How to create a safe and non-toxic home

It’s ironic. The most precious and perfect thing you’ll probably ever bring into your home is your baby. However, with wrangling the routines of feeding, washing, nappy changes and so on, that little bub will also be the focus of a fair amount of household chaos, and a lot of household clean-ups. 

While it’ll be second nature to swing into action, and disinfect and wipe everything thoroughly (if you have the energy), the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether or not you’re creating a healthy, non-toxic environment for the tiniest and most vulnerable member of your family. 

But it’s worth taking a moment to think about it, because potentially harmful toxins are often exactly what ‘mainstream’ cleaning products and disinfectants are spreading around the home. While they may be good at eliminating germs, common ingredients like ammonia and sodium hypochlorite are far from pleasant to breathe in, and if inadvertently combined with other cleaning agents, can cause damage to the moist tissues in our bodies, like eyes or airways. 

Thankfully, there are products that not only are 100% effective at effortlessly banishing dirt, odours, and bacteria, but are also 100% safe to use around babies and pets as many times a day or night as you need. Better still, because they’re made only from natural and sustainable ingredients, these products are totally planet-friendly too. And, being plant-based and toxin-free, they have a fabulous ‘value-add’ in offering the therapeutic benefits that only nature can provide.   

Our family-owned company Koala Eco has been making plant-based products for a clean home, body and mind since 2017. Everything in our range is Made-Safe certified, which means they’re non-allergenic, not tested on animals, and contain no chemical nasties or synthetic fragrances. Our main ingredients are pure essential oils from Australian native plants, which for centuries have been harvested for their medicinal and therapeutic properties. Literally the ‘essence’ of the plant, essential oils are the highly concentrated compounds secreted in the bark, leaf or fruit. Because these oils are such incredibly good antiseptics and disinfectants, you can be sure that every one of our formulas is carefully balanced and tested to contain just the right amounts: enough to be super-effective, and still super-safe. 

When we developed our bestselling Kitchen Multi-Purpose with Lemon Myrtle and Mandarin, for example, we wanted it to be easy to use, effective, safe and versatile. We wanted people to feel confident spraying Multi-Purpose on everything from fridges and food preparation benches to highchair trays, toys and changing mats, and not worry that there was anything harmful left behind: just clean surfaces and the delightful, uplifting aroma of Lemon Myrtle and Mandarin. These essential oils have extraordinary antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, and antiviral properties, and they also combine to make a fresh, totally natural scent. The formulation is also lab tested to kill 99.9% of germs and bacteria.

So if you’re looking for some easy, quick fixes to create a healthy, nurturing place for you and your baby, switching to natural cleaning products is a really good start. It’s not just about cleanliness and safety: it’s also about creating the peace of mind to relax and savour a truly special time. At least until that next nappy change!   

¹Benzoni, T., and J.D. Hatcher (2022). ‘Bleach Toxicity’. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441921/ accessed 23 January 2022