Did you take a look in your cleaning cupboard lately? Read what's on the bottles? Socking, right.
Not only do those store bought products contain nasty chemicals that cause serious harm to the environment, they're also a huge safety risk when you have wee ones running around. (Mmm, those colourful bottles sure look tasty, and what's this? Lemon flavor?)
Yet you can make your own ecological and non-toxic cleaning agents at just a fragment of the cost with what you have lying around in your kitchen cupboards anyway, like baking soda, lemon, white vinegar and essential oils.
Other advantages to making your own:
- less packaging
- no artificial smells
- and they are just as effective as the expensive store bought alternatives
Floor cleaner
Add a squeezed lemon and two tablespoons of liquid soap to a bucket of hot water.
Laundry
Use white vinegar as a fabric softner. If you would like your laundry scented, add a few drops of essential oil of your choice.
Window cleaner
Spritz your windows with club soda and whipe clean with newspaper.
Or you can add 3 tablespoons of vinegar to 2 cups of water.
Disinfectant
2 cups of water, a couple of drops of natural soap, 15 drops of tea tree oil and 15 drops of lavender oil.
Toilet cleanser
Spray bowl with white vinegar. Sprinkle with baking soda. Brush and rinse.
Dish washing liquid
Mix 2 cups of liquid natural soap with 1/2 cup of water and poor into a recycled squirt bottle. You can add a few drops of essential oil if you want to add fragrance.
As you see, these do not take a lot of time or effort. If anyhow this is still too much, opt for an ecological alternative at your supermarket, your health, child and the environment will be thankfull. If you have not found the natural cleaning product you were looking for in this shortlist, there are all kinds of different recipes out there, just google it and you might find something that's more to your liking.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Ann Barrett on Flickr
Thanks for posting these - I will link to your article in an upcoming post :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Dionna
ReplyDeleteIt makes a difference to the earth whether you are using cleaning products with chemicals or not.Therefore to avoid the usage of dirty chemicals it is better choice to use green products.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post about making own cleaning products! Today I had to properly clean shower tiles and spent quite some time on Internet searching for home made alternative instead of store bought chemicals. From everything I could find - finally it was white vinegar and soda that worked. Just like here on your post about toilet :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a good campaign for home cleaning. Using home-made products for cleaning can save your resources. This could also help the environment if more people would be like you. environmental services
ReplyDeleteThis is a good campaign for home cleaning. Today I had to properly clean shower tiles and spent quite some time on Internet searching for home made alternative instead of store bought chemicals.
ReplyDeleteOne part of our social care courses is recycling and making alternative products from cheaper and available materials. This has taught me how to save and be resourceful in order to help the environment and the community. Aside from that, it would also let you save some money and live a healthier life.
ReplyDelete