April 24, 2012

Going Green

This post will either be completely boring to you, or thrilling if you're into the same kind of thing. Just a little fair disclosure :)

It all started a few months back when I got my very own Shark mop. I fell in love with the idea of cleaning my house with ZERO chemicals. I loved the simplicity of plugging up my mop and having it clean the floors with steam only and the peace of mind that came along with it. Knowing my family could walk on it directly afterwards and our bodies weren't coming in contact with who knows what.

So after falling in love with my mop, my little brain started ticking with ideas on what else I could do. What good is it if my floors are chemical free but I'm spraying other crap on every other surface. So I did what any other starving-for-information person would do. Opened up Pinterest and I was NOT disappointed. There is a plethora of tips out there for homemade cleaning products. So much so that I was a little intimidated for a while. I had to get myself organized and made a list, of course!

So far I have:
A good all-purpose cleaner, I guess you could call it. Simple enough really.. I mixed up some water, vinegar and a good bit of lemon scented essential oils since my husband cannot take the scent of vinegar in any form or fashion. I've used that on all my counter tops so far and it works like a charm. Win!

I've cleaned my toilets with Baking Soda and Vinegar. I just pour the Baking Soda into the toilet bowl and let it sit for a bit then spray some of my vinegar concoction in there. Let me tell you.. you'll barely have to scrub and your toilet will be sparkling. (I used the vinegar to clean the rest of the toilet. That vinegar sure is versatile isn't it??)

This was a nice, helpful little gem I found on Pinterest:






Worked like a charm! That's a true testament coming from down here in El Paso. We have some hard water, y'all! We just cleaned it with CLR (or whatever that stuff is.. y'all know what I'm talking about) not too long ago, and already the water coming out felt like needle pricks against the skin. Not anymore thanks to... you guessed it.. baking soda and vinegar.
What's that? You want proof? Of course I took pictures of the process. No, I don't know what I've turned into either...
Before
During
After
See?? Brand new.

That's all I've got so far, but I'm pretty dern excited.

Do any of you make your own cleaning products? Do you have any tips for me? What about other products? I have a "recipe" to make some laundry detergent once mine runs out. But what about dusting? Glass? Air freshener? Let's here it!

7 comments:

LizTorres said...

I absolutely love the homemade laundry detergent. I swear it lasted me close to 9 months and that's with 5 loads every 3 days. I can't wait to get started on more homemade cleaning products.

Jenn said...

Nice! I use the vinegar-water solution for cleaning mirrors (and everything else...). It starts off looking streaky, but it dries clean! No streaks!

PS. I could sing the Shark's praises for DAYS...

Amber said...

When I clean windows (lolz) I use a mixture of vinegar and water, and I use newspaper.

And my "air freshener" was an orange with whole cloves stuck into it. I used to make people out of it. Could be fun for Andrew?

Ashley Gaetano said...

This gets me very excited! I LOVE cleaning products...cleaning, not so much...but the products I love (it rivial my affinity for office supplies).

I currently have a lot of store-bought cleaning products, but as soon as they start running out, I'd love to start switching over. My current mission is to find a safe anti-bacterial (or disinfectant...not sure which) to clean Cameron's toys. Right now, Dreft wipes and Wet Ones are the only ones I've found.

Anyway, I'm excited, and can't wait to hear more about your Go Green experience :}

Stephanie @ dirtandlace.com said...

Love this! I have some vinegar/water spray I made but I hate the smell, so I'm going to try the oil. I made some laundry detergent awhile back, it was pretty easy and worked great.

Charlatan psychic said...

I have used straight white vinegar for my shower head before, but never ever thought to do the baggy trick! I actually just soaked the innards of our humidifier in white vinegar today to clear up some of that hard water build up. I would love to start doing more with homemade cleaning stuff, but I'm lazy and that is my biggest obstacle.

Heather Fox said...

This says to me that I really need to get a shark! Ha I,also use the vinegar solution and love it. I do the homemade detergent as well. I mainly did it because I got tired of worrying about what the baby was getting into. Now, I don't worry in the least. You also reminded me that I need to clean our shower heads! Thanks.