Cleaning Power

Baking soda, vinegar and lemon. Cleaning with these three key ingredients is like taking the powers of three separate superheroes and combining them into one great big environmentally friendly caped crusader.

It is, literally, the world’s worst kept secret: Basic cleaning 101.

The combination of baking soda, vinegar and lemon is the ultimate team of cleaning green. These three products have so many things going for them: First, the fact that they’re non-toxic is a big positive. They can clean almost anything and everything, and each of these items are wallet friendly; they’re super inexpensive.

By themselves, each item has a strength of its own, but together, the possibilities are immense!

Baking Soda

Baking soda is probably the most diverse product of the three. Also known as bicarbonate, baking soda can be used everywhere; throughout the house and outdoors, to remove and keep away odours, scrub out stains without scratching the surface and even clean-up lawn furniture. It can also be used for cooking or baking, as the name suggests.

Lemon

Lemons are a great-smelling, non-toxic way to clean your home. Dilute fresh lemon juice with water in a spray bottle for an air freshener, or to clean countertops, walls and toilets. Lemon can be used to deodorise and clean the dishwasher, shower doors, and shine chrome faucets.

Vinegar

Vinegar is a natural, powerful and cheap option for cleaning up. Place a bowl of vinegar in a room overnight to get rid of any unpleasant odours. Clean windows with a mixture of vinegar and water, remove persistent stains from clothing, make your brights brighter in the wash.

Three-In-One

People were cleaning with these ingredients long before the fancy, sometimes harsh brand-name cleaning products were invented. With the power of cleaning staples like baking soda, lemon and vinegar, you are able to clean the whole house effectively and safely.

Kitchen/Bathroom Sink Cleaner and Deodoriser

• Sprinkle ½ cup baking soda in and around the drain
• Pour ½ cup vinegar down the drain
• Squeeze juice from ½ lemon into drain
• Let hot water rinse the ingredients for about one minute

Cleaning with these items could save you money. And your house will smell fresh because of it!

It may be the one thing in your house that everyone absolutely needs, absolutely uses every day and absolutely hates to clean — the toilet. And since the business that takes place on it can be nasty, you always want to do the best job sanitizing and disinfecting, you resort to heavy duty cleaners and chemicals to get the job done. But you don’t have to.

Cutting boards. Foul smelling dish cloths. Stopping the spread of germs.

It is really important to clean not just so a space looks good, but so that it doesn’t make you sick, and so it doesn’t smell. And this is a place where nature really does shine.

Consumers and businesses alike are now turning to green products so they can ensure they are doing their bit for the environment. However, there is still little regulation over some terms such as eco-friendly, so how do you know how green the product you intend buying is? This article will help to provide a guide.

Keeping your house clean can be a challenge, what with kids, pets, and the way the Great Outdoors insists on making it indoors, and onto your floors. Even tougher is keeping your house clean while not completely destroying your hands. 

The Christmas holiday season means festive parties, elaborate decorations and presents under the tree. Post-Christmas season means cleaning up the gift wrapping, throwing away the tree and packing up the decorations. If you take a more eco-friendly vision into your decorating and party planning you can enjoy the holidays while reducing your environmental footprint.

If you have hard water, even mildly so, and use any kind of soap or cleaner, chances are that you have had experience with soap scum. Soap scum is the fun term we have come up with to describe the grungy-looking residue that builds up on tiles and faucets and shower surrounds, but in reality, it is a mixture of the calcium or magnesium from the hardwater, and fatty acids in the soap.

So you’ve switched to vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. You eat organic food. You recycle. But what about your laundry?

Detergent is incredibly detrimental to our freshwater and the fish that live within. It is poisonous to all aquatic life in sufficient quantities; it can damage gills and destroy the protective mucus layer that keeps fish healthy. It can also cause algae blooms, which are bad for the fish, bad for the environment and bad for us.

People are crazy about making their homes smell good. The home fragrance industry was almost $5.6 billion in the US in 2012, according to a New Jersey research firm. The problem? There is some question about the toxicity of some of the more popular air fresheners, candles, and home fragrance lines. Some studies suggest these fragrances might cause respiratory problems, and even depression.

Modern times dictate that intense cleaning rituals are necessary to maintain high standards of health. We have resorted to heavy toxic chemicals that often have more adverse effects on our health than the dirt itself. Getting back to nature as well as simply using more delicate cleaning supplies can still accomplish a thorough cleaning job while presenting with benefits to your health. After all, nature provides everything we need for survival. Let’s take a look at some common natural options for everyday cleaning use.