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5 Ingredients to Avoid in Home Cleaning Products (And What to Use Instead)

Posted By: Truly Free Home

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Posted On: 8/18/2025

Harmful ingredients hide in everyday cleaners. Keep your home safe with Truly Free Home’s non-toxic alternatives.

From laundry detergent to multipurpose sprays, it feels like every cleaning product brand these days wants to convince you they’re “clean.” But here’s the problem: just because a cleaning product has a green leaf on the label doesn’t mean it’s actually safe for your family.

When you start digging, you realize toxic chemicals aren’t only in obvious cleaning products like bleach. They hide out in cleaners you use in your home every day without thinking—like laundry detergent, dish soap, or even that fabric softener that makes your blankets smell like a “mountain breeze.”

And that’s what’s really unsettling: you think you’re creating a clean, safe home for your family, but you may actually be filling it with chemicals that can irritate their skin, trigger allergies, disrupt hormones, and in some cases, cause long-term health concerns.

To help you keep the worst toxic offenders out of your home and away from your loved ones, we’re breaking down the top cleaning product ingredients to watch out for, where they sneak into common cleaning and laundry products, and what non-toxic home cleaning products to use instead.

5 Toxic Ingredients to Avoid in Cleaning Products

1. 1,4-Dioxane

  • Where it hides: Conventional laundry detergents, stain removers, dish soaps, and shampoos. Even “gentle” or “baby” detergents often contain it.
  • The problem: 1,4-dioxane is a known carcinogen, but it’s rarely on the label because it forms as a byproduct during manufacturing. That means you won’t see “1,4-dioxane” listed on any labels. To spot this toxic chemical, look for ingredients ending in “-eth,” or ones containing “PEG” or “polyethylene.”


2. Formaldehyde

  • Where it hides: Air fresheners, disinfectant sprays, laundry products with preservatives, and some dishwashing liquids.
  • The problem: Formaldehyde is best known as a preservative, but in your home, it can release toxic fumes that irritate eyes, skin, and lungs. It’s also another known carcinogen that has no place around kids or pets.


3. Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite)

  • Where it hides: Disinfectants, toilet bowl cleaners, and whitening laundry products.
  • The problem: Bleach is often marketed as the “gold standard” for cleaning, but its harsh fumes can burn your eyes, trigger asthma, and cause serious respiratory irritation. Mix it (accidentally or not) with another cleaner like ammonia, and it can release dangerous, even deadly, gases.


4. Toxic Synthetic Fragrances

  • Where it hides: Fabric softeners, dryer sheets, scented detergents, multipurpose sprays, and fabric and air fresheners.
  • The problem: That “fresh linen” or “wildflower meadow” scent? It’s usually a mix of dozens of unlisted chemicals. Companies can hide hormone-disrupting phthalates, petroleum byproducts, and allergens behind the single word “fragrance.” These fake scents cling to clothes and sheets, releasing toxins long after the laundry is done.


5. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)

  • Where it hides: Foaming laundry detergents, dish soaps, and surface sprays.
  • The problem: SLS is a harsh foaming agent that strips away oils, so it’s an effective degreaser, but not so great for skin. It’s linked to irritation, eczema flare-ups, and even endocrine disruption.

The Toxin-Free Cleaning Products to Use Instead

Avoiding toxic chemicals in your home doesn’t mean settling for products that don’t work. The truth is, you can have cleaners that are tough on stains, spills, and everyday messes, without bringing harmful ingredients into your laundry room or under your sink.

That’s where Truly Free Home comes in. Every safe, home cleaning product we make is formulated with families in mind and is powerful enough to tackle dirt, germs, and odors, yet gentle on skin, fabrics, pets, and babies. You’ll never find chlorine bleach, formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane, toxic synthetic fragrances, or any of the harmful chemicals on this list in our natural cleaning products for the home. Instead, we use plant-based ingredients and essential oils that clean beautifully while keeping your home safe and fresh.

Cleaning your house shouldn’t mean filling it with toxic chemicals. With Truly Free Home toxic-free cleaning products, you don’t have to choose between effectiveness and your healthy lifestyle standards—with us, you get both.

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