Bicarbonate of soda eliminates smells, rather than just covering them up, so keep a small pot of it, opened in your fridge or next to the cooker. Sprinkle on the carpet before vacuuming to eliminate pet odours or just have small bowls of it dotted around your home as an air freshener.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) has recorded many exposures to household cleaning substances that were serious enough to require treatment in a health care facility. Incredibly, according to the AAPCC the largest number of occurrences of poisoning in 1993 were due to cleaning products - drain cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, bleach, soaps and detergents.

I have two main cleaning products at Chez Green. Both of them are safe if ingested and they get the house clean. They are easy to get hold of and are found in most people's kitchen cupboards

Although green cleaners may purport to list all ingredients, the market is largely unregulated -- which means consumers still must be wary of what‘s in the bottle. Even cleaning products labeled "natural" may contain some fraction of synthetic chemicals. Or they may contain natural ingredients consumers would rather avoid, such as petroleum distillates, some of which can cause cancer.