I was absolutely geeking out about this new knowledge and wanted to share it
somewhere! And then I remembered, "ah yes, permies will appreciate this".
Thyme oil!! Similar to pine oil disinfectants, but not toxic for pets, lower concentrations needed, and already commercially used in hospitals. I was looking for alternative solutions to get rid of mildew and came across
Benefect. You can see the SDS and other documents at the link. They claim it is less dangerous than distilled white vinegar and you don't even need to rinse it off surfaces (
even for food prep edit: I was wrong about this; it does say to rinse for food surfaces) though I probably will. I'm going to try a different cheaper product, but it's still thyme oil based in a similar concentration!! It seems too good to be true.
Has anyone tried thyme oil based disinfectants? I saw some threads mentioning its use for gardening applications, but didn't see any for household cleaning.