When it comes to spring cleaning or any kind of housecleaning, I use an array of six admirably versatile natural cleaning products: vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, salt, borax, and wood ash.
I started using these products many years ago鈥攎ostly because so many commercial cleaning products gave me headaches and irritated my eyes and nasal passages. The headaches stopped, the natural products worked well, and they鈥檝e saved a lot of money over the years.
Also, let me admit that I count myself among the 鈥済ood-enough鈥 group of rural dwellers. I live with a wood stove (smoke, ash, wood chips, sawdust), solar greenhouse (dirt, dust), and garden (time!), which makes maintaining high cleaning standards challenging.
Natural Versatility
I continue to love the fact that this half-dozen of natural products singly or in combination will clean my toilet, tub, teeth, upholstery, carpets and windows, super-clean our grubbiest laundry, deodorize our pets and our car鈥檚 interior while they also soothe sunburns and insect bites, relieve an itch, gargle away many sore throats, and wash and condition my hair.
And please note: four of the six are pantry staples and safe enough to eat. (Do not consume borax or wood ash!)
Below, I remind you of just a few of the ways I use these products for tough cleaning and deodorizing tasks.
1. Vinegar
I use white vinegar in a spray bottle to sanitize kitchen and bathroom surfaces, prevent or remove hard-water scale from the coffee pot, tub and toilet, as a window cleaner, and to remove labels from products or stickers from walls. It will unplug most drains by pouring half a cup of baking soda, followed by a cup of white or cider vinegar. (Don鈥檛 use a commercial drain product first, as you could create toxic fumes.)
I鈥檝e learned those tough, longstanding, tough limescale stains in sinks and toilets that no amount of scouring will clean will eventually give way after repeated, long soakings with white vinegar.
Oh, and a couple of tablespoons of ordinary olive oil in a cup of vinegar works well to dust and polish wood furniture.
鈫 See more household uses for vinegar.
2. Baking Soda
Especially in combination with salt, baking soda works well for scouring sinks and tubs, brushing your teeth, wiping down and deodorizing the refrigerator, removing smells and stains from carpets and upholstery (rub in, leave for an hour, shake or vacuum out).
鈫 See more household uses for baking soda.
3. Lemon Juice
Half a cup in a gallon of water helps brighten white clothes without bleach (especially if you hang the clothes in the sunshine.) Sprayed or rubbed on straight, lemon juice removes stains from countertops and rust stains from clothing. Clean toilets with a paste of baking soda and lemon juice; squirt lemon juice for fresh smell.
Half a cut lemon left on a shelf will deodorize the fridge. Sprayed or rubbed on with a cloth, straight lemon juice (or straight vinegar) will remove mold and mildew from many surfaces.
鈫 See more household uses for lemons.
4. Salt
One part table salt mixed with four parts each of borax and baking soda makes a good scouring powder for tubs, sinks and toilets. Adding a little vinegar to a teaspoon of salt makes a good scrub for removing coffee or tea stains from mugs and cups. (And don’t forget the health benefits of salt.)
鈫 See more household uses for salt.
5. Borax
Borax helps clean the tub, remove tough stains in laundry. I add it to baking soda and salt to make a general purpose scouring powder.
6. Wood ash
In a paste with a little water, cleans glass! Sprinkled on and scrubbed into pavement, bricks, and stone, it will help remove oil stains.
鈫 Read more about the surprising uses of wood ashes for the home and garden.
Actually, when you come up against challenging cleaning or deodorizing tasks, try one or more in combination and you鈥檒l probably find something that will do the trick. That鈥檚 what I do, and it almost always works!
