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Think About It...
Do our grocery stores have more than enough chemicals to, not only participate in, but start and finish chemical-based world warfare twice over?... Is a frog's butt watertight?
Just a few moments of today’s commercials, popups, and advertisements and you will find a plethora of advertised cleaning products that practically work miracles…. As you walk down the aisles of your grocery, you may have a hard time imagining the following statement as an option in your working lexicon:
...Nowadays you might even try to liken me to a no-legged dog if I got to telling you about how people used to actually care for their floors, windows, clothes, and all the other surfaces of the home without the aid of commercial products...you'd say I was lyin' !!
While it is true - there IS a commercial product suited to most every task, you can still make your home gleam with just a small sprinkling of supplies, many of which are presumably now in your kitchen cupboards (and if not, go grab ya some with a quickness!).
Back in the pre-prima-donna days, they made soap from tallow and ashes and cleaners / disinfectants from lemon juice, borax, vinegar, and baking soda. Before the advent of the myriad products we take for granted today, a domestic engineer had to have a basic understanding of the chemistry of housecleaning in order to keep a tidy house. They would have been familiar with the bleaching properties of lemon juice, the disinfecting power of vinegar, and the grease-cutting abilities of baking soda. They would have known that a tablecloth stained with crushed blueberries would require very different treatment than one marred by gravy. Housekeeping generations ago was as much a science as an art.
Armed with a few facts, recipes and techniques, you can confidently choose natural, safe products that will allow you to clean more effectively, efficiently, and frugally. If you're hankering to jump off of the train going the “modern route.” and sacrificing the naturalness of your home, the following content might just put you in the "right track."
Though smell is mighty subjective and on a per-person basis, many folks are conditioned to believe a house is not clean unless it emanates the odor of "cleaning" chemicals. Although we as professional cleaners relish that moment of chemically induced "clean" inhalation, we know fully that little indicates a clean house more than a complete absence of odor (other than fresh flowers or or a casserole cooking!). Because of this, many tend to use harsh cleaners that contain ingredients that are far stronger than necessary. In doing so, you risk not only wear-and-tear on the surface or material you’re cleaning, but polluting the air inside your house as well as the planet!
According to the EPA, concentrations of volatile organic compounds (i.e. - chemical laden gases emitted by a variety of household products that can have short and long-term health affects) are ten times more dangerous inside the home than outside.
Fortuitously, there is now more than ever a booming market catering to those out there who are curious about products that are better for health and the environment – and the efficacy of these products seems to be improving as the product niche ameliorates (although these often still require more elbow grease than conventional products put to the test). Because health and environmental claims are often minimally studied and regulated, you need to be vigilant about checking product details to ensure the bottles are not writing checks that the formula can't cash.
OR, if you have the time and are up for the perspective, you can simply read on and clue in to some radical (and, nonetheless, time-tested) tips which will open your mind to cleaning your home with commonplace, common-cupboard, run-of-the-mill, kitchen supply.
Mixing your own (natural) cleaners is not only relatively inexpensive, it means you always know exactly what you’re getting and using. You may have to warm up the ol' rotator cuff and put a little English on the scrub (in some cases), but you can replace many nasty, environmentally-unfriendly cleaners with homemade ones that put that peace of mind in place as a residual - and who couldn't use a little more peace?
Just The Basics:
Mild dishwashing liquid is excellent for removing spills and subsequent stains that water won’t quite lift alone. What in this ol' world is a "mild" detergent? It's a soap used for hand-washing materials and it only contains surfactants that dissolve. Dawn dish soap is considered one of the very best in this category. Make a simple, all-purpose cleaner by mixing 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons dishwashing liquid in a spray bottle; this crucially apt concoction can be used on countertops and other hard surfaces for a non-toxic wipe-down, a general area sprucing, or an effective remover of fingerprints and other blemishes that mar the clean beauty of your home.
Baking soda is not only a keen choice for deodorizing, but it is a stellar pick for a variety of other cleaning tasks because, although baking soda is considered an abrasive, it doesn’t scratch up surfaces. To scrub away kitchen stains or to put a devilish clean on the grimey grease of the oven without the added throat and lung searing that accompany "top-shelf" cleaners, mix a paste
of 3 parts water to 1 part baking soda. In addition,
make a bathroom cleaner by mixing a dishwashing liquid with baking soda until you have a thick paste. Just watch the scum of the bathing room melt under the more-natural chemistry you have blended in "the lab" yourself.
Distilled white vinegar and pure lemon juice are both also excellent for pre-treating, cleaning, deodorizing, and mild bleaching. Both are highly acidic and can be used to eliminate the big bear of soap scum among myriad other set-up and set-in stains. Vinegar has literally been used and revered as a brilliant cleaner for thousands of years. From ancient Rome to the here and now, it has woven its way through the annals of history.
When choosing vinegar for the job, it is best to use white, distilled, 5% acid variety; avoid the cider or the brown as you may wind up with an unwanted stain to add to your cleaning list....Not a paradox you need if you're like us and aim for efficiency as well as clean!
Another natural application comes in the attempt to soften mineral deposits on faucets and in sinks
by covering them for several hours with a paper towel soaked in either vinegar or lemon.
Make a window/mirror cleaner by mixing 1 part vinegar to 1 part water (this solution also works well on most wood floors that have been finished with polyurethane).
As you can surely imagine - we believe in clean, so our instinct nudges to do what it takes to achieve that paradigm, but we like to leave the starting line as natural as is allowed, then later resort to “heavier artillery” as a last-ditch effort to topple the stronghold that dirty can have.
*For routine cleaning , less is more. you actually need very few products to keep any given room or surface throughout your home up-to-snuff. While there will be cases in which the big guns are needed to achieve ultimate clean, more often than not, the bare minimums you already have in your kitchen cupboards will do some wicked-awesome gleaming and sure fire cleaning.
The best part of it all: These cleaning gems are safe and inexpensive!
****IMPORTANT NOTE: Be über careful anytime you mix chemicals; know your portions and take great care - especially when marrying harsh and shelf-sold chemicals. Reactions can results in deadly fumes and scathing burns. Mixing acidic and alkaline substances will mute the effect of both, as will mixing chlorine and oxygen bleaches. For this reason, you should always take care to thoroughly rinse surfaces with pure water after cleaning them with anything but the pure olde H2O.... Safety Rant Over.
Now for some wild, fun ones!
Here are a couple real rare, fun-facts for you car and bike fans out there, as well as the homemaker!:
Coca-Cola
Use Coca-Cola to remove rust spots from chrome as well as to clean corrosion from car battery terminals! (Hmmm, maybe it eats up all that crud from your gut that you pack in from the Taco Bell menu - - - cravings boxes, be damned!!)
Outta the garage and into he home, you can use Coca-Cola to clean your toilet bowls (it leaves a gorgeous porcelain shine), or use it to remove grease from clothes by simply emptying a can into your regular load alongside detergent, greasy work clothes, and all.
Listerine
With this awesome oral-health product, you can do anything from fertilize your lawn, eliminate mildew odors (simply use full-test Listerine and wipe down!), prevent a snow-showet of dandruff, and disinfect nasty wounds. Yucky breath (and other funky nuisances) doesn't stand a chance when Listerine shows up to the bout!
Tidy Cat Litter
Another one for both the garage keeper and the housemaker!
In the garage/vehicular world, this magic dust can create emergency traction for automobiles and deodorize a biohazard-esque trash receptacle as well as soak up injury pits of oil and other slippery fluids waiting to claim victims.
In the home, you can use the feline favorite to prevent mildew in the tub, deodorize a stale refrigerator, and even enliven with freshness the stinky sneakers of your teenage fútbol enthusiast. PurrfectO...
Wash-yer-sister-Sauce-(Worcestershire Sauce)
With this wonder-substance, you can not only whip up some delectable hamburger steaks, you can also: polish anything brass, repair scratched woodwork, and remove annoying tarnish from your copper pots! The sister is well worth the washin' with this cabinet cohort; another commonly found partner in the quest for a more natural, healthy, and frugal dwelling space - right there in the cabinetry.
We Out For Now...
As you can see, humans, along with nature, have combined and found ways to be quite creatively brilliant with common kitchen stock; the whipping up and wielding is right there ready within the cupboard and palm of the natural cleaner.
If you have any strange, wild and fun cleaning solutions r f you'd like to contribute to the natural cleaner list ,please engage with us in the comments section!
And That's All Folks
(well, there really more, so much more! Stay tuned...)
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