If you open my “cleaning supplies” cabinet you’ll find all sorts of highly-convenient, pre-moistened furniture wipes, disinfecting wipes, Swiffer wet pads. Not only are these expensive, I know that they likely contain harmful chemicals and do not qualify as environmentally friendly nor as child-friendly. Yet, I keep wiping away – like an over-indulgent, environmentally ignorant ass-wipe.
But, I’m making a change. I recently starting using more earth-friendly, basic products to clean my home. I’ve been using Seventh Generation and Ecover products for awhile. Costco even has it’s own line of Kirkland earth-friendly products (I wasn’t crazy about the laundry detergent but the dish soap is good). But, there are even less-expensive and simple cleaners you can make at home using items like baking soda, vinegar, borax, castille soap, etc. I know we’re busy, but you can mix these up in the time it takes you to say “Windex”.
Here are some of the ‘recipes’ that seem most reasonable and would come in handy on a regular basis. I have not tried all of these, but they seem solid. I had to draw the line at using baking soda as a fabric softener though. That just seems so messy. (Btw, Ecover makes a good lavendar-scented earth-friendly fabric softener).
Household cleaner:
Mix together:
1 tsp. liquid soap (castile, peppermint – you can find this at health food stores or Trader Joe’s)
1 tsp. borax
Squeeze of lemon
1 qt. warm water
OR
¼ c. baking soda
½ c. borax
½ c. vinegar
1 gal. water
OR
¼ c. baking soda
½ c. borax
½ c. vinegar
1 gal. water
Window Cleaner:
Mix 3 Tbsp. vinegar with 2 cups of water and pour into spray bottle. Spritz on windows and wipe with old newspaper.
Disinfectant:
Mix together 1/4 cup borax and 1/2 gallon of hot water.
Toilet Bowl Cleaner:
Pour 1/4 cup of baking soda into the bowl and drizzle it with vinegar. Let sit for 30 minutes, scrub and flush. Add borax to remove stains, if necessary.
Mildew Remover:
Dissolve 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup borax in warm water. Apply with sponge or spray bottle.
For more cleaning concoctions visit these sites:
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December 19th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Dear Mr/Mrs,
Surfing and searching the internet I stumbled upon your great website. I also noticed you provide your visitors with links to visitworthy environmental websites.
On the 22 of July (2009) we launched our new green hub Climatarians (http://climatarians.org). There is A LOT to do on our website:
- users can create their own blog
- users can discuss at our forum or in their group
- users can write articles at our wiki
- users can login with their Facebook (www.facebook.com) account and invite friends
- organizations can submit themselves to our directory (oops!… businesses have to pay)
- users can submit or search events
- users can submit or search job openings
We belief that -at least- some of your visitors find our website visitworthy and we hope you want to mention it in an article or grant us a link to our website.
If you would like to receive more information about me or Climatarians please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Best regards,
Joost Hoogstrate, founder