Eco-friendly Tips for House Cleaning
Cleaning is a never ending task most especially if you have kids at home. It seems like you’re always picking up toys, left over biscuits, mopping floors and more. But it’s alright because having a clean house is like protecting your family from sickness and accidents.
Do you know that using chemical based products can harm your family? They may trigger health issues because of the strong chemical that the manufacturer used in those products. All along we thought that it is safe to use them because it’s killing germs or bacteria in our household. Without us knowing there are alternative steps that we can use without using any chemical products.
There are plenty of eco-friendly ways to clean your house, and it’s worth your while to explore them so you can ditch harsh cleaners that can irritate eyes, nasal passages and even make breathing difficult for some. Natural cleaners also reduce the amount of chemical pollutants that ultimately wash into waterways and the ocean, so you’ll be doing your part to make the world better for all living things around you.
Here are some tips that you can use to have an eco-friendly cleaning products.
1. Lemon
Lemons are nature’s cleaning wunderkind. It has very powerful antiseptic and antibacterial properties and is a natural deodorizer because of its high acidic content.
How to use Lemon?
· Dip half of lemon in a salt or baking powder to scour cooking pans.
· Mix lemon juice with baking soda to remove stains from plastic containers.
· Combine lemon peel and white vinegar in a bottle, leave it for a few days, then strain out the peel to use the vinegar as a cleaner.
· Rub a slice of lemon to your chopping board to disinfect the surface.
2. Baking Soda
Another one of nature’s cleaners. It is also known as Sodium Bicarbonate, this mildly alkaline substance functions as a deodorant and more.
How to use Baking Soda?
A thick paste of baking soda and water can be useful in removing surface rust. While a liquid mixture of it can function as an all-purpose light cleaner that’s effective on grease.
3. How to clean your oven and remove the smell from the food that you cook?
To clean a caked-on food out of the oven, just heat the over to 125 degrees and get your spray bottle of vinegar. Once the oven is already warm, spray the caked-on stuff until it’s lightly damp and then pour salt directly onto the other areas. Turn off the oven, wait for it to cool down. Open the cover wipe left-over of vinegar and salt using a wet towel. If in case there’s still a stain or bad smell, add baking soda to your solution.
4. Vinegar
White vinegar is a weak acetic acid that can be used in almost all aspects of cleaning as it has strong antibacterial properties.
How to use Vinegar?
Vinegar diluted in water is an effective stain remover for various textiles. It can be also use as a deodorizer and can be combined with various other natural product, like lemon juice, to absorb odors.
5. Shinny Windows
Vinegar is the key! Look for an empty spray bottle, mix 50/50 of white vinegar and water and use a microfiber cloth to wipe down your windows and avoid any streaking. You can also do this in your mirrors.
6. Sparkly Tiles
It is hard for me to take a shower in a dirty bathroom because it feels like the dirt or molds will cling to me. Bathroom can quickly accumulate mold, which is unsightly and unhealthy.
How to clean your bathroom?
Mix one part of carbonated water with one part white vinegar and spray it on the mold areas. If the grimes still didn’t scrub off, you can add two spoons of baking soda to the vinegar-water mixture to make a thick paste. Let it sit on the grout for 15 minutes before scrubbing it off.
7. Fresh Smell
Having a fresh smell when you enter the house will make your day better after a very tiring day from work. There is an eco-friendly way that you can do to add some freshness into your house without using any chemical products.
How?
In a saucepan, add water, a slice lime and some thyme. Then set the pan on a low simmer and let the evaporation make your house smell perfect.
8. Brighten the bowl
Throw a cup of Baking Soda into the toilet bowl and let it sit for more than an hour. Then add a cup of white vinegar, let it sit longer, and flush. By doing this it remove the stains in your toilet bowl and it look like brand new.
9. Clean your Kettle
Vinegar will be your best friend in this, although you can use lemon juice too. Look for a bottle pour in 50% of white vinegar and another 50% for the water into your kettle, allow it to boil. Remove from heat and let it to cool down.
10. Freshen-up yur dishwasher
If you are using a dishwasher that can do a thorough cleaning, stop using those chemical bottles instead use a safe bowl with two cups of white vinegar and set it on the top rock. Let the otherwise empty dishwasher run one cycle to get rid of any odors and bacteria.
11. Avoid poor indoor air quality
Nowadays, it is very rare to feel or breathe a fresh air because of pollution and even inside our house because you are using chemical based cleaners. What you can do is use an eco-friendly cleaners that is mentioned above and as much as possible open your windows to allows fresh air inside your house. This is especially when cleaning the house. Breathing is now easier because you are using an eco-friendly cleaners.
12. Ditch your synthetic sponges
Throw away your synthetic sponges, instead use an old clothes or kitchen towels as rags to contribute to the environment. Synthetic sponges is one of the favorites place of molds and you don’t want that to be in you dishes. We all have old or damaged clothes we don’t use anymore, so let’s start recycling it.
13. Borax
Also known as sodium borate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. Powdered borax is white, consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve in water.
14. Microwave
It is easy to clean a microwave, pour some vinegar and slice of lemon into a small cup. Put the cup in the microwave, let the microwave run for 2 minutes, and leave the door closed for another 5 minutes. Now, open the door and simply wipe down all the sides with warm cloth or sponge.
15. Sink Drain
Start by boiling about 2 cups of water. Pour ½ cup of baking soda into the drain, and then add the water while it’s still nice and hot. If that doesn’t do the trick, follow the baking soda with ½ cup of vinegar, cover it up tightly, wait until the fizzing slows down and then add one gallon of boiling water.
I believe that coming home to a clean house creates a sense of relaxation within the busy everyday world. And that de-stressing your life should begin before the clean has started. I know that it is really hard to switch from using chemical products to eco-friendly products because we were used to it already, and we know that we will be getting the result that we want. But I did, so stock up some baking soda, vinegar and citrus to make your own eco-friendly cleaning supplies.
Maria’s Green Cleaning Services Seattle can definitely help you in keeping you and your loved ones from getting sick or an accident because of a dirty home.
Maria is a fairy godmother from the most enchanting part of the forest. She’s a meticulous goddess and she wants to make sure that everything is clean and fresh, all the time. She is a certified Eco-Friendly because she is using organic products in cleaning your home. She also have a mission to make Seattle a clean and green community.
For more information visit Maria’s website https://mariasgreencleaningservicesseattle.com/