It’s interesting to me, that what my grandmother used to do from cleaning, to cooking, to even being thrifty, is now the “the new thing”. I’ve grown up using the chemical stuff to clean with and I’ve also used homemade products. I prefer to use the most minimal chemicals that I can. It’s 100 times cheaper once you get your supplies and make your cleaning things up and ready, than buying the commercial stuff. Let’s not even get into all the toxic stuff hiding in the commercial brands.
“Cleaning your house may come at a high price,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s senior vice president for research and co-author of the Cleaners Hall of Shame report, in a statement. “Almost any ingredient is legal and almost none of them are labeled, leaving families at risk”.( spring cleaning may kill you.)
So what are you going to do? Make your own!!!!! There’s so much out there, you just have to look. Don’t fall for every expensive “green cleaning product” without doing research, and looking around. There are so many recipes, books, and websites that can help you with this!!
So here are a couple of my favorite recipes:
BASE RECIPE (sinks, tubs, toilets) think of it as the chemical free comet
1 cup borax
1 cup table salt
1 cup baking soda
4 drops of essential oil
* (for germ fighting ones, I use white thyme or tea tree, or
nice smelling refreshing, I use lemon or peppermint) * note I use Young Living essential oils, because they have the highest quality oils and you know exactly what’s in your oil)
This is the base of many cleaning recipes. It all depends on what you’re wanting to clean. This can be used for bathroom tubs, toilets, and sinks.
Degreaser/ oven cleaner
use base recipe and add dawn dish soap, make a paste. then scrub on greasy areas. Let it sit for awhile. then rinse off. May have to repeat a few times.
This can be used on cookie sheets, frying pans, and anything that has built up grease.
Grout Cleaner/ Oven Cleaner
Base recipe
Vinegar
I take an empty parmesan container and put base cleaner in it, then I sprinkle in the grout. I think spray vinegar onto the baking soda and scrub with a brush. For really dirty grout, you may have to repeat a few times. I then wipe with warm water and mop up any residue left from baking soda.
Window Cleaner
water
small amount of vinegar
drop of dawn dish soap
teaspoon of vodka
mix all together and put in a spray bottle. The vodka helps keep the water from getting nasty and also to evaporate faster once sprayed.
Here is a great site to get more recipes and info on green cleaning.
organic introvert 