By Alicia Woodard

Natural Cleaning Products Lead To a Healthier Home

Natural ingredients are the key to creating a healthier home.

Ellen Sandbeck cleans her whole house with vinegar, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. On special occasions, like when in-laws are due, she pulls out a bottle of cheap vodka. Not to imbibe. To disinfect, polish and shine. “You can clean almost everything with these,” says Sandbeck, author of Organic Housekeeping (Schribner). “Most households contain dozens of unnecessary cleaning products and most of them are costly and dangerous.” Sandbeck, 50, of Duluth, Minnesota, is an expert at organic landscaping, gardening and vermicomposting (she grows and sells composting worms). Known as the “Non-toxic Avenger,” she made the decision to go natural over two decades ago, in large part for health reasons. “I was an allergic kid from an allergic family,” she says. “One summer, I had a skin reaction to the sun. Another summer, I reacted to grass. I had an allergy to apricots. Then I was allergic to dogs – and I really, really wanted a dog when I was a child,” she says. She outgrew many of her sensitivities but still cannot eat chocolate or shrimp.