From baking soda to table salt, get the sparkle without the toxins.

Contrary to what Proctor & Gamble would have you believe, you don’t need a complex chemical compound to get your house “fresh,” “sparkling” or clean. Nor do you need particularly advanced compounds for cleaning toilets or scrubbing away grime. That’s just big companies tapping into old anxieties picked up in chemistry class. As in, “I really don’t get what this teacher is going on about, but that thing exploded so I must be doing something right.”

When it comes to cleaning the space in which you live, love and breathe, Professor SC Johnson doesn’t know his carbon from his footprint. Stock your house with these eleven staples and your home will dazzle with cleanliness instead of the toxic stuff that makes you cough.

1. Olive Oil
Consider it a cure-all. It can be used for polishing wood, getting a zipper unstuck, preventing hairballs (add a teaspoon to your cat’s food), shining stainless steel and brass, polishing shoes, and making your leather (or pleather) sofa look like new.

and,

2. Vinegar
Vinegar is acidic, meaning it will kill mold and mildew. It’s also great for removing stains and curbing rust. Use it on your windows and mirrors, too, as well as toilets.

3. Baking Soda
Because baking soda is alkaline, it works well with acidic messes – like grease, proteins and animal poop. It also removes odor from said pets and other stinks. Add a little water to make a paste and scour your tub with it.

4. Salt
Dissolve salt in white vinegar to make a subtle abrasive for cleaning tiles, glass and sinks. Here’s another tip: if you drop an egg, clean it up with a handful of salt.

5. Castile Soap
Castile soap is vegetable-based and cleans by attaching itself to dirt at the molecular level. That’s way more hardcore than Scrubbing Bubbles®.

6. Lemon Juice
Lemons can be used as a natural disinfectant and alternative to bleach. They will obliterate germs and microbes, and still look all cheery and yellow.

7. Tea Tree Oil
In our household, we relish in cleaning with essential oils, mainly because they smell pretty. Tea Tree Oil has that hyper-minty scent associated with so many commercial cleaning products, though it comes by it’s smell naturally. It’s extracted from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia and can be used to remove mildew and mold, as well as eradicating bacteria, germs and microbes.

8. Old newspapers
Mix some warm water with a drop or two of vinegar to wash your windows, then dry with bunched up newspaper to get your windows sparking.

9. Orange Oil
Another essential oil, this one is great for removing gummy grime.

10. Borax
The name bears a cautionary resemblance to Clorax and Lorax, but borax is a naturally occurring evaporate deposit found in seasonal lakes. It’s alkaline, thus effective at killing mold and fungus, and softens water. Try adding it to laundry, or use it to clean countertops, walls, pots and pans. You can even clean fine, hand-painted china with it.

11. Toothpaste
Because a tube of it consists of a mild abrasive, a detergent and an antibacterial agent, toothpaste is a born stain-fighter. Stay away from tartar control or whitening brands for a breadth of reasons, the main one here being that it can inflict damage on surfaces like silver.

Images: Jaymie Koroluk; Alfonso Silóniz; Rakka; Krissen; Max Edmands; Sarah Cady; .angels; just.Luc; SheKnows; Instructables; Stéfan

The post 11 Household Items You Can Use for Cleaning (& Greening) Your Home appeared first on EcoSalon.

I don’t know what it looks like under your kitchen sink, but mine is jammed-packed with recycling bins, garbage bags, cleaning supplies and old plastic grocery bags, waiting to be reused. It’s one of those spots in the house that could never be big enough. That’s why the new double duty dish soaps from Martha Stewart Clean and Earth Friendly Products caught my eye. Each one does two kitchen jobs, which means I have to cram one less product in the cabinet.

Martha never ceases to impress with her brilliance, so it’s no surprise that the dish soap from her new eco-friendly cleaning products line is a must-have. While you wouldn’t want to use most dish soaps to wash your hands frequently because they’ll dry out your skin, this one is free of sodium lauryl sulfate and other harsh ingredients and it comes in an easy to use pump bottle. The formula is more than 99 percent plant and mineral-based. And the true Martha finishing touch? The label peels off easily so you can leave a simple clear bottle on your counter in place of both your hand soap and your goopy dish soap bottle – how does she always manage to think of everything?

Earth Friendly Products Ecos DuoDish

Have you ever used hand dish washing soap in your dishwasher? Bad idea. But this double duty dish soap innovation from Earth Friendly Products is made to work for both hand-washing and the automatic dishwasher without causing problems. The 100 percent natural and biodegradable formula is scented with essential oils. Earth Friendly Products promises streak-free, spot-free and grease-cutting results!

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