Hi Everyone,
In today's post I wanted to give everyone some recipes of my personal organic, natural cleaners.
These are the cleaners that I personally use to tackle some of the toughest, dirtiest and grimmest jobs in my home.
I even brought some of these cleaners with me to my grandmothers house this last weekend when I was helping her out with the little mouse problem she had.
Cleaning Product and the Goverment
The government doesn’t regulate or assess the safety of the vast majority of cleaning products on the market. Pesticides are the only real concern for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Check out www.EPA.gov on cleaning products and contents. Their site does have a section on safer choice standards. Available here: (https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/products)
What does this translate to for the average household cleaning product in the store? And how do you protect yourself and your family from harmful chemicals found in most cleaning products?
Indoor pollutants from chemical cleaners is high on the list of things that can effect your health. With cleaning up any type of dirty job the last thing you want is to be in more danger from the cleaner purchased from the store. If you think your cleaners are fine, ask yourself if you have experienced some of the immediate effects of exposure to harmful chemical pollutants from cleaners like headaches, dizziness, fatigue; irritation of the eyes, nose and throat and upper respiratory system. Repeated exposure can cause chronic respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and there's even some speculation that in extreme cases it can lead to cancer.
The EPA recommends that everyone needs to improve the quality of cleanliness in their home whether they are exhibiting signs of chemical pollutants or not. Here’s some good news for you.
The Non-Toxic Option
There’s a Non-Toxic option that will save you money and protect the environment. The best part is you may not even need to leave your home for most of the items and ingredients you need.
Homemade removers Ingredients:
- Baking Soda - A universally solid antiviral substance that cleans, deodorizes and breaks down grease.
- Vinegar - An acidic solution usually made from aged or fermented juices can cut through grease, soap scum and the destroyer of mold.
- Castile soap - 100% plant-STRONG. This soap will eliminate the dirtiest and toughest grime.
- Borax - This is a 1, 2 cleaning combo of salt and the mineral boron. Careful It's powerful and can still irretate your skin!
- Bottom Shelf Vodka - Don’t let that left over
vodka go to waste after a party. This stuff works great on any marble, granite or stone surface for a vinegar substitute.
Lemon Concentrate - Hands down the best in organic cleaner available. Natures own antibacterial cleaner. Lemon will annihilate all moldy, fungus and mildew within seconds. Plus it smells good too.
Oils
Organic Oils are important to me because they add a great scent to the cleaning products and to your home. They are by no means necessary to the function of cleaning.
- Tea-Tree
- Lemon
- Lavender
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Spearmint
It’s better to make a cleaner for the specific area you want to tackle and how often you plan on cleaning. I’m sure you're thinking a cleaner will clean why not use one cleaner for everything? Simple, your home has different rooms for different purposes; most would not use their kitchen as a shower in and cook in their bathrooms. Get the idea.
Tough Bathroom Cleaners:
Bathtub & Shower are no match for the power of white vinegar. Use this on any soap stains, dirt, mildew, pink mold and certainly black mold spots. Place your white vinegar in a generic spray bottle and spray away, wait 30 minutes then rinse with warm water.
Still not getting rid the grossness? Add some Baking soda and castile soap and scrub that tub.
Toilets Bowl sometimes need a heavy duty cleaning, especially if it gets a lot of use. There's an advantage there is fresh clean water a flush away. So use that water to hold your cleaner.
- ½ cup of baking soda
- ½ cup of vinegar
- Optional 10 drops of tea tree oil to eradicate any unpleasant odors.
Want to clean your bowl daily?
- Fill 1 cup of vinegar with lemon concentrate and tea tree and wipe the dirtiness away.
Kitchen Viral & Bacterial Destroyer is my special homemade all-purpose cleaner.
- 2 ½ cups of water and 2 tablespoons of liquid Castile soap.
- Optional 20 drops of tea tree oil for that fresh smell that fills the home. Add some spearmint for a little zesty smell.
Counter tops
In most homes the counter tops get a ton of use. Therefore they dirty. The grime is no match for vodka and water. Yep you read correctly. I was told to use some vodka as a cheap but effective cleaner by a friend of mine awhile back and it turned out to be one of the best ingredients in my cleaning arsenal.
It works great on Cooking surfaces (cutting boards) is where Non-Toxic is key!
Any wood or plastic (polyurethane) board just needs a bit of lemon and water. Even better is to take a actual lemon, cut it in half and run it all over surface of your board.
Can’t get the sticky stuff?
Throw about a tablespoon of salt on the board and scrub with the lemon half.
1, 2, 3 Drain Cleaner
This is an absolute necessity for getting rid of clogs or possible mold growth on the inside of your pipes.
- Use 3 cups of water brought to a boil
- ½ cup of baking soda
- Followed by vinegar (STAND BACK!)
- Optional rinse with a another couple of cups of boiling water for a really good cleaning.
What about the Floors?
Hard surface floors need a good cleaning once in awhile. Clean linoleum with one part vinegar and two parts of warm water in any size bucket.
Have tile floors?
No Problem.
Use some of that leftover vodka instead of vinegar.
Need to Clean Up the Walls
Wall scrub down with ½ cup of vinegar and a half gallon of warm water with a rag.
This will get rid of all those marks and any dirt, grime and mold spores that have settled there.
Need more scrubbing power? Put a teaspoon of baking soda on the rag with the cleaner and that spot is as good as gone.
Ok that is all I have for some of my personal household organic & natural cleaners that I use in my home. And even use in my grandmother's home.
I know there is a variety of home recipes for cleaning any place in your home. If you have any that you want to share please leave your comments.
...and of course Stay Safe!
By the way I practice catch and release program and the little guy is doing good.
Resources:
A product search provide by the EPA
https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/products
Josh Fischbach lives in the Yosemite area and works in the Environmental Industry. He's interested in health, better living and Sci-Fi. (T.N.G. RULES!). Check out my Intruduction Post
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