Natural House Cleaning
- From: rpautrey2 <rpautrey2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:11:30 -0700 (PDT)
The Natural Way To Clean Everything In Your House.
November 5th, 2007
A reader emailed me about the best way to clean something in her
house, and I pointed her to one of my posts about natural cleaning.
But then I though I maybe should create a single post with all the
natural cleaning information I had collected and written about, so you
can bookmark this one post and refer to it when you need it. Of
course, this is for for homemade products, but for those less
adventurous there are plenty of safe, natural cleaners on the market.
If you have something to add, please be sure to leave a comment or
email me and let me know!
Cleaning Metal Surfaces:
Silver - Put some water in a pan with a few teaspoons of washing soda,
bring to a simmer. Throw in alittle piece of aluminum foil, and then
dip your silver right into the mix. Pull the item out, dry it off, and
shine it clean with a rag.
Pewter - Wash your pewter items in warm soapy water (use biodegradable
soap!), rinse, and polish with a clean cotton cloth. Instant clean!
Chrome - You can clean anything that is chrome just by combining 1
tablespoon of ammonia with 1 pint of water. Just rub the concoction on
the chrome and watch the dirt come right off.
Iron - If you have iron cooking pans or other items that are looking a
little rusty, you can clean them with a damp cloth and some steel
wool. Wipe down the item with the cloth, scrub lightly with the steel
wool, rinse and then dry. Be sure to rub in a little vegetable oil
once it is dry to inhibit any further rusting.
Brass & Copper - By combining a few tablespoons of lemon juice and 1
tablespoon of baking soda, you have a great brass and copper cleaning
agent. Just rub in on and then polish it off…so shiny! If your items
are heavily soiled, you can soak them in hot vinegar and some table
salt. The shine will start showing up on its own, and once you see it,
take the item out and rinse it. You can also rub lemon on brass and
copper to get into any grooves that need cleaning…just be sure to wipe
it off once it is clean.
Remove Candle Wax From The Carpet:
First lay the newspaper down on top of the wax and set an iron to low.
Once it has warmed up, start running the iron over the newspaper right
on top of the wax. Slowly the wax will start melting and get absorbed
into the newspaper, lifting up off the carpet. I had to do this once
in my old apartment and it worked like a charm There was a little
residue and color left over, but it was way better than the big hard
chunks of wax that were on the floor.
To Clean Wood Floors:
Before you work on making the floor sparkle, they should be cleaned
with vinegar and water. A small amount of vinegar in a bucket of warm
water will do wonders for your wood floor. Make sure your floor is
sealed and you wring out excess water before mopping the floors, as
too much water could damage your wood. That all being said, once they
are clean, you can now work on making them shine:
- If you have natural unsealed wood floors (which you probably don’t),
you can use linseed oil with a rag, allow it to soak in for a little
while, and then mop it up with a little more oil.
- For sealed floors, you can use 1 part white vinegar to 1 part
vegetable oil to give it a great shine. Just combine the two, grab a
rag, and rub it in like you are polishing a car. The shine will blow
you away.
To Clean Appliances:
Microwaves - Mix 1/2 of water with a few teaspoons of baking soda in a
microwave safe bowl. Put the bowl in the microwave and run it for 2
minutes. Take out the bowl and wipe it clean with just a rag; every
last spot will come out!
Ovens - You can rub the inside of your oven with wet steel wool to
remove the tough stuff, and then sprinkle baking soda throughout the
oven. Let it sit for a few minutes, then just wipe it all clean with a
wet rag…all done and no caustic chemicals!
Coffee Makers - When the coffee maker is empty, pour in a mixture of 1
cup white vinegar and some hot water to fill up the reservoir to the
top. Run the coffee maker like you were making coffee, just without
any beans in it. Once the cycle has finished, run it twice more with
just plain water, which will rinse out the vinegar and any build up
left inside. The coffee will taste better the next time you make a
cuppa Joe!
Refrigerators - Baking soda all the way…why would you want to spray
chemicals in the giant box that holds your food! Make a nice paste
from baking soda and water (equal parts of both) and scrub away. Wipe
down with a clean cloth and all will be clean!
Removing Stains:
- On white items, apply white vinegar or lemon juice to the stained
area. Allow to soak in to the fabric then wash as normal. The stain
should come right out as if it had never been there!
- If you happen to spill wine onto your clothes, grab the salt before
doing anything else! Dump some salt on the stained area right away,
which absorb a lot of the moisture before it sets. Wash as normal as
soon as you can.
- For red wine stains, chocolate or other dark stains that have been
there a while, you can try to soak the item in a bowl of glycerine,
available from your local grocery or natural store. Soak the clothes
for a half an hour and then wash.
- Party guest spills red wine on your nice carpet? Get up as much of
it as you can with a wash or dish cloth, then quickly pour white
vinegar directly on the spot. Let it soak for a few minutes, then
rinse it out with a wet rag. And then berate your party guest!
- If your kids come in covered with grass stains, you can usually get
them out by soaking their clothes in either glycerine or or washing
soda prior to washing.
To Remove Mold In The Bathroom:
You can use Borax and white vinegar to make a spray that you can aim
directly at the mold in the tub or shower. Once you spray it , leave
it to sit for 30-60 minutes and then go back in and wipe it off.
Presto, the mold will start coming off and you did not have to inhale
toxic chemicals to do so. Just mix about 2 ounces of Borax and a cup
of white vinegar and you are ready to go. As a back up and a
maintenance tip, you can also periodically spray the moldy “areas”
with straight vinegar and just let it sit there and soak in. The
vinegar will kill the mold that might be growing and it will halt the
growth of new mold.
Unclogging Your Showerhead:
Just remove the shower head, find a bowl or cup big enough for it to
sit in face down, and fill it with about an inch of vinegar. After
letting it sit for an hour or more, remove it from the bowl and run
water through it at the sink for a few minutes. Put it back in the
shower, and presto, your water pressure is restored.
Removing Rust:
Here is what you need - Salt and lime juice. Yep, that’s it. Already
have them in your house? Great, your rust remover is now free. Just
sprinkle some salt on the rusty spot and put some of the juice right
on top of the salt…but not so much that the salt floats away. You want
the mixture to sit right on the rust. Leave it to sit for a few hours
and come back with a scrubber and go to work. It won’t take much
effort to remove the rust, I promise.
Cleaning the Toilet:
Lemon Juice - I use real lemons by squeezing out the juice. When I am
done, I put pieces of the peel down the disposal to clean it out.
OR
Distilled white vinegar - I know you have this already!
And
Borax - Ok, you might not have this one. But it is widely available
for a few bucks and its cleaning powers go back years.
You will need to combine the ingredients to make a nice paste in a
bowl. Put about 1 cup of Borax and about 1/4-1/2 a cup of either lemon
juice or vinegar and it will mix together nicely. All you need to do
is spread the paste you just made
into the toilet bowl and let it sit a while. Then come back and scrub
it with a scrubbing sponge (we use the washable kind, not the
disposable kind) and flush the toilet.
Polish Wood:
The first ingredient is water, of course. Get yourself a spray bottle
and put 3 cups of water in there. Once the water is in your sprayer,
you will be adding two additional items:
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar
Add them to the spray bottle and shake the bottle up a little to make
everything mix together. That’s it, that is all the wood polish you
will ever need. Be sure to test the spray somewhere on the furniture
just to make sure you have the mixture right and you will not damage
the wood.
Natural Disinfecting:
- You can add 1 teaspoon of tea tree oil to a gallon of water to wash
windows, floors and toilets to scrub away the germs.
- To chase away bugs, but a drop of tea tree oil near where they are
coming in and you can bet they won’t be coming in that way anymore.
- Lavender oil or tea tree oil can be applied directly to cuts and
scrapes where it will cool the pain and help fight infection.
- Mixing a few drops of tea tree oil with some water in a spray bottle
can clean mold in the bathroom, disinfect the floor after the dog has
an accident, or can clean up after your child has been sick. (or you,
after a night like the ones in college)
Clean The Air:
For starters, the easiest way we have found to make things smell
better is to use essential oils. In an empty spray bottle I mix water
and a bunch of drops from a bottle of essential oils. Done! You can
adjust the amount of drops you put in the bottle and of course you can
always change the scent any time you want. Right now I have some
cranberry scented essential oil in our water bottle…the place smells
amazing and it can be sprayed on anything; the couch, the curtains,
etc.
- Another thing you can do is to simmer water on the stove in a pot
with cinnamon sticks or essential oils in it. However, since this one
uses natural gas or electricity, it is not the best choice. Plus, you
have to remember to keep your eye on it so it doesn’t burn off and
start catching the pot on fire!
- You could also put little boxes of baking soda around the house to
absorb any bad odors. We do this for the litterbox. Even though our
cat is not exactly a stinker, the baking soda absorbs any strong
smells that he might leave behind. This also works great in the
refrigerator to absorb the leftover smell from last night’s chili.
- And lastly, you could always get some flowers from your local
farmer’s market and put them in vases around your house. The smell of
fresh flowers is always a pleasant one and it leaves behind no toxic
residue like plug-ins and sprays.
Unclog Your Shower Drain:
Step 1 - Put the DRY baking soda down the drain. I use about 3/4 of a
cup.
Step 2 - Pour 1/2 cup of vinegar down the drain after the baking soda.
Be sure to cover the drain immediately afterwards with a rag or plug,
filling the hole completely so nothing can escape. This is because the
interaction of the two will cause a “mini volcano” that will want to
come up and out of the drain..you want to keep it down there.
Step 3 - Leave this concoction in the drain for about 30 minutes.
While you are waiting, boil a tea kettle full of water.
Step 4 - After 30 minutes, remove the plug and slowly pour the HOT
water down the drain.
All done! Your drain should flow smoothly now. If not, just do it
again. We normally have to do our tub drain often because of the
wife’s long hair, but it cleans it out every time.
And there you have it! An easily accessible natural cleaning list. If
you have any additional tips or ideas, please let everyone know in the
comments!
http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/11/05/the-natural-way-to-clean-everything-in-your-house/
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