Lifestyle Changes: Cleaning

Clean Green!

Check out these tricks for cleaning using regular old run of the mill household products.  Your home will look, feel, and smell great in a nice, nontoxic way.  Not to mention the money you will save on expensive commercial cleaners.

Glass Cleaning
To clean glass, mix two tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice with three cups of water in a spray bottle.

Make your own all-purpose solution
Make a natural, all-purpose cleaner and deodorizer for kitchen and bathroom surfaces by dissolving four tablespoons baking soda into one quart warm water.

Make the floors spakle
Clean no-wax linoleum floors with one-half cup white vinegar mixed into one-half gallon water. For wood floors, apply a thin coat of one part vegetable oil, one part vinegar and rub in well. Remove dirt from ceramic tiles by mixing one-quarter cup white vinegar into one gallon water.

Banish black heel marks
Rub marks with a paste of baking soda and water using a clean eraser.

Get rid of lime deposits
Soften hard lime deposits around faucets by covering them with vinegar-soaked paper towels. Leave the towels on for about one hour before cleaning.

Clean and deodorize toilets
Sprinkle baking soda into the bowl, drizzle with vinegar and scour with a toilet brush. Please note that you should not mix bleach with vinegar as this will create a toxic gas.

Remove film buildup on bathtubs
Apply vinegar to a sponge and wipe, then using baking soda to scour. Rub with a damp sponge and rinse with clean water.

Unclog a drain
Pour one-half cup baking soda down the drain, then add one-half cup white vinegar and cover. Let it sit for a few minutes, and then pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain to flush it. Do not use this method after any commercial drain opener has been used or is still present in the standing water!

No more ants
Stop ants from entering your house by drawing a line of bonemeal or powdered charcoal. Or, squeeze the juice of a lemon in the hole or crack where they are entering, then slice the lemon and put the peeling all around the entrance.

Hang a clothes line
Did you know that 60 percent of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in washing and drying it. Over its lifetime, a simple T-shirt can send up to nine pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

Wash in warm water
Wash clothes in warm water (or better yet, cold) instead of hot, and wash only large loads. Also, use the most efficient machine—newer ones can use as little as one-fourth the energy of older machines. Altogether, you can reduce your laundry’s carbon emissions by up to 90 percent.