Natural Cleaning Solutions

January 5, 2010  |   Posted in Blog, Natural cleaning recipes   |   1 Comment    Tags: baking soda, cleaning, essential oils, natural, vinegar

Healthy, Natural Cleaning Solutions that Work!

Did you know bleach has to sit on a surface for 30 minutes before it truly cleans and is able to disinfect? The EPA actually classifies Chlorine Bleach as a pesticide and a fungicide and yet most of us use it without the precaution we should! Statistics have shown that people that work at home have a much higher risk of cancer and repeated exposure to cleaning products is a big factor in this.

So why eat organic food when you are cleaning your home with a pesticide? The following is a list of effective, natural cleaners that work-AND save you money.

Laundry:
It is extremely easy to make a powerful, effective laundry detergent from home:

1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup of Borax
1 bar of soap
3 gallons of water

Simply boil 4 cups of water and using a cheese graters, grate your bar of soap into small pieces that you add to the boiling water. Add your newly melted soap to a bucket containing 3 gallons of water and stir in a cup of washing soda and a 1/2 cup of borax. Let it sit overnight and in the morning you will have perfect liquid laundry detergent. Don’t underestimate how powerful of a cleaner this simple solution is–try it and see!

Another way to “bleach” clothes is by sun bleaching. It’s free and works great on a lot of stains. For those looking for a no-work natural cleaner, Seventh Generation makes a chlorine free bleach. Biokleen also sells a chlorine-free bleach.

Cleaning:
Bleach doesn’t clean, it removes stains and kills everything. So clean with good old hot water and soap, or an eco-friendly all purpose cleaner. For stain removal what you use depends on the stain, but hydrogen peroxide is a great solution for most stains you will encounter on a daily basis.

Disinfecting:
Vinegar is a well known, fantastic natural disinfectant that even was shown in tests to kill staph bacteria (aka MRSA) Plain old vinegar disinfects too, and so does hot water and soap! Here is a recipe to make your own disinfectant:

Grapefruit Seed Extract
1 gallon warm water
20 drops grapefruit seed extract
Mix and pour in a spray bottle

Cleaning Mold:
Tea tree oil will kill even toxic mold. Just use 2 teaspoons tea tree oil mixed with 2 cups water. The above grapefruit seed extract recipe about will also kill mold, and vinegar does, too.

Try a natural approach and you will see the difference!

original article by  Sean Bossie of Wild Leaf News- Resources for Natural Living and Sustainable Solutions

http://wildleaf.qondio.com/