In March of 2020, some people panicked because they could not purchase cleaning and disinfecting supplies in stores.  The main store-bought disinfectant is bleach.  In this article, I shared why you would not want to use bleach for laundry purposes.

Another reason for not using bleach for cleaning is that bleach expires in 6 months.  Since only a small amount of bleach is needed to disinfect something, you could end up with quite a bit of wasted bleach and the predicament of how to safely dispose of it.

For routine cleaning, you do not need to disinfect.  However, you do want to disinfect any items that came in contact with an ill person, but not with harsh chemicals (they can cause more illness).

Any surfaces and utensils that touched raw meat or fish should be disinfected after each use; in addition, trash cans should be disinfected regularly.

Please note that disinfecting takes time as well as work.  You want to give the disinfectant time to work.

1.  Boiling water 

One way that you can disinfect with boiling water is to actually boil something on the stove, like you would food.  Canning jars are disinfected this way.  You can also place items in a sink or bucket and pour boiling water over them to disinfect them.

The great part of using boiling water is that you don’t need to purchase an actual product.  However, please always be sure that you are extremely careful about using boiling water if there are children in your home.

2.  Sunshine

This can be an excellent way to disinfect furniture in your home – leave the curtains open when the sun is shining.

You can also disinfect laundry by hanging it outside in the sun (turn colors inside out to prevent fading).

Sunshine is also free, but it may be harder to get if you live in a cloudy climate or if you live in a cold climate.

3.  Essential oils 

I have personally used Defense Essential Oil and Lemon Essential Oil to disinfect!  You can add either oil to your cleaning concentrate along with hot water to disinfect your bathrooms.  As a bonus, the bathrooms will smell wonderful.  Tea tree oil is also an effective disinfectant.

The upside of using essential oils is that they are highly concentrated, have a longer expiration date than does bleach, and have multiple other uses in addition to disinfecting your home.

Be careful of purchasing essential oils in stores because they are often diluted with alcohol or something else and rarely are pure.

4.  Rubbing alcohol

Rubbing alcohol is a great way to disinfect keys, door knobs, and light switches.  The downside to rubbing alcohol is that there have recently been global shortages of it.  

5.  Hydrogen peroxide

Use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect in your kitchen and bathroom.  Just be sure to allow it to soak for a while to give it time to disinfect.  

Be sure not to mix hydrogen peroxide with other cleaners because doing so can create toxic fumes!

If you want to be extra safe, you could use more than one of the above methods.  For example, you could clean and disinfect your trash can with lemon oil and put it outside in the sun to dry.  You could also wash your clothes with hydrogen peroxide (after soaking), and hang your wash outside to dry and disinfect.  If you want to disinfect your cutting board, you can soak it with a few drops of Defense Essential oil and boiling water, after cleaning it.  

If you are highly motivated to take care of your family by boosting their immunity–and yours–or to use products that are not harmful to you or the environment, just fill out this short questionnaire, and I will get back to you within 24 hours with a personalized recommendation.  

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