Even More Homemade and Green Cleaning

I hope that you are making some changes, taking some baby steps, towards green cleaning this month!

Over the last week or so I’ve been thinking about some of the other green cleaning that I do and just wanted to share a few more tips with you. These might be kind of random and are in no particular order, but hopefully you get a new idea or two to use in your home.

• Baking soda is a cheap and easy carpet deodorizer and pet hair picker-upper. I’ll add a few drops of essential oil to my parmesan cheese container of baking soda and sprinkle it around on our rug (or carpets at our old house).  Let it sit for 5 -15 minutes and then when you vacuum it will freshen the rug, release the scent of the essential oil, and help to pull pet hair up out of the rug.

• Hydrogen Peroxide is a great disinfectant. I bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a cheap small spray bottle from the travel section.  I put the spray nozzle from the spray bottle onto my bottle of hydrogen peroxide and use it to spray down my counters, sink and table after dinner is over and the dishes are done. You want to keep it in the dark brown container that it comes in, otherwise it will break down when it is exposed to light. It’s not necessarily great for true cleaning, but it’ll disinfect your counters and kill the germs that you don’t want hanging out there.  I’ve also read you can mix it 50/50 with water which would make it stretch even farther.

• Hydrogen Peroxide also works as a stain remover in the laundry. It’s great for stains like blood or berries, but doesn’t work as well on dirt or grass stains.  I have used it on color clothing without a problem, but do be aware that it could bleach out your colors.

• Lemon juice in your load of white laundry helps to whiten and brighten – again, careful with colors.

• Use a Pumice Stone for removing hard water stains. If you have hard water stains on your toilet, like we did when we moved into our house, you can buy a pumice stone at the hardware store that with a little (or a lot, according to my hubby who actually did it, bless his heart!) elbow grease will take the stains off without any harsh chemicals.

• Microfiber cloths are great for dusting! Especially because you don’t have to use any dusting spray or cleaners.

• White Vinegar is great in the rise aid compartment of your dishwasher and also in place of fabric softener in your washing machine.

Check back on Thursday for some encouragement for your journey!

Anything to add?  Have any homemade or green cleaning tips to share with us?