How to Clean Safely Around Babies and Toddlers

Providing your children with a safe, healthy environment is essential, but are you doing everything you can to maintain a clean home? From using toxic chemical cleaners to storing your cleaning supplies and more, your cleaning efforts could have serious consequences for your smallest loved ones. So, how do you clean safely around babies and toddlers?

Why Safety Matters When Cleaning Around Kids

Little ones are particularly susceptible to germs, mold and other unhealthy elements because of their immature immune systems. Thorough and routine cleaning are essential, but how you clean matters. Young children’s bodies and brains are still developing. Substances that might cause irritation or other minor issues in our bodies can have serious and long-term effects for little ones.

While choosing the right cleaning products to use in your home is critical, your cleaning practices also could place children in jeopardy. It’s hard to keep an eye on your little ones while you’re scrubbing, mopping and more. When you’re distracted, your little one may slip on a wet floor, open a bottle of cleaning fluid or do something else equally dangerous.

Baby-Safe Cleaning Products

Many of the cleaning products available in local stores contain harmful ingredients like bleach, ammonia and other chemicals. While these products are often associated with a clean home, you can clean your house with natural products that won’t cause serious harm or worse to your young children.

For example, vinegar is a natural ingredient that is commonly used in food prep. However, its acetic acid makes it useful for cutting through grease, fighting germs, eliminating hard water residue, lifting stains, softening laundry and more. Other safe cleaning products are baking soda, salt, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.

Safe Cleaning Habits to Practice

Several easy steps will help you keep your home cleaner and your children safer. Practice these essential habits:

• Use cleaning products marked as being non-toxic or green. Other wording to look for includes solvent-free, VOC-free, phosphate-free, petroleum-free and biodegradable.
• Dilute your cleaning products with water. In the event your child does get hold of any products, the dilution will make them less harmful.
• Don’t use antibacterial soap as it contains harmful chemicals.
• Don’t use aerosols or spray carpet cleaning products.
• Store all cleaning products and instruments in a locked cabinet.

Safe Ways to Disinfect

If you need to disinfect smaller items, boiling them in a pot of water is an easy way to disinfect them. An alternative is to run the items through the dishwasher. Before using either of these methods, ensure that the items will not be damaged when exposed to hot water.

For other items and areas of the home, consider using diluted vinegar, hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol. Before cleaning with a new product or ingredient, always ensure that the product is safe for use on each surface.

Keeping Floors and Surfaces Safe

Little ones spend a lot of time crawling, sitting and playing on the floor, so your floors need to be immaculate. Vacuum carpeting frequently. For hard floors, sweep daily. If possible, mop or steam the floor when your children are napping or have gone to bed for the night. This eliminates the possibility of slip-and-fall accidents.

In addition, pick up all toys and other items as soon as they are done using them. This reduces the chance of tripping and falling.

Organizing and Storing Cleaning Supplies

Regardless of the type of cleaning products you choose to use, you should store them out of reach of your little ones’ hands. When possible, place the items on the highest shelf. Otherwise, the products should be stored inside a locked cabinet.

Store-bought cleaning products should remain in their original containers. If you make your own cleaning products using safe, natural ingredients, these should be stored in well-marked containers.

Balancing Cleanliness and Safety

Cleaning your home is imperative, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of your children’s safety. From accidental ingestion of cleaning products to slipping and many other issues, the process of cleaning your home comes with some danger. However, choosing safer cleaning products and practicing safer habits for routine cleaning go a long way toward finding a happy medium between safety and cleanliness.

Finding the time and energy to make your living space as clean as you need it to be is a challenge when you have little ones to care for. At Cleanzen, our green cleaning services are safe in homes with children and pets. With customizable services and flexible schedules, we make it easy to enjoy a clean home. Schedule Cleanzen cleaning services for your home today.