Making your own natural household cleaners and other green living ideas are a wonderful way to sustain your community. Sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly where to start, but one great place is in your own home.
There are countless cleaning products catering toward a much safer, non-toxic lifestyle. However, what you may not know is that you probably already possess the materials necessary to make your own cleaners.
Equipping yourself with just a few simple ingredients from your cupboard will help you take “going local” to a whole new level. Not only are they safe for everyone in your home, but they’re much cheaper to produce.
Baking soda & vinegar cleaners
Let’s start with the basics that you probably already know about. The two most well-known are baking soda and vinegar. They work well on cleaning and deodorizing floors, counters, scrubbing ovens, and cleaning your drains. Mix a little water in with some baking soda to make a paste and start scrubbing away.
Club soda is another popular cleaner prime for cleaning windows. Now, onto some that you might not know about.
Natural ingredients that clean
Black Tea: Boil unsweetened, loose leaf black tea and let cool. Pour into a spray bottle, apply to your hardwood floors, and hand-wash with a soft rag. You’ll be amazed at the shine this can bring back to your beautiful hardwood floors.
Olive Oil & Lemon Juice: Mix ½ cup of olive oil with ¼ cup of lemon juice to make furniture polish. You can add essential oils to give it a great scent. Lemon juice is also beneficial for metal surfaces and dissolving soap scum. If you cut a lemon in half and sprinkle baking soda on it, the lemon can be used to clean counters, dishes, and stains. When you’re done, put the lemon peel through the garbage disposal for a fresh scent.
Grapefruit seed extract: This is highly concentrated so you need only add a few drops to a spray bottle full of water for a wonderful surface cleaner. There’s no need to rinse it off either. As a side note, grapefruit seed extract can also be used in the same concentration with water to clean fruits and vegetables.
Green tea: Steep this anti-oxidant rich tea and dry it out thoroughly. You can then sprinkle the dried tea in your cat’s litter box to help deodorize it. Scatter some of the dried leaves on your carpet, wait 10 to 15 minutes and vacuum for the same deodorizing effect.
With these readily available cleaning remedies, green living is easier and more beneficial than ever.
Shannon Hayes, an author, blogger, and farmer, considers the movement of reviving the household as a center of production, rather than consumption, as being an excellent method of getting in touch with your home, the planet, and your community. After the industrial revolution, consumption became the norm, but taking small steps toward making what you need can help sustain our environment and your home.
Make Your Own Household Cleaners
By Matthew Shelley
Making your own natural household cleaners and other green living ideas are a wonderful way to sustain your community. Sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly where to start, but one great place is in your own home.
There are countless cleaning products catering toward a much safer, non-toxic lifestyle. However, what you may not know is that you probably already possess the materials necessary to make your own cleaners.
Equipping yourself with just a few simple ingredients from your cupboard will help you take “going local” to a whole new level. Not only are they safe for everyone in your home, but they’re much cheaper to produce.
Baking soda & vinegar cleaners
Let’s start with the basics that you probably already know about. The two most well-known are baking soda and vinegar. They work well on cleaning and deodorizing floors, counters, scrubbing ovens, and cleaning your drains. Mix a little water in with some baking soda to make a paste and start scrubbing away.
Club soda is another popular cleaner prime for cleaning windows. Now, onto some that you might not know about.
Natural ingredients that clean
With these readily available cleaning remedies, green living is easier and more beneficial than ever.
Shannon Hayes, an author, blogger, and farmer, considers the movement of reviving the household as a center of production, rather than consumption, as being an excellent method of getting in touch with your home, the planet, and your community. After the industrial revolution, consumption became the norm, but taking small steps toward making what you need can help sustain our environment and your home.