The Best Non-Toxic Cleaning Products to Use Around Your Pets

Let’s face it, pet messes are a gross but routine part of pet parenting.

How can you know which cleaning products are pet-safe and which aren’t? This article will explain which non-toxic cleaning products are the best to use around your fur family.

Cleaning Products That Are Safe to Use Around Your Dog or Cat

Thankfully, you don’t have to look far to find non-toxic cleaners. Many of these items are household staples. Here’s a list of safe ingredients that can be used as non-toxic cleaning products around your pets:  

• Vinegar: The acidity of vinegar makes it a powerful cleanser that can disinfect and even attack mold. On the downside, the smell of vinegar can be overwhelming. Some choose to dilute it with water, but that only lessens its effectiveness.
• Baking Soda: This pet-friendly cleaner works great for scrubbing sinks and countertops - it can cut through grease and unclog drains. However, this natural cleaner tends to leave behind a slight residue. 
• Hydrogen Peroxide: This pet-safe alternative to bleach can help break down odor-causing compounds in urine stains. While it’s a great disinfectant, hydrogen peroxide can be an unstable compound. If the area hasn’t been cleaned before this ingredient is used as a disinfectant, then it won’t work as well. Also, never mix hydrogen peroxide and vinegar! While these two non-toxic cleaners can be used in succession, if combined they create a corrosive acid that can harm the skin, eyes, throat, nose, and lungs.
• Enzymatic Cleaners: These cleaning products use enzymes in their formulas to help break down stains and odors. The chemical reaction of the enzymes eliminates smells rather than simply covering them.

A friendly reminder: although these are all safe to use around your pets, that doesn't mean you should leave your fur family unattended with these ingredients. For example, although it’s a non-toxic disinfectant, you certainly wouldn't want your cat or dog to drink vinegar!

How to Safely Use Bio-Enzymatic Cleaners Around Pets

Kinderbean No-Stress Pet Mess Eraser is, paws down, one of the best non-toxic cleaning products on the market. Its blend of safe probiotics and naturally occurring enzymes have no harsh chemicals, no scary additives, no residue, and no possibility of harm to your family or pets.

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While other popular products use strong odorants, Kinderbean relies on the power of its enzymatic formula to neutralize, not mask, odors from pet waste.

Just like other non-toxic cleaning products, your pet should never be allowed to ingest Kinderbean and you should never apply it on your pet’s skin, coat, or body.

Here’s the safest way to use Kinderbean for all of your fur family’s pet messes: 

1. Soak Up and Saturate. The less pee you have to manage, the better! Soak up as much pee as you can with a paper towel, then saturate the area thoroughly with your enzyme cleaner. This critical step is where many pet parents make mistakes! Spraying the cleaner and then immediately wiping it away defeats the purpose. Remember, this is a biological process that needs time to work. So saturate the area and go just beyond the spot in question.
2. Gently agitate the surface (if it’s carpet, upholstery or fabric) using the bottom of the cleanser bottle, working the product into all the nooks and crannies. Set a clean white cloth on top of the spot. Let it sit overnight for soft surfaces like carpet. Or for sealed surfaces (wood floors, vinyl, tile or grout), leave up to 15 minutes. Remove the cloth.

It's that easy!

Of course, cleaning up your pet’s accidents correctly the first time will help eliminate the need for using a cleaning product more than usual.

Cleaning Products That Are Toxic to Dogs and Cats

Knowing which cleaning products to avoid is just as important as identifying those that are non-toxic and pet safe. Because our pets are smaller in size, they are even more sensitive to smaller doses of toxic ingredients. Laundry detergent, drain openers, bathroom cleaners, glass cleaners, and floor cleaners are all household products that have the potential to be toxic to your fur family.

Pet parents, read labels carefully and beware of the following cleaning chemicals:

• Ammonia: This is a popular ingredient in oven, kitchen, and glass cleaners. But this strong chemical can burn your pet’s sensitive mucous membranes or even cause death if they sniff too much of it.
• Chlorine: Because this is one of the most common ingredients in cleaning products it's also one of the most difficult to avoid. It’s a top ingredient in most toilet bowl cleaners. So if your pup is prone to drinking from the toilet, be sure to use a toilet bowl cleaner without chlorine that’s labeled “pet safe” or “non-toxic”. 
• Glycol Ethers: Steer clear of these ingredients, which are typically found in products like spot removers and carpet cleaners. They can cause anemia, lung damage, and kidney damage in both pets and people.
• Formaldehyde: This cancer-causing ingredient may not turn up in your household cleaner, but it’s occasionally found in cosmetics. Be sure to check the label on your pet shampoo too!
• Benzalkonium Chloride: This chemical is used as an antibacterial agent in surface cleaners but is not a pet-safe disinfectant.
• Air Fresheners: These can be especially dangerous for pets if inhaled in large amounts. They can make them very sick with prolonged exposure.
• Fragrances (phthalates and strong essential oils): Similarly, fragrances and strong essential oils can create airway stress for our furry friends. Be sure to read ingredient labels closely as strong essential oils are sometimes used in cleaning products that are labeled as “safe” for pets.

Whether you prefer your home to smell fragrant from a pumpkin spice-scented air freshener or the perfume of your favorite essential oil, it’s important to consider your pet’s nose.

Cat’s noses have 45 to 80 million microscopic olfactory receptors to recognize and process odors. Dogs, on the other hand, have between 149 million and 300 million smell receptors. 

That’s far more than the 5 million receptors humans have! In other words, our fur family is much more sensitive to smells than we are. Strong fragrances and essential oils may make us comfortable, but they can do some serious damage to our fur family's sensitive noses.

Kinderbean is unique in that it doesn’t rely on powerful fragrances and strong essential oils to mask odors from your pet’s messes. It has a subtle citrus scent derived from natural sources and essential oils, but it's not overpowering! While other pet cleaners use strong fragrances, Kinderbean keeps your pet’s sensitive snout in mind. 

As you choose safe, non-toxic cleaning products for your fur family, fetch a bottle or two of Kinderbean No-Stress Mess Eraser. It’s available for purchase as a single bottle or a two-pack. Love more and stress less!