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So I thought maybe some of you might be interested in this topic.

I'm trying a few environmentally-friendly alternatives (which also smell lovely with the addition of essential oils).

Sarah and I made our laundry detergent today. It was easy peasy! (And I'll let you know how it works here in a bit, as our first load is washing.)

3 c. borax
3 c. washing soda
30 drops lavender essential oil
20 drops eucalyptus essential oil

Store in a glass container. Use 1/4 c. to 1/3 c. per load.


Then we made some soft scrubbing cleanser.

3/4 c. baking soda
1/8 c. biodegradable cleaner
1 Tbsp. distilled water

Mix, then add:

20 drops lavender
10 drops eucalyptus
5 drops lemon

Mix, then add 1 T. distilled white vinegar. I'm storing ours in small glass canning jars, but I think it can be stored in a heavier plastic container.

I can say that this worked well on my sink.

As soon as I get some spray bottles, I'm going to try an antibacterial countertop spray, a glass cleaner, and a room freshener/antiviral spray. I have recipes for these if anyone's interested.

From a chemistry standpoint, I know it's the baking soda, vinegar, et al that are doing the majority of the cleaning work. But the essential oils supposedly help, too, as well as making things smell nice. Eucalyptus is supposed to have antiviral and antibacterial properties (works airborne, too). Lavender is also supposed to be antibacterial.


So does anyone else do things like this?

If I'm doing my cost analysis correctly, it breaks down like this for the laundry detergent:

It costs approximately $3.17 to make a batch that will last me for 24 loads of laundry. That's a cost of $0.13 per load.

The detergent I normally buy costs about $0.14 per load. So it's not a huge savings or anything, but it is better for the environment.

Sounds cool, Lalaith. I generally don't like scented stuff as I am allergic to darned near everything, but maybe these things wouldn't bother me. My cleaning lady scoffs at "green" cleaners and says she won't use them. But on the other hand, she cleans my kitchen windows with clear water, no soap, and they are ALWAYS streaky. So streaky that today I did them myself with vinegar.

It must be a special year for cleaning, though. I have been hauling stuff out of my house for weeks. You would NOT believe the amount of garbage I've taken away. And books I've discarded, and old VHS tapes and broken video game systems and stuff I never use . . . . my friend Tammy says it's "purging" and by golly, I think she's right. Clothes. Shoes that the boys have outgrown, and soccer and baseball cleats. Magazines: National Geographic. No one wants them any more, sadly.

So I'm waiting for all this purging to be reflected in less clutter. ?????

Lego. We have the World's Largest Bin of Lego. I won't chuck Lego away or give it away, but it takes up a lot of room in one corner. Toys that the boys don't play with but are attached to.

I have 12 antique chairs. They are real antiques, quite good ones, actually. A kind of "Canadiana" that costs a lot nowadays but I got cheap here and there over the years. BUT. They all need to be taken apart and reglued, some need some repairs. Will my husband ever do it? I doubt it. He always says it's a winter project (like me and my photos) but so far every winter has passed and the chairs get wobblier and wobblier. My Mum gave me 6 sturdy chairs from her good dining room suite, so I put my old ones downstairs and we're using Mum's. But I LOVE my old chairs. Should I bite the bullet and take them to a professional? At about $200 a chair, I guess not!!!

And then, the yard work. Trees to plant, shrubs to move, a horrible overgrown vegetable patch to clean up.

Gotta clone myself.

Oh, purging is always good. The girls went through Sarah's clothes today. She has inherited so many from Katie, plus the grandmas have bought her a lot. Add that to the fact that she has serious issues with organization and cleaning, and her room is always a disaster, mostly because of the clothes. (And I truly mean a disaster--not the "disaster" term we use when friends stop by and we say, "Oh, please excuse the house. It's a bit of a disaster." I mean appalling level disaster.)

Anyway, they got rid of 3 bags of clothes that we'll take to Goodwill. I'm thrilled!

You know, there's no reason you couldn't do the cleaners without the essential oils. Their fragrance is strong.

I tried another one, too--toilet bowl cleaner.

1/2 c. baking soda
10 drops lemon
5 drops rosemary (antifungal, antibacterial)
1/4 c. vinegar

It really did a nice job.

And the laundry detergent has worked swimmingly!

I'd hate to see you get rid of the chairs, though. Does Lord M need a project to keep himself busy this winter?

I've been on a bit of a green kick lately. Or at least try to be. Don't always succeed.

I guess I don't have a lot of green cleaners, though. I should. But I have been a bit addicted to my Google Reader- I subscribed to a bunch of blogs and as they're updated the Google Reader puts them all in a list for me (there's others of course, this is just what I use). So, I've read lots of posts with good tips for green cleaning. That almost counts, right?

For green homes, Re-Nest is a good one. A little over the top sometimes, but it's got useful information.
This post has a pretty comprehensive list of green products, how-tos, and tips

I know I mentioned this somewhere, probably the Lush thread, but along the same lines as creating your own cleaning products, I've been making my own body scrubs. Just mix up some sugar, olive oil, and coffee grounds. Sometimes I add extra things like honey, brown sugar, ground up oatmeal, shower gel, vanilla, etc. They work really well and are waaaay cheaper than buying sugar scrubs from just about any store. Adding essential oils would be good, but I don't have any.

Oh, I forgot, I also liked this website: 1001 Uses for White Distilled Vinegar.

Quote:

Cleaning
White distilled vinegar is a popular household cleanser, effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs, due to its level of acidity. Cleaning with white distilled vinegar is a smart way to avoid using harsh chemicals. You’ll also be glad to know that it is environmentally friendly and very economical.

I found out when washing wool in the bathtub with Dawn dish detergent that it gets the tub quite clean, and it's easier than with soap scum removers. Just fill the tub with really hot water, squirt a lot of the detergent in, let it soak for a bit, and then drain and wipe it off.

I'm not sure if that's actually considered green or not, but it's got to be friendlier than some of the rather caustic stuff I've used before.

Fantastic - I'm going back to university this weekend, and we just found out our landlord is buying a washing machine now the house is rental.
Can't wait to try out some of this! My biggest green cleaning expenditure is for 'Ecover' toilet cleaner, which you can buy in Oxfam for a couple of pounds a bottle. The cheapest stuff on the market over here is 45p a bottle, but it makes me sneeze, as I found out when I worked as a chambermaid.

*~Pips~*

I cleaned the limescale off my taps today (our cleaners never de-scale things!). Kitchen paper soaked in vinegar left wrpapped around them for a couple of hours, and then the limescale just wiped off. Bicarbonate of soda is my other cleaning essential.

Pips, vinegar is great for keeping a washing machine clean too. Especially if you use non-bio powders at low temperatures, it can end up clogged up and smelling musty. I occasionally do a boil wash with just vinegar in the detergent drawer (usually with a few towels in there as I hate washing on empty and the vinegar leaves them lovely and soft).

I've been having trouble with hard water stains/limescale staying on my stainless steel pots after boiling veg. It's really annoying!

Cook some rhubarb in them, Eru - it brings the pots up sparkling clean! Seriously, lemon juice would do the same thing...

Really? Interesting. Lemon juice is easier to get...do you just scrub with it?

I suppose you could, but I would boil the lemon juice with water...

Quote:

To prevent limescale in your kettle, put some fresh lemon peel in the bottom, top up with water, bring to a boil and then leave overnight. Rinse well in the morning and your kettle will be limescale-free.

same thing with saucepans!

http://www.howtodothings.com/family-rel ... r-cleaning

Love the suggestions, everyone!

Okay, thanks nienna!

When we squeeze a lemon out for the juice we keep the empty hull in the fridge to use for cleaning purposes. One will get put in a pressure cooker if a basin of something is being steamed for instance.
Rhubarb leaves are fine but not everyone can put their hands on some.

Aren't rhubarb leaves poisonous?

Yes, they are. But they might work fine for this purpose. Rhubarb itself will, that's for sure. After cooking rhubarb, your saucepan is sparkling! Especially my old aluminum pot that I used for years to make jam!!! Every batch of jam cleaned it.

Wonder how much Aluminum we ate?