethoxylate and chlorinated phenols have been yanked from common cleaners after their carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting or environmental risks came to light. The overuse of antibacterial chemicals may also be promoting bacteria resistant to the best drugs we have against them.

Then there’s indoor air. The average American spends 90% of their time indoors — breathing the residue of our cleaning products. “There is a whole lot more of most chemical compounds indoors than there are outdoors,” said Delphine Farmer, an atmospheric chemist at Colorado State University, who led one of the most comprehensive set of experiments of chemical exposures in homes. “There are questions lingering about what the health effects are.”

Theoretically, regulators sort this out before products hit the market, a philosophy known as the precautionary principle. In the European Union, for example, regulators follow a “no data, no market” rule. The United States takes a more laissez-faire approach.

Products must still demonstrate a reasonable expectation of safety, while offering a balance between risk and performance. “The American system certainly allows for that nuance, and it allows for personal decision,” Farmer said. “That’s a good thing. But that only works if we give people the information that they need to have to make a good decision … and I don’t think we do.”

The problem, she said, is that we lack data on the nearly endless number of chemical reactions as cleaning products in our home interact with surfaces, off-gassing building materials, air pollution and each other. “That’s a very new topic,” she said. “I don’t know that we have enough information to really give a good holistic idea of what the trade-offs are.”

So if U.S. regulators weren’t willing to practice the precautionary principle, I could do so at home.

The DIY chemistry of clean

Virtually all cleaning requires just a few chemical reactions.

First, you need a surfactant. Any soap will form a sticky bridge between water and oil. By suspending oil and grease in water, it allows dirt to be easily lifted from surfaces with a damp rag.

Then it helps to have a solvent. Think how water dissolves sugar in simple syrup. Alcohol or aromatic terpenes — such as d-limonene, derived from citrus peels — do the same for oils, food bits and even the lipid membranes of bacteria and viruses. That makes messes easier to wipe away.

Vinegar, while technically more of an acid than a solvent, helps clear away mineral, inorganic crud. (Note to the wise: Don’t use on natural stone or you’ll end up with etching, and never, ever mix with bleach: You will create chlorine gas, which can burn your lungs.)

Finally, for tough jobs, an abrasive such as baking soda comes in handy. To impart a citrus smell, a drop or two of essential oils or just plain lemon juice does the job.

My new cleaning regime

When I surveyed my home, 90% of the work came down to two jobs: cleaning surfaces such as counters and floors, and cleaning glass on windows and mirrors.

For the first, Alicia McCarthy, a research scientist with the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI; turi.org) at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, cooked up an elegant recipe for a multi-surface cleaner: 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons castile soap and ½ teaspoon baking soda. A couple of drops of citrus oil are optional.

TURI says the recipe performs as well as Formula 409 All Purpose Cleaner, at a fraction of the price, without quats and other potential nasties. As advertised, it worked well on my countertops and the inside my microwave.

Next, I needed to wipe toddler nose smudges off my windows. Never fond of Windex, I turned to a second TURI-vetted formula: a simple mix of 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water. (You can add rubbing alcohol to speed evaporation and reduce streaks.) I ended up with spotless glass panes — at least until the kids got home again.

I had to invest a bit more elbow grease and time. Allowing homemade recipes to sit on surfaces a little longer compensated for the less powerful solvents. But I came away convinced that DIY recipes could handle almost all my cleaning needs.

TURI has compiled a longer list of household solutions. Next for me to try: bathroom and toilet bowl cleaner, dishwasher rinse aids, floor polish and more.

Generally speaking, McCarthy said, avoid mixing vinegar and baking soda, as the chemical reaction cancels out their cleaning power. And stick to well-vetted recipes — mixing two innocuous chemicals can result in dangerous compounds. If using essential oils, a few drops are more than enough.

For off-the-shelf solutions, many “natural” or “green” products are as effective as conventional ones, McCarthy said. While those eco-terms aren’t regulated, you can look up products on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice and certified disinfectants lists. You can also check third-party certifications such as Green Seal and UL Ecologo.

Additional options include appliances like handheld steam cleaners (starting around $40) and electrolyzed water, a disinfectant solution created by sending an electrical current through diluted salt water.

I’ve now replaced more than a dozen cleaning products with just two DIY spray bottles. While I’m not throwing out all the conventional products just yet, I may go years before using them again.

For everyday cleaning, I’ll breathe a little easier with soap, water, vinegar and a little scrubbing.