Organic Housekeeping

This is my new favorite book in 2009. I feel very fortunate that my County library system has a variety of books on green and organic living. I stumbled across Organic Housekeeping, by Ellen Sandbeck, while perusing the shelves and I’m finding it both fascinating and informative. Right now I am particularly interested in how to keep a healthy home for someone who has a weakened immune system while also minimizing the harmful chemicals that are use for everyday cleaning.
Ms. Sandbeck introduces her book with some disturbing news such as the 1998 Chemical Hazard Data Availability Study conclusions:

Of the 3,000 chemicals that the US imports or produces at more than 1 million lbs/yr, a new EPA analysis finds that 43% of these high production volume chemicals have no testing data on basic toxicity and only seven percent have a full set of basic test data.

She points out that innocent until proven guilty seems to be the way chemical usage is addressed in the United States. “Only chemicals that have been proven dangerous beyond a reasonable doubt are removed from the market.” After setting the stage for why organic housekeeping is worthy of serious consideration, Ms. Sandbeck, quickly moves into practicalities.

Rare is the person who really enjoys doing housework. Chemical concoctions were supposed to provide the happy homemaker with quick and easy solutions to help her breeze through these mundane duties. However, as our homes continue to fill with more and more stuff, finding the surfaces that need to be cleaned is our first challenge. Thus, organizing and de-cluttering make up the first chapter in Organic Housekeeping.

After rediscovering our household surfaces, closets, and cabinets, we next work chapter-by-chapter through each of the major rooms in a house from the kitchen through to the bedroom learning very practical techniques to efficiently clean, disinfect, and maintain our home”s health and by extension protect our family”s health. It was a relief to learn how vinegar rather than expensive and fancy store-bought petroleum-based concoctions can be used throughout the house to effectively and simply clean.

As more and more of us learn to live with asthma, allergies, and autoimmune diseases, reducing or eliminating triggers, disruptors, and irritants from our indoor living environments will continue to grow in importance. Organic Housekeeping introduces a post-chemical-revolution generation to cleaning and sanitation techniques that are not only safe for the home and the people in them but also safety to the planet as a whole.

Hunt out a copy from your local library to learn more! You can also see more of my favorite books on the Reference Libary page link above.