Saturday, July 24, 2010

our chemical romance

So my house is fairly dirty, and my children's clothes are often less than shiny white. I know a lot of people who find this repugnant and unacceptable for their own lives. Sure, health and the environment are important. But you have to be clean.

The thing is, I think most people feel deep down that toxic detergents are innately good. Necessary. Part of the fabric of our daily lives, maybe. I mean, look at those adverts about germs. Good mothers disinfect surfaces with bleach based products in case their toddler drives his digger through the open cat box in the kitchen, and then across the table while her back is turned. Your chicken could kill your family! These anti bacterial wipes are handy for god's sake! They're handy!!!

And then, there's this.

Air fresheners, they freak me out. They smell disgusting. They hurt my throat and sinuses and make me feel sick. We absorb high percentages of their parabens etc in to us and I don't believe we process it all out. The packages say to use them in well ventilated spaces - if you've got your windows open you don't really need air fresheners.

Or get an essential oil burner or candle, maybe, instead.

8 comments:

Danielle said...

i hav eto confess..i hate them all..the oilburners..the air refresher...the wonder trees for the car...the toilett thingies..the gel filled thingies..really they all are awfull..bah!

Jo said...

Dan! You said toilet!

Progress, babe!

Craig Sorensen said...

I'm just not a clean freak at all. While I wouldn't leave food sitting around to rot, quite frankly, having some dust and less than lily white clothes and such won't kill us. As a matter of fact, if our environments were to get too sterile, couldn't that make the real world all the more hazardous if we go into it? We build up antibodies to handle the invasion of the real world; if our bodies are restricted from doing that, what then?

I like an occasional whiff of incense, scented candle, etc, but I'm no fan of air fresheners, nor of massive doses of astringent chemicals. I'm with you; I find them unpleasant.

The real world, and a little grubbiness here and there won't kill us. We've got to stop listening to the folks at Madison Avenue.

Rob said...

I like clean, not sterile.

And I love clutter, I love sitting down and finding a dinky toy there, or turning around from closing the fridge and standing on a ball, a book or in some cases a child holding either (or both) of these items.

It's not untidy because they do pack everything away, but while they're buzzing around, they like to fill the space, with noise, with themselves and with their stuff. And it's their house too.

And food dropped on the floor? even in an atheist household, we know that blessing it works better than domestos.

Irmhild said...

eek airfresheners! vile! i've had a lovely meal in a fancy restaurant spoiled for me by a plug in airfreshener. it took me until halfway through the main course before i spotted it, unplugged it and handed it to the nearest waiter.

i've been spraying P's car with fabreze, because i suspect the former owner had a dog and smoked cigars, the car smell makes me gag, even when I'm not pregnant! but the fabreze doesn't seem to be working anyways, it's just a different smell on top of the car smell. it does distract me from gagging though.

i would never use air fresheners in my house. i'm known to use some dettol or bleach, but mostly i find fairy liquid cleans just about anything! even red crayon off the living room door...

do you ever find yourself watching 'how clean is your house' and rather than making you clean your own house it just makes you feel great because your own place isn't half as bad as those on tv? they clean almost anything with baking soda and lemons by the way, can't be bad!

i like to keep my kitchen surfaces and the dining table and the bathrooms quite clean, but at the same time i think it's really important for Emm to go out in the garden and eat mud and lick stones and get as dirty as possible (which she's very good at) so her immune system gets trained. i think there's places for 'germ free and clean' (like hospitals, wouldn't that be nice) and places for dirty and dusty (like under the sofa), everything germ free would be mad, what a waste of time and energy!

Mwa said...

I'm so with you on that! We have no bleach in the house, no air fresheners, no antibacterial things (except for the one I take just in case I get covered in poo outside the house with no tap near). I believe in good bacteria and a bit of dirt - and non-toxic air. Plain soap and water cleans things fine.

laughykate said...

Air fresheners,gah, it's almost an oxymoron.

Ms. Moon said...

Okay. I love white whites and the bleach I use to get them that way. But I hate those air fresheners.
So that's my crazy.