10 Pet-Safe Cleaning Products for Your Household 2024

6 / 8

Harris recommends keeping Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-one pure castile soap on hand. A little bit of this concentrated, organic and  biodegradable soap goes a long way. Dilute it for use all around the house, from the shower to the laundry, floors to sinks and even dishes, humans and pets.

You can feel good about your clean house and your purchase. Dr. Bronner’s aims to support people and planet—”farm to shelf to shower”—paying fair wages and using recycled bottles and healthy ingredients.

7 / 8

Pets and children spend a fair amount of time sprawled out on floors and furniture, so a pet-safe cleaning product that removes pet stains on furniture and carpet is essential. Developed by a team of chemists, evaluated by medical doctors and tested by parents, Puracy’s professional carpet cleaner is guaranteed to remove stains and odors from washable surfaces while keeping the human and fur children (and your wallet—no professional cleaning bill!) safe.

8 / 8

DIY Pet-Safe Cleaners

The best way to know what’s in your cleaning products is to make them yourself. Schick recommends these DIY options to get you started:

• Use baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate) instead of bleach when cleaning your home. This milder form of salt works well to absorb and neutralize odors.

• The acetic acid content of white vinegar makes it a powerful cleanser without being outright harmful to your pets. To create your own cleanser, dilute white vinegar with club soda (1:1), which has been shown effective in reducing household bacteria. It can help get pet urine smells out of clothes, too.

• If you’d like to make your home smell cleaner without using air fresheners, try steeping lemon peel in vinegar for at least a full day, then spray the natural freshener throughout the house.

What Cleaning Products Are Unsafe for Dogs and Cats?

Schick says even products labeled as “natural” aren’t always a safe bet, either, including essential oils, which can irritate airways and even exacerbate asthma. A good rule of thumb, “Don’t let your pets ingest anything you wouldn’t eat!” she says. “Carefully read the labels of everything you use in your home to ensure no harmful ingredients are present.”

Harris recommends scanning labels and avoiding products with the following ingredients:

• Ammonia: Can damage the respiratory system

• Chlorine bleach: Skin, eye, and throat irritant, corrosive to mucous membranes

• Glycol ethers: Propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol

• Benzalkonium chloride: Often found in disinfectants

• Fragrances: Individual ingredients are not required to be listed, because fragrance is considered to be a trade secret. “Fragrances” may contain ingredients that are allergenic, hormone-disrupting and toxic to the brain and nervous system, or carcinogenic.

• Phenol: It’s common in Lysol and PineSol. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it can cause liver and kidney damage.

• Hydrogen peroxide: It causes irritation to the esophagus and stomach lining, induces vomiting and can cause severe gastritis and ulceration and bleeding.

• Formaldehyde: It’s known to cause cancer. Some preservatives, known as formaldehyde releasers, release formaldehyde slowly into a product over time to extend the shelf life. Look for formaldehyde-releasing ingredients such as dimethylol-dimethyl (DMDM) hydantoin, diazolidinyl urea and imidazolidinyl urea.

Pet-Safe Cleaning

Pets are often curious by nature and may be tempted to sniff, lick or swallow cleaning products they find around the house. Even products with none of the above listed on their ingredients can pose some risk to your pets, as labels can be deceiving.

“It’s sometimes hard to know exactly what ingredients are in cleaning products,” Harris says. “That’s because the EPA requires companies to only disclose active disinfecting ingredients and ‘chemicals of known concern’ on their labels.

“The problem here is that there aren’t any testing requirements for most of the chemicals in cleaning products—by the companies or the EPA,” she continues. “And companies aren’t required to disclose their ingredients, because formulations are considered to be proprietary.”

Harris recommends that dog and cat owners follow these cleaning tips to minimize risk, even when using products that appear safe:

• Keep pets away from the room or area you are cleaning.

• Ensure the area is well ventilated.

• Allow surfaces to dry completely before allowing pets back in the room.

• Store disinfectants out of pets’ reach.

If your pets do ingest cleaning products, call the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)’s Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435 and bring them to a vet immediately.

Sources:

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7p63MoqOyoJGjsbq5wKdlnKedZLmqv9Nop56sXaiup7GMnKOemZ6eu6h5z6umna2TqcBw