When it comes to household cleaning products, Gail McClary has a simple, green philosophy.

"Anything that says to call the poison center if you actually swallow it can't be good for you," she said.

Her concern stemmed from personal experience — she's long suffered with sinus problems that she blames on commercial cleaning products — and the fact that women traditionally have done most of the household cleaning.

McClary's solution was to join the greening ranks of consumers who have chosen to make homemade cleaning supplies using safe, natural ingredients.

For the past 18 months, she has used a mixture of vinegar, hot water and essential oils, such as lavender, to polish her hardwood floors, countertops and tile. She uses borax in her laundry instead of commercial stain remover, and she's used vinegar on her windows.

"Green cleaning is, just for me, a much better way to go," said McClary, a 42-year-old Maui mother and massage therapist. "You can clean almost anything with vinegar and you can use baking soda for your sinks. For me, it works a lot better than Comet or Ajax, and it doesn't have bleach."

It feels "cleaner and fresher," she doesn't suffer anymore from the sinus problems and she lives with peace of mind.

"I have a daughter and she really likes to help out," McClary said. "I feel much better about getting her to help with stuff that is nontoxic."

Some commercial household cleaners have been linked to asthma, reduced fertility and birth defects, said Ali Solomon, a spokeswoman for the environmental advocacy group Women's Voices of the Earth. The nonprofit group out of Missoula, Mont., has created a national initiative to reduce consumer exposure to toxic cleaning products and offers recipes for homemade cleaning products.

"It is pretty easy to remove toxic chemicals from cleaning products," Solomon said. "Our grandparents made cleaners without them for generations."

The ingredients are already in most kitchens, she said. And they work well, too.

"There are several studies that show that regular household vinegar is as effective or nearly as effective in eliminating microbes like E. coli and 90 percent to 98 percent of bacteria," Solomon said.

No government agency tests commercial cleaners for safety before they're allowed on the market, nor are there laws requiring toxic ingredients to be listed on the label, Solomon said. In a recent report on household cleaning products, the environmental group found that only a fraction of the 85,000 chemicals in the marketplace have ever been tested for safety.

Until more is known, or manufacturers reveal more about their products, Women's Voices for the Earth believes it's best to make your own cleaners, Solomon said.

"We believe that toxic chemicals don't belong in products when there are safe alternatives," she said. "If you can reduce the amount of toxics you are coming in contact with, why wouldn't you?"