Non-Toxic Home Cleaning Routine

By Kristina Braly, MD — Founder, AEMBR

People ask me all the time: what do you actually use at home? I get it. I have spent years reading ingredient labels, talking to toxicologists, and formulating my own products — and the gap between what I know and what most households are still using keeps me up at night. Not in an alarmist way. In a "there is genuinely a better option and most people just don't know about it yet" way.

This is not a generic non-toxic living listicle. This is my actual Monday morning. The products in my laundry room, under my sink, and on my kitchen counter. What I reach for, in what order, and why each one earned its spot. I am a physician and a mom, and I built AEMBR specifically because I couldn't find products that met both of those standards at once — clinically sound formulations that also smell extraordinary and feel intentional in a beautiful home.

Here is what the routine looks like.

Why I Built a Routine Around Ingredient Standards First

Before I get into the specifics, I want to explain my evaluation framework — because it shapes every product choice in this routine.

Most conventional cleaning products are formulated to perform and smell good at the lowest possible cost. That means synthetic fragrance (which can contain undisclosed phthalates and hundreds of untested aroma chemicals), optical brighteners (which stay on fabric after washing and can irritate sensitive skin), surfactants like SLS and SLES (which are functional but stripped down, with known skin irritation profiles), and preservatives that the label often just calls "preservatives" with no further disclosure.

None of these are necessarily catastrophic in a single exposure. The concern — and this is the part my medical training drilled into me — is cumulative, low-level, daily exposure across multiple product categories. When you wash your clothes in a phthalate-containing detergent, spray your kitchen counter with a quat-based cleaner, and light a paraffin candle in the evening, your total chemical load for the day is meaningfully higher than if you had used clean alternatives in each category.

That's the gap I'm filling. Not panic. Just better choices, category by category.

Monday Morning Starts with Laundry

My Monday morning routine almost always starts with laundry. Two kids, a workout habit, and a linen obsession mean the machine runs three to four times a week. Laundry is the highest daily-contact category I think about — fabric sits against skin all day, and whatever is in your detergent is in that fabric.

I use AEMBR Laundry Powder. Obviously I'm biased — I formulated it — but let me explain what I was actually solving for when I built it.

I wanted a plant-derived surfactant base with no SLS, SLES, or 1,4-dioxane contamination risk. I wanted fragrance oil that I could verify was phthalate-free and IFRA-compliant, because "natural fragrance" on a label means nothing without that documentation. I wanted no optical brighteners — those UV-reactive chemical compounds that make whites look brighter but stay on fabric and can trigger contact dermatitis. And I wanted it to actually clean, because a clean-formulation detergent that needs three extra scoops to do the job isn't a win.

It took eighteen months to get the formula right. The version in the jar now is the one that passed every standard I set for myself as both a physician and a formulator.

For the wash cycle: one scoop in the drum (or the detergent drawer for front-loaders), cold water for most loads, hot for towels and sheets. I add Oxygen Boost on white loads or anything with a stain that needs help. It's sodium percarbonate-based — releases hydrogen peroxide in water, no chlorine bleach.

For the dryer: wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. Dryer sheets are one of the most fragrance-saturated products in the laundry category — that scent you smell on the laundry fresh from the dryer? That's residue coating the fabric. I prefer the clean finish.

The Kitchen: Counter Spray, Dishes, and What I Won't Use

My kitchen counter sees a lot of action — food prep, kids' homework, morning coffee. The surface cleaner I use here matters more to me than almost anything else, because food-contact surfaces are exactly what the name says: surfaces that contact food.

I use the AEMBR Multi Surface Spray on counters, stovetop surrounds, and the table. No quaternary ammonium compounds (quats), no ammonia, no synthetic fragrance. It's a plant-derived formula that is safe on food-contact surfaces and doesn't leave a chemical film I'd be uncomfortable with.

What I won't use in the kitchen: anything with bleach on countertops (it off-gasses chlorine in an enclosed space, and the residue interacts with organic material from food), anything with "antibacterial" as a marketing claim that relies on triclosan or quats, and anything with a fragrance I can't verify is phthalate-free.

For dishes, I'm deliberate about the dishwasher specifically. Dishwasher pods and gels leave residue on dishes that your family eats off. I look for phosphate-free, chlorine-free, and PVA-film-conscious formulas. I've tested a number of them — the post I wrote on what's actually in dishwasher pods walks through exactly what I look for and why.

Air Quality: The Category Most People Skip

Indoor air quality is, in my professional opinion, the most underestimated category in a non-toxic home conversation. The EPA estimates that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air — largely because of cleaning products, synthetic fragrance, off-gassing from materials, and inadequate ventilation.

I approach air quality in two ways: what I remove and what I add.

What I remove: synthetic air fresheners (aerosol or plug-in), conventional candles made with paraffin wax and synthetic fragrance, and dryer sheets (already covered). These are three of the highest-VOC contributors in a typical home environment.

What I add: ventilation first (open a window while cleaning, always), and then intentional fragrance from sources I've verified. I use ALKYMIST room spray in living areas — it's an alcohol-free, phthalate-free fragrance mist that disperses quickly without leaving propellant or synthetic residue. For the evenings, I burn AEMBR candles — coconut-apricot wax blend, phthalate-free fragrance oil, cotton-core wick. Cleaner burn than paraffin, and a genuinely complex scent profile that doesn't smell like a mass-market approximation of "clean linen."

The candle I reach for most often in the evening is Fjord — sea salt, sage, a hint of driftwood. It smells like a window open to the coast. That's the room I want to come home to.

The Bathroom: What's Under the Sink

The bathroom cleaning rotation is simpler than the kitchen. I use the same multi-surface spray on counter, toilet exterior, and sink. For the toilet bowl, I use a citric acid-based cleaner — effective descaler, no chlorine bleach required, safe to rinse into plumbing without environmental concern.

Shower: I rotate between a plant-based all-purpose spray and a periodic hydrogen peroxide spray for grout. Both are fragrance-free in the bathroom specifically — the enclosed space concentrates VOCs from any spray faster than an open kitchen.

Under my sink you'll also find: white vinegar (diluted 1:1 for glass and mirrors, no streak residue), baking soda (deodorizer and mild abrasive for the tub), and that's about it. The cabinet is not full. That is intentional.

The Bedroom and Linen Routine

Bedroom is where I've made the most conservative product choices. We spend eight hours a night with our faces pressed against fabric — sheets and pillowcases are the highest skin-contact textiles in the house, and they're washed in detergent and then dried against our skin all night.

Sheets: washed in AEMBR Laundry Powder, cold cycle, tumble dried low with wool dryer balls. No fabric softener — it works by coating fabric fibers with a chemical lubricant, which reduces absorbency in towels and leaves a residue I'm not interested in sleeping in.

Air in the bedroom: no candles burning while sleeping (obvious fire reason, but also: you don't need VOC load in a room you're trying to sleep in). I use a small amount of ALKYMIST sprayed on curtains or a diffuser with a simple single-note essential oil — cedarwood or lavender, nothing complex. The goal is a room that smells clean and nothing else.

Weekly Deep Clean: The Full List

Once a week, usually Sunday, I do a more thorough pass. Here is the actual product list for the deep clean:

The Non-Toxic Routine Starter Checklist

If you're just starting to audit your cleaning products, here's how I'd prioritize the swaps. Start with the highest-exposure categories first:

• ☑ Laundry detergent — highest skin-contact, daily frequency. Swap first.
• ☑ Dryer sheets → wool dryer balls. Easy win, zero loss in performance.
• ☑ Kitchen counter spray — food-contact surface, swap second.
• ☑ Air fresheners and plug-ins — continuous VOC source, remove them.
• ☑ Paraffin candles with synthetic fragrance — replace with clean-wax alternatives.
• ☑ Bathroom spray — lower priority than kitchen (no food contact), but worth doing.
• ☑ Dishwasher detergent — food-contact residue risk, worth a clean swap.
• ☑ Fabric softener — remove it. Nothing in your routine needs it.

You don't have to change everything at once. Change the laundry detergent this week. Change one more thing next week. Within a month, you've meaningfully reduced your household's daily chemical load without feeling like you've upended your life.

What This Routine Doesn't Include (and Why)

I get asked about a few things I deliberately don't use:

Essential oil diffusers in every room: Essential oils are botanically derived, but they are still VOC sources — terpenes in citrus and pine oils react with indoor ozone to create secondary pollutants. I use diffusers sparingly and with ventilation. The clean fragrance I want in my home is measured, not ambient-all-day.

Homemade "natural" cleaners with undiluted essential oils: I see recipes on social media for DIY cleaners with 30-40 drops of essential oil in a small spray bottle. That concentration is higher than most commercial products and not inherently safer because it came from a plant. Dilution matters.

Disinfectants as daily cleaners: I use disinfectants (EPA-registered, quat-free formulas) when there's a genuine need — illness in the household, raw meat contact on a cutting board. Not as routine surface maintenance. Daily disinfectant use is unnecessary, contributes to antimicrobial resistance risk, and most household surfaces don't need it. Soap and water — or a plant-based spray — cleans fine.

The Deeper Read

If you want to understand the ingredient science behind any of this, I've written extensively on specific categories:

• What's Actually in Laundry Detergent? A Physician's Ingredient Breakdown — the full surfactant and fragrance breakdown
• Phthalate-Free Laundry Detergent: What It Means and Why It Matters — the endocrine disruption evidence
• What Are VOCs and Why Do They Matter in Cleaning Products? — the indoor air quality science
• The 10 Ingredients I Banned From My Home — my full banned-list with alternatives
• How I Formulated a Laundry Detergent That Actually Works Without the Toxins — the formulation story

Or if you want to start somewhere simple, the AEMBR laundry collection has everything for a complete laundry routine swap. And the non-toxic household collection covers the full home.

A Final Note

I built AEMBR because I couldn't find products that met my own standard. Clean formulation that I could verify. Fragrance I could trace. Performance I could depend on. And a brand that felt as considered as the products inside it — because a home that functions beautifully and smells extraordinary should not require a compromise between those two things.

This is the routine that runs my house. I hope it helps you build yours.

— Kristina

Kristina Braly is a physician and the founder of AEMBR, a luxury clean fragrance and home care brand founded in Houston, Texas in 2022. She writes about ingredient safety, clean formulation, and building a non-toxic home from a medical and personal perspective.