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Many commercially made cleaning products wreak havoc with air and water quality, not to mention that they are harsh on your hands, your home and your wallet.
While baking soda tops my list of inexpensive environmentally friendly ways to keep bathrooms and kitchens clean, baking soda can’t do it all. For instance, you shouldn’t ever use baking soda on wood furniture or your floors whether they’re wood, tile, natural stone or linoleum.
So, what can you use?
White vinegar!
Vinegar is a solution of acetic acid and trace chemicals, typically in a mild solution of 5-20% by volume. One cup of white vinegar in a gallon of warm water is the most highly recommended and preferred cleaning solution for wood furniture and floors. This is also an effective go-to cleaner for baseboards, woodwork and windowsills. Try it on the bricks around your fireplace. You’ll be amazed by the results.
A mixture of equal parts white vinegar and water is an excellent solution for removing grease on your stovetop, broiler or countertops and can be used to remove wax and grime from wood furniture.This one-to-one solution also makes a safe tick and flee spray for your dogs. Just like ticks and flees, many garden pests, including fire ants and deer, do not like the smell of vinegar and will be happy to move on to another local if you keep the area freshly sprayed each week with this environmentally safe concoction.
You can safely use vinegar full strength on a number of household cleaning problems, including: removing ballpoint ink from walls and furniture; getting grime off of scissor blades; cleaning chrome and stainless steel; removing mineral deposits from tea and coffee pots; getting rid of stubborn toilet stains (pour full strength into the toilet and let sit overnight before flushing); treating food and sweat stains on clothing; disinfecting wooden cutting boards, counter tops and cooking tools in order to remove the risk of e-coli bacteria.
Add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to your regular dish washing liquid and you’ll discover that you need to use less dish soap to make dishes, glassware and flatware sparkle. Likewise, trade out bleach for a cup of vinegar in your weekly wash to not only brighten your whites and colors but also make them smell better and be static free. Use a quarter cup of vinegar regularly as the rinse agent in your dishwasher and watch your glassware shine!
There are hundreds of vinegar cleaning and household aid recipes on the Internet. My favorite bathroom cleaning solution is made by combining two cups of white vinegar with one cup of blue Dawn dish detergent. Heat the vinegar in your microwave for one to two minutes (dish water warm but not boiling) then mix in the dish detergent. Let the mixture cool then decant into a spray bottle. Spray your tub, shower or sink. Let it sit for a minute, then rinse. Your tile and tub will be free of soap scum, bathtub ring and mildew.
I keep a spray bottle of this vinegar/dish detergent combination in each of our bathrooms and regularly spray down the shower/tubs and sinks before turning on my morning shower (let the water run for a couple of minutes so the tub won’t be slippery). I also have a spray bottle in my kitchen with the half vinegar/half water solution for cleaning the stove top, countertops and cutting boards after dinner.
The trick to using vinegar to help you clean is to keep it handy. Put a large bottle of vinegar in the laundry room to use with the wash and another under the kitchen sink to add as the rinse solution to your dishwasher. I also like to keep a box or two of baking soda handy in the laundry room, the bathroom and the kitchen for those cleaning jobs that need an extra boost or some scrubbing.
Vinegar and baking soda cannot solve all your cleaning problems, but, they are a good first step combo toward coming clean and going green.
