Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Cleaning Without Harmful Chemicals


One of the first attempts I made to rid our house of harmful chemicals, and save money while doing it, was replacing the harmful chemical cleaners in our house. I wanted something more natural, that cleaned just as well, and didn't cost more than the .50 bottles of Lysol or Windex I could pick up with coupons.

After trying a few recipes, we have found a few that we love.

Here are the ingredients and instructions on how to make our favorites.

All Purpose Cleaner
1 tsp Washing Soda
1 tsp Dish Soap (Seventh Generation - Lavender)
Fill container with hot water

Disinfectant
Fill bottle half way with hot water, and half way with white vinegar.
Add 5-10 drops Essential Oil (We use Orange as an extra disinfectant)

*we use this mostly in the kitchen. Takes a while to get used to the vinegar smell, but now we associate it with cleaning.

Glass Cleaner
Fill bottle half way with rubbing alcohol, and half way with water

*The smell of the alcohol is a little strong, make sure the room you are cleaning is well ventilated

1 comment:

Ellen said...

I found your site via Sharpen Your Scissors. You commented that you make strawberry syrup. I left a question there but not sure if you will be back to see it. I'm interested in trying my hand at strawberry syrup (or other flavors). Is this something that is shelf stable or do I need to put it into the refrigerator? Can you point me in the direction of some recipes? I made strawberry jam (hot water bath method) for the 1st time a few weeks ago and am intrigued with the syrup idea. Thanks.