A couple of years ago now, our aging oven nearly burned our house down. I’m still not totally sure of exactly how it happened. I just walked into the kitchen and saw that the oven was on fire, and found that the oven door had locked itself shut. And while we did manage to get the fire put out before anything else was damaged, that harrowing experience really opened my eyes to potential dangers and fire hazards in my home!
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In order to help us all be a little more safe in our homes, today I’ll be sharing a list of 7 dangerous household items that you might not know about. Some of these items contain dangerous chemicals, while others can be a fire hazard when used incorrectly. For each dangerous item, I’ll share a simple and safe alternative you can choose instead!
Learning about these hazards in your home can’t prevent an accident entirely, but it’s a great place to start when it comes to making your home a safer place to live!
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7 Household Items That Are Surprisingly Dangerous
1. Air Fresheners
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, many household air freshener products contain chemicals that can affect hormones and reproductive development, especially in children. These chemicals can accumulate in the body over time and and cause adverse health effects!
Safe Alternative: Instead of using commercial air freshener products, use natural methods to freshen the air in your home. They’re safer to use, and often cheaper than the store-bought options! Learn about 10 natural ways to make your home smell great at this link.
2. Oven Cleaner
Many store-bought oven cleaners contain corrosive alkalis that can cause harm to your gastrointestinal tract or respiratory system if inhaled or ingested. Find out more about the dangers of oven cleaner products at MedlinePlus.
Safe Alternative: Instead, try my easy overnight method for cleaning your oven. (Get the full instructions here.) This method uses ammonia, which is safe when used correctly. However, ammonia fumes can aggravate asthma symptoms, so asthma sufferers may want to try scrubbing their oven with Barkeepers Friend instead.
3. Dryer Lint
Dryer lint itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, but a buildup of dryer lint can quickly become a huge fire hazard! According to the U.S. Fire Administration, around 2,900 clothes dryer fires are reported each year. They estimate that 34% percent of those fires were caused by owners who failed to keep their dryer clean and free of lint.
Safe Alternative: Clean your lint trap every time you use your dryer, and vacuum out the inside of your dryer regularly. Find out everything you need to know about cleaning and maintaining your clothes dryer at this link.
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4. Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Store-bought toilet bowl cleaners are highly acidic, which helps to dissolve tough stains and deposits in your toilet bowl. However, those corrosive ingredients that clean your toilet bowl can also cause burns on your skin and eyes! They can also produce caustic fumes when mixed with other types of cleaners.
Safe Alternative: There are plenty of safe, natural ingredients that you can use to keep your toilet sparkling clean. Learn how to make my favorite simple toilet bowl cleaner at this link.
5. Toothpaste
Most store-bought toothpastes bear the following warning: “Seek immediate medical help if you ingest toothpaste.” According to MedlinePlus, swallowing a lot of toothpaste can cause stomach pain and intestinal issues, or if the toothpaste contains fluoride, can even cause convulsions, difficulty breathing, and other scary side effects.
Safe Alternative: The good news is that toothpaste is perfectly safe to use when used correctly. Just make sure that everyone in your family (especially young kids) know how to dispense the correct pea-sized amount onto their toothbrush in the morning. And remind everyone to rinse their mouth thoroughly after brushing too!
6. Gas-Powered Space Heaters
Faulty gas-powered appliances (like an old space heater) can release carbon monoxide into the air. Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of poisoning death in the U.S., and even when it isn’t fatal, it can lead to permanent brain damage.
Safe Alternative: Make sure you have a working CO detector in your home. (Click here to check out the many options available on Amazon.) You can also opt for an electric space heater, or you can use these 10 hacks to keep warm!
7. Extension Cords
While the extension cord itself isn’t dangerous, the way that people use them can be. Many people aren’t aware of the voltage capacity of their extension cord, and end up plugging in more items than the cord can handle safely. This creates a big fire hazard, especially when the overloaded extension cord is placed near carpet or furniture. Extension cords are a leading cause of household fires in the U.S.
Safe Alternative: Learn how to use your extension cords safely! Check out this article of do’s and don’ts for using extension cords from Safety+Health magazine, published by the National Safety Council.
What’s your best tip for keeping your home safe?
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Hi Julie, my question is out of subject but I really want to know how to do. Do you need to wash the steak after you buy it from Sam or Costco. If yes and how. Please help
No, you do not need to rinse meat before cooking – that actually tends to spread the germs all over your sink. :-)
And yet the government puts Fluoride in the water and the dentist always wants to do fluoride treatments.
Toothpastes have CARRAGEENAN in them, even the ones from the health store. This can and will cause severe gastro intestinal problems.
Since stoves/ovens came up, a home inspector showed us the glasstop electric range wasn’t anchored to the wall by the original builder/installer. If something heavy was in the oven and the door was opened and the rack slid forward, the stove, being fairly lightweight, could tip over. This was in a house my elderly parents were moving into. I found the instruction manual, called the company and they overnighted the bracket to me which I installed myself. No charge at all.
That’s so good to know, thanks Carol!
I stopped using fluoride toothpaste about 7 years ago. Not one cavity since. It has never been proven to prevent cavities.
Fluoride is a neurotoxin (kills brain cells). Even though we aren’t ingesting it, it is being absorbed through the skin inside of our mouth and entering our body that way.
Hiya Lisa Glennie, So what do you use instead of fluoride? My Mam used to use breadsoda, (God rest her soul) but got us fluoride toothpaste as children.
I only use coconut oil and breadsoda, and not to spit it down the sink because I found out the hard way of having a blocked drainpipe, and unblocking the drainpipe I used breadsoda and white vinegar left it for 20 mins, came back with a kettle of boiling water and pour it down the shower room sink. God bless.
#6 under dangerous items in your home: you need a CO detector for carbon monoxide in your house, not one for CO2, carbon dioxide, which is what we breathe out and plants use in their respiration process to make oxygen. Typo!
Oops, thanks Pamela!
I agree 100% on a working CO2 detector! Last winter, just before bed, ours went off! Turns out the wall heater in our home had a leak, so I was glad that it went off – we might have gone to sleep and never woke up. We had some maintenance done in pour apartment recently, and the maintenance man brought up the CO2 detector. I told him the story, and he said, “In 20 years of doing this, I’ve never known anyone who had one go off.” I told him, “Because ours did, we lived to tell the tale!” A… Read more »
I had a fire experience almost 2 years ago kind of a crazy one. My mom had decided to run the self cleaning cycle on our oven before leaving the house. About 10 minutes later the smoke alarm was sounding very loudly and there was fire in the oven. She and my dad were out with friends and I had to call them. Anyway I had open the windows, turn off the oven and run the attic fan. When she returned home and checked – it turned out a hotdog had accidentally been left in the oven and caused the… Read more »
Also never self clean the oven when you are leaving the house or when you are going to bed. Run it while you are awake and alert. Most cycle 4-5 hours, so plan accordingly.
Even though I have a self-cleaning oven, I NEVER use it. It puts off an acrid smell which I can’t tolerate. So, I clean it the old fashion way with ammonia…………………
I’m a compulsive lint cleaner. Every time I use the dryer, I not only clean the lint screen, but I fish my hand around in the slot where the screen goes to pull out any lint that escaped. That’s because when I was in high school, my brother used the dryer and it started to smolder. My brother, being a dunce, went to school (I was home sick), and he didn’t bother telling me about the dryer. He said, “It was going to make me late for school”…!!! I said, you’d have been really late next week, when you had… Read more »
Yes! It is annual ritual at our house. Hubby checks the outside vent. I have a long flexible brush that I use often to clean down inside the dryer where the lint screen sits. Lint tends to hide in some of those crevasses.
We has a crazy experience with our dryer a few years ago . We started hearing chirping noises . Anyway it turned out the birds had made a hole and when my Dad checked it out he found a birds nest.It took about 2 tries to fix it.
How do you change the “exhaust” between the dryer and the vent? I’m not sure what that is. All I know about besides cleaning the lint trap as well as vacuuming below the screen and the aluminum vent hose (although mine is very short with a sharp curve because it is on the side of the dryer and yes directly out the wall and once when I tried to use one of those round vent tube brushes I ended up poking a hole in the tube and it was a pain to fix.
Hi Vicki! I actually have a whole post about cleaning your dryer, you can find step-by-step instructions here: http://bit.ly/2WWcrjh :-)
Hi Jillee. I have a tiny spot in my shower recess floor that has mould on it and everything I’ve tried hasn’t worked on this spot. Any suggestions. Thank you
Bleach works on mold. Period. Take a few paper towels, saturate it with bleach, and let it sit there for a few days. When it starts to dry, rewet it again with more bleach. Nothing will stand up to that!
I have a post all about it here: http://bit.ly/2RVb6Wc :-)