Cleaning without chemicals

I have always thought that cleaning products were a necessary evil.

And when I say evil I mean exactly that because I, more than most people, know how dangerous they can be.

My adult niece was a young toddler when another baby around her age pulled a common household disinfectant out from under the kitchen sink at her babysitter’s house and sprayed it in her eye.

Both of them were too young to understand or explain what happened and by the time my niece got proper medical attention it was too late. Her eye was so badly damaged it had to be removed.

To ensure this never happens to someone you love, you can, should, and probably do, lock up your cleaning products. But even if you manage to keep them out of your child’s reach you can’t deny their environmental impact: chemical cleaners not only ultimately enter our water systems, they leave a residue that lingers on household surfaces. Many scientists are now questioning whether these residues are linked to everything from cancer to the increasing rates of childhood asthma and autism.

A necessary evil?

Absolutely not, says Judy Benson-Jones.

Judy contacted me a few months back hoping to spread the word about a revolutionary cleaning system that replaces chemicals with micro fibre technology. It’s called Enjo and as soon as I looked into it, the science geek in me was immediately intrigued.

It actually took me a while to wrap my head around how Enjo works, but essentially it’s a mechanical rather than a chemical cleaning system. You clean with nothing but water, using gloves and cloths that look quite ordinary but are actually composed of thousands of microscopically small fibres: the fibres are so tiny they can actually disinfect by removing up to100% of invisible bacteria as opposed to chemicals which kill it.

It sounds crazy but it's true!

Judy gave me a bathroom glove and drying cloth to try out and when I did it honestly freaked me out a bit. I put on the glove and wet it and gave my (admittedly grimy and soap-stained) counter a once over. All the grime and stains lifted the same way they do when I really scrub, but I wasn’t scrubbing – I was just gently wiping. I did the rest of the room and I dried everything afterwards with the cloth (which has a 2,500 thread count) and the joint was as clean and shiny as I have ever seen it.

Total cleaning time? About five minutes – swear to God.

The Enjo system, which uses color-coded cloths and gloves for different rooms of your home, is quite new, but appears to be taking the world by storm. It was pioneered in Austria in 1990 and is now sold by representatives (not in stores) on five continents. In 2006 it won a Gold Award at the Eco Products International Fair in Singapore where it was heralded as an innovative product that contributes towards environmental sustainability, while being economically viable.

What that means straight up is that, in addition to protecting your child, you save money because you never have to buy any cleaning products and you save the earth because neither cleaning chemicals nor the plastic bottles they come in, end up in landfill.

If the Enjo system intrigues you and you live in the Toronto area, please drop Judy Benson-Jones a line at jbjones@enjo-canada.com. She can tell you more about it and even help you host an in-home demo or party. You can also visit the Enjo web site for more information and to find a representative in your area.