Alternate Home Cleaners

Tired of spending your hard earned cash buying expensive household cleaners? Here are some common and inexpensive household products that you probably already have in your home that you can use to clean your home  (One word of caution regarding any cleaning products, and that is DON'T mix them together. For example Bleach and Ammonia will create toxic gases.). There are some great household cleaners that you already have in your home:

1) Baking Soda

Baking soda, is probably one of the easiest household cleaners to use. Baking soda can also act as an abrasive cleaner perfect for removing stains from sinks, counter tops and even fine china. Baking soda is actually sodium bicarbonate, which is a natural substance that neutralizes both acids and bases, so it eliminates odors rather than just covering them up. That's the reason that keeping an open box of fresh baking soda in your fridge keeps the fridge smelling nice and clean! Baking soda can be used to scrub your sink, toilet, frying pans or pots, etc.

 

2) White Vinegar

Vinegar is a great and  inexpensive cleaner. Most wood floor manufacturers recommend that when you clean a wood floor you use warm water in a bucket with a 1/4 cup of vinegar. The vinegar is slightly acidic and gives the water the cutting power needed to get your floor looking great! (Remember, never soak a wood floor .. you will cause it to warp! Use only a slightly damp mop and be sure to dry the floors after you have cleaned them). Vinegar is also good for removing hard water deposits, shining glass, windows and most metal surfaces. It can also remove stains and mildew. You and also run two cups of vinegar through your coffeemaker once a month to clean the coffeemaker out. Be sure to run water through the coffeemaker a few times after you are done to clean out all the vinegar. You can also use vinegar to help your pet keep fleas and ticks away from them, just put a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for each quart bowl of drinking water and this will keep your pet free of fleas and ticks. 

3) Bleach

Bleach is a great cleaning product, but you need to be very careful not to get it on surfaces that it can damage. Bleach will damage carpeting for example. Bleach however is great for disinfecting bathrooms and kitchens. Bleach also kills mildew and mold and is great for cleaning the grout in your bathroom shower!

 

4) Borax

Borax is also known as a laundry booster; add a handful to your washer to help your detergent work better. Also deodorizes garbage pails and disposers, cleans and whitens walls and floors, and cleans cookware.

 

5) WD-40

WD-40, a petroleum-based lubricant and cleaner, has many household uses beyond the garage. Among the many household uses for WD-40 are crayon and adhesive removal, grease and grime cleaning and lubricating metal parts throughout your house.


 

           

Of course the most "natural" cleaning product is just plain and simple WATER ... yes, good old H2O ... but for many that is just not good enough. If you are looking for a cleaning product that is bio-degradable or natural there are a lot of products that fit the description .. you will have to decide for yourself if the product fits the bill. Here are some of our suggestions:

VINEGAR: is a good product to add to a bucket of water to add a bit of "cutting power". Many wood floor manufacturers recommend a bucket of warm water and 1/4 cup of white vinegar as the recommended product for cleaning wood floors. Just damp mop the floors with the solution and DRY immediately. The mop should not be very wet. Do not ever really wet wood floors or you will damage them.

A great commercial product  that we believe is environmentally safe is SIMPLE GREEN. You can buy this at most home improvement stores, warehouse stores like SAMS CLUB, etc. This product is a  liquid cleanser, degreaser and deodorizer,  works well on most surfaces. Read the label!. The base of the product is citrus peel. It contains no ammonia or Clorox so it is far safer to our environment than most cleaning products. Because it is biodegradable, it won't hurt your plants when you dump your wastewater on them. Use a very small amount.

A good glass cleaner can be made by combining equal parts of WATER AND ALCOHOL.. the kind you would use for cleaning cuts and scrapes. you can usually find this in the pharmacy section of your local store. This product contains no dye and so will not damage your carpet if you spill it by mistake.

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