Green Cleaning for Cheapos and the Lazy

I've been ripped off most of my life by the companies that make cleaning products. One thing I have been discovering this last year - I need almost nothing they sell in the cleaning aisles. It's all marketing and germ-phobia. For the record, I don't believe in killing every germ in the house. I think it makes us sicker in the long run.

I've been cleaning almost all the surfaces in my home with a spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water for a year now, including my sealed hardwood floors. It is not any harder than cleaning with Windex/409/Lysol/etc, and my house is just as clean. The vinegar smell lasts only for a moment, and then all you smell is clean because vinegar is a natural deodorizer. No perfumes, no mystery chemical, no need to put child locks on the cabinet under my sink. To clean my floors, I spray them and then wipe them down with a rag attached to a Swifter after sweeping. My floor shine.

For the kitchen I sometimes need a little more oomph, so I have another spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water and a tablespoon of unscented liquid castille soap. Castille soap is made of vegetable oil, so it cuts grease very nicely. It will not, however, dissove in vinegar and water, so I shake the bottle a couple times before every use. Seeing globs of the soap in the bottle is normal. The other difference between this and the plain vinegar bottle is that, because of the soap, you need to rinse.

I scrub sinks and my tub with baking powder when the vinegar doesn't cut it.

For my wood furniture, I dust with a microfiber clothe. I polish occassionally with my one BELOVED commericial cleaning product: Howard's Naturals wood cleaner. Read the label and you will recognize all the ingredients - no mystery chemicals here. Wood positively loves this stuff. I had a hope chest that was badly water damaged, and after using this on it for a couple of months, the damage is now invisible. This stuff is pricey and totally worth it.

My other commercial cleaning product is 7th Generation dishwashing powder. I use it for environmental reasons. It works fine, and as far as I can tell there are no homemade or natural alteratives for the dishwasher. Bummer. I get 7th Gen cheaper through Subscribe-and-Save on Amazon.

I recently started making homemade laundry soap. It is much cheaper and so far it seems to work better than commericial detergeant. I read that this is because the companies that make detergeants are too cheap to put actual soap in them. They use detergeant made from petrolium, which is cheaper and doesn't clean as well. But I can't verify that.

I make a very easy powdered version, but I'm thinking of making a liquid one for the darks/cold cycle. To deal with any potential residue in my pipes and to soften my clothes, I use a Downy ball full of vinegar. BTW, it also helps deodorize clothes too.

CAUTION: Vinegar does not react well with bleach. Combining the two will release a toxic gas. Don't use the two in the same cycle. Also, I tend not to use bleach. I stick with oxygen bleach.

Making powder homemade laundry soap takes three cheap ingredients, a grater, and a food processor. It took less than 20 minutes. I found all the ingredients at King Soopers. To learn about the details, see the Homemade Laundry Detergent link under Tips, Instructions, Resources on the left side of this page.

I still have unsolved green cleaning dilemmas. I've heard my homemade laundry soap will also clean a toilet, but I haven't tried it yet. Also, what about liquid dishwashing soap for handwashing dishes?

From what I can tell, vinegar in the rinse cycle will soften clothes but will not prevent static cling. There are recipes for homemade fabric softener, but I don't see a green benefit to them. I think the best option is finding ways to make my own reusable dryer strips and reduce the amount of softener used. This will be one of my next green cleaning projects.

All in all, I enjoy not breathing in or touching scary chemicals, paying a lot less for my cleaning products, and having a house that smells clean rather than perfumed. Sorry, I totally don't understand air fresheners. They make me feel sick, and I wonder what stink they're covering up when I encounter them in other people's homes.