Clean little greenbeans

So I’ve been contemplating that saying ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Really? Are there enough people who think that for it to be an actual saying?

Look, I take a shower every day and I wash my hands at appropriate times and all that. But I must admit, I really like the scent of rich, dark soil under my nails as I dig up the onions in my garden, and I feel at one with the earth when I have dusty feet from not wearing any shoes. And worst of all (for those who live by that saying), I like my kids to get a little dirty too, because it makes me feel like they’re really living.

I can justify my choice. Firstly, the chemicals we keep chucking into our environment are worse for our health than the germs our society is so phobic about. Exposing young children to small, natural amounts of bacteria and viruses helps them build up their immune systems. And walking around without shoes on is healthy for your feet, not to mention your soul.

Now I’m not suggesting we all stop using soap and banish cleaning agents from our homes. I’m suggesting a bit of a balance. Use fewer chemicals, use environmentally responsible products and use them sparingly.

Here’s a quick list of things you can do to ensure environmentally cleaner hygiene for your nunus. This is just the tip of the iceberg but hopefully it gets you thinking so that you’ll be inspired to do your own research:

• Check what’s in your baby’s shampoo, toothpaste, lotion and so on. The Environmental Working Group has a very useful website called Skin Deep – http://www.ewg.org/skindeep  – that rates products on a scale of 0-10 on how hazardous they are to our health. Unfortunately it doesn’t rate local South African brands, but with a database of 74 000 it covers most of the popular brands.
• Use vinegar – it’s such useful stuff, especially the white variety. Just half a cup added to the bucket you soak your baby’s cloth nappies in is all you need to remove smelliness. The vinegar smell itself dissipates quite quickly. Vinegar is also a perfect fabric softener, especially for those essential white baby-grows, which can turn greyish if you use normal commercial fabric softener. Use about half the amount you’d use if it were normal fabric softener.
• Squeeze a lemon. Apart from smelling pleasant, lemon juice has disinfectant properties and bleaching powers. Use it on your whites instead of commercial bleaches and kill off some harmful bacteria at the same time. Once again, half a cup is all you need, added to your washing machine’s rinse cycle.
• There are lots of other natural disinfectants. More exotic alternatives include eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil and grapeseed fruit extract. Grapefruit seed extract is especially good for killing yeast spores, which can lead to stubborn nappy rash, and which commercial bleaches don’t kill.
• For most moms baby wipes are the greatest invention since the dummy. Unfortunately non-flushable baby wipes are far more prolific than the flushable, biodegradable variety. That said, even the biodegradable varieties often have harsh chemicals that can harm both your baby’s delicate skin and the environment. How about using cloth wipes instead? Dip them in warmed rosewater for a far gentler experience than cold, alcohol-based wipes.

I have come to realise that environmental issues are often seen as a luxury and that they usually appeal to the ‘haves’ in our society. As to why that’s so is a whole other blog post, but regardless, one extra little benefit of paying attention to environmentally responsible hygiene is that it will save you money. Vinegar is cheap, lemons grow on trees, saving water saves wallets. So you’ll have a little extra to spend on those specially formulated organic products and expensive disinfectant oils designed with the environment in mind.

One last point: it’s not the WWF or Greenpeace’s responsibility to tell you which products are bad for the environment. With a little self-education you’ll be able to make your own environmentally responsible choices. Phone the company that makes the product and ask them whether it’s environmentally responsible. If they don’t know or are vague, that’s a warning sign. Check the Internet too. Just because a product claims to be environmentally responsible doesn’t mean it is. In the information age, there’s really no reason not to know what you’re buying.