Thankfully “green” is becoming more and more accessible and affordable. Remember some of the best green options for cleaning your home don’t come from a fancily packaged bottle, but from your own kitchen pantry. Simple, inexpensive ingredients commonly found in your kitchen will have you feeling good about your cleaning product choice.
Lemon
Lemons have many uses besides enhancing your favorite beverage or salad. Try these to name a few.
- Use lemon to remove stains while killing germs and leaving a clean fresh scent. Rub lemon directly on stained plastic containers and cutting boards, leaving it clean and smelling fresh.
- Use lemon juice to clean grout. Scrub with a toothbrush and let sit for ten minutes to remove stubborn stains. Sure beats the smell of harsh chemicals.
- Ants! Those pesky ants can always find a way inside, especially if there is food to be found. Let’s face it, the kitchen is a busy place and we don’t have a robotic vacuum constantly following us around. Can you imagine their joy to find a bit of spilled sugar in the pantry! Instead of introducing harmful pesticides around your food, children and pets, try lemons. Squirt lemon directly on areas they may be entering from, such as doorways or windowsills. Try placing small pieces of lemon peel around the doorway as message to the ants to go elsewhere.
Vinegar
Vinegar is the go-to for cleaning your home adding sparkle everywhere. The uses are endless. Combine vinegar and baking soda and you have a double whammy.
- Glassware benefits from one cup of vinegar at the bottom or your dishwasher before you run the cycle.
- Your coffee pot will love a good cleaning with vinegar. Run vinegar through the regular cycle or cleaning cycle if it has one. Be sure to run a few cycles of fresh water to rinse.
- Glass is best cleaned with a vinegar solution. Fill a spray bottle with one litre of water and one tablespoon of vinegar. Keep handy for all your glass and mirrors for streak proof sparkle.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is cheap and useful for endless cleaning jobs. Not only is it a great cleaning agent, it is a terrific deodorizer.
- Clean spots off of silverware and everyday cutlery with a three-part baking soda to one-part water paste. Rub, rinse and dry.
- If you don’t have time to give Fido a bath, do everyone a favour and freshen him up with a sprinkle of baking soda and then brush out.
- Brighten the laundry by adding ½ cup of baking soda to your detergent. The baking soda will increase the power of your detergent as well as the bleach and it will soften the water.
Lemons, vinegar and baking soda have endless uses. Try these few suggestions and see how you can make a difference today. They are non-toxic and inexpensive and that’s good for you, your family and the environment.