Green cleaning guide

In an ideal world, dishes would magically wash themselves and toilets would sparkle with every flush. Unfortunately, our homes are not self-cleaning. Even more troubling? Many cleaning products do more harm than good. Household chemicals have been linked to asthma and developmental problems in children, in part because “the chemicals can linger in the air or settle into textiles, creating a quiet and continuous risk,” says Christopher Gavigan, CEO of Healthy Child Healthy World, a nonprofit education organization for parents.

No doubt you should use toxin-free cleaners. But exactly what should you look for on a label? Manufacturers are not required to disclose ingredients, notes Robin Kay Levine, founder of Eco-Me, which offers kits and recipes for make-it-yourself safe cleaners. Instead, companies use vague terms like “surfactant,” “washing soda,” or “brightener.” Therefore, it's better to look at what labels say they don't contain. You don't want bleach or phosphates (they cause harmful algal blooms in waterways and steal oxygen from aquatic life). Avoid dyes and perfumes, which can irritate skin and are often used to mask the smell of harmful chemicals. Formaldehyde, a carcinogen, also hides in several products under different chemical names. And if the label says, “Do not use with chlorine bleach,” then the product probably contains ammonia, a gas that causes respiratory problems.

To help you sort through the jargon, we researched the ingredients of dozens of natural products using the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Household Products Database. Then, three families put the most natural household cleaners to the test. These choices stood out as the safest and most effective.