After a seemingly endless assortment of coughing, sneezing and general feelings of unwellness, we seem to have turned the corner on our sickness. My toddler is happily playing by herself again, singing songs and arranging and rearranging a set of nesting boxes all over the living room. My baby son is nursing more frequently again – but much more efficiently, now that his nose isn’t so congested he doesn’t have to stop eating every few seconds to breathe.

We’re better.

Which means the real work begins. After anyone in the house is sick, I like to give everything a good scrub down to get rid of any residual germs and freshen things up.

Starting with our linens, I pull everything off the beds and wash in hot water. Same with towels, wash cloths and any other fabrics we came in contact with – stuffed animals, pillows, clothes, shoes, jackets, or anything else that can go through the washing machine.

Hard plastic toys get cleaned and sanitized in a diluted bleach solution – ½ cup bleach to a gallon of water; soak for five minutes, then rinse thoroughly and allow to air dry.

Fabric or plush toys are a little trickier to clean; most are spot-clean only, so they get wiped down with some gentle soap and water and allowed to dry in the sun to bleach out any germs.

The house also gets a good scrubbing, including high traffic areas like the entire bathroom, door knobs, the refrigerator door handle, and anything else that gets touched frequently – and frequently by germy kid hands. Toothbrushes get tossed out and replaced, and combs and brushes are scrubbed with soapy water. Dishes are washed in the dishwasher using the “sanitize” setting to make sure that they’re nice and clean.

What’s your routine after everyone feels better from being sick?

When I was pregnant with my daughter (now three years old), my hubby did all of the household cleaning that used poisons and toxic cleaners as I didn’t want to inhale the fumes and potentially harm my unborn child.

Once my daughter started eating solids and using her highchair and booster seat trays, I struggled with finding a way to clean the trays without using harmful chemicals, but ensuring that they were disinfected at the same time. In the end, I used vinegar (my new best friend) by diluting it slightly and putting it into a spray bottle. I felt good knowing that her tray was being sanitized and continued to be a clean and safe surface for her food–as we all know, babies and toddlers don’t exactly love to use the dishes that their food arrives in.

As my daughter continued to grow, I decided that I would try switching to more natural cleaning products in the house, as she was always around when I was cleaning and was therefore being exposed to all of the harmful fumes from the chemicals that I was using.

I switched to using hydrogen peroxide and vinegar solutions (in individual spray bottles) to disinfect all of our counter tops, vinegar on our hardwood and ceramic tiles and baking soda sprayed with vinegar in the toilets. Baking soda also works as a great abrasive for cleaning showers and bathtubs.

I have also been experimenting with some of the natural and green lines of cleaners that are on the market, but truthfully, I am slightly skeptical as to how well some of them work or if in fact they are truly non toxic!

I do feel much better that my daughter nor I are inhaling toxic chemicals every time I clean, especially now that I am pregnant again.

Some other natural cleaning substances include lemon juice, certain essential oils and salt (as an abrasive).

Vinegar is by far my favorite, though, it has so many uses! I have even sprayed fruit with my vinegar spray bottle in order to remove germs and wax residue. Soaking lettuce in a vinegar and water mix can help clean the lettuce as well as crisp up the leaves prior to using them in a salad.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas and opinions on using natural cleaners. As well, if you do choose the natural route, what do you use?