Thursday, April 4, 2013

Back to Basics Cleaning

My Friend Marge Posted this on her FaceBook page.
It is recipe for a all purpose general cleaner.
I've been making my own cleaning solutions for yrs. With grand kids, and pets running around the house all the time, I just do not like the ideal of poisonous cleaning products laying around.
We are a society of  convenience that grew up buying products that makes our life easy. With the rising price of gas, health insurance, and generally the cost of living going up I think we are beginning to see that we can get by with a lot less.
I am not one of those "greenies"  that is out to save the world, but more of a frugal type of person that leans towards healthy living.
Now we are seeing green cleaning product popping up on the grocery shelves, but I am not going to spend the extra "green" to buy them and there is no reason when you can make them cheaper!
My main cleaner I keep around is made with Lavender and Tree Tea oil.
1 empty clean pump spray bottle.
20 drops of Tree Tea oil
10-15 drops of Lavender oil
Add drops to bottle, and top off with distilled water. (or just plain tap water) Shake before using.
  I use this for everything.
It disinfects, plus leave a nice clean scent.
Get rid of the Frebreze! I use this on beds, sofa, pillows.
I spray the sinks, counter tops, carpets, toilets, door handles, well you get the picture! 
 If you don't like the smell of Lavender you can use mint, or other natural 100% essence oils. (Be sure and test a small area if using on fabric or carpet when using other essence oils.) I use Lavender for the antibacerial benefits.
 Orange Cleaner (as on Marge post) 
 peel 2 oranges, or in my case, 2 grapefruits, and soak them in vinegar for 2 week. Sweet and simple! You also can mix lemon, and lime peels with the orange peels. Shake before each use.
For a less cloudy look, you can strain though some cheese cloth.
  For a fresh smelling carpet mix some baking soda with a few drops of Lavender and sprinkle on carpet, let set for 15 mins, then vaccumYou could also put some baking soda in a qt jar and add a vanilla bean and let set for a week and use same as the Lavender mix. 
 Lets get back to the basics. There are hundreds of things we can do when it comes to cleaning, that are a lot healthier and earth friendly.