Dust, degrease and disinfect with all natural products and items you already have around the house.

The tulips are blooming, the birds are singing, and you’re on your hands and knees in your ugliest sweatpants scrubbing the grout on the bathroom floor. Spring cleaning isn’t exactly fun, but it’s a necessary evil that can be made a lot more pleasant with the use of natural, non-toxic products that won’t leave you with a headache or require a costly trip to the store. If you’ve got baking soda, vinegar, lemons, an old towel and a handful of other common household items, you can give your house a fresh start without spending any money at all.

Fresh Air In, Odors Out

Closed-up houses may be cozy in the winter, but they tend to smell pretty stale. Get some air moving in your house by opening all the windows and positioning a few fans in strategic places, like hallways and stairways. Placing a fan in the window, facing out, can work wonders for your indoor air quality, making it smell as fresh as the outdoors.

Make Glass Sparkle with Newspaper

Nothing gets glass windows and mirrors quite to a streak-free, so-transparent-it’s-dangerous shine like newspaper. You won’t have problems with smeared text because most newspapers are now printed with water-based inks. The paper leaves behind virtually zero lint. Just spray the glass with a 50/50 mixture of water and white vinegar, rub the glass with a dry cloth and then go over the surface with a piece of newspaper.

Cut Old Towels into Cleaning Rags

Those scratchy towels that are no longer fit for post-shower use could provide you with a dozen or more new, totally free cleaning rags. Just cut them up – most terrycloth towels won’t unravel, so you don’t need to worry about breaking out the sewing machine. It’s far better for the planet than using disposable paper towels.

Eliminate Odors with Fresh Lemons

Even the nastiest of odors can’t stand up to the freshening power of fresh lemons. Get rid of garlic, fish and other strong smells using half a cut lemon or some fresh-squeezed lemon juice. To freshen indoor air, simmer lemon peel on the stovetop, adding water as needed.

Freshen the Fridge with Coffee

Among the many unexpected uses for coffee is absorbing funky odors in the refrigerator. If you’ve got stale coffee grounds, or have a bag that’s no longer good for brewing, place a bowl of them in the fridge for a day or so. You can use the same trick to deodorize virtually anything by placing the object in a plastic bag along with a container of coffee grounds.

Sanitize Sponges With Salt

There’s no use trying to clean anything with a sponge that’s teeming with bacteria. Suds up your sponges, rinse them thoroughly and then soak them in cold, heavily salted water for an hour or two. This process will kill the germs and plump the sponges back up again.

No-Scrub Oven Cleaner

It’s time to tackle that burnt-on mess on the bottom of your oven. Baking soda makes it as easy as it gets, and your next batch of cookies won’t taste faintly of chemical cleaners. Sprinkle it liberally all over the floor of the oven, spray it with water until it’s well dampened, and leave it for a few hours. Then just wipe out the mess and use vinegar to remove the film of baking soda residue left behind.

Vinegar for Cleaning Floors

Use a half-and-half solution of white vinegar and water to clean virtually any type of flooring other than porous stones like slate and granite. You can up the cleaning power for unwaxed wood floors, tile or linoleum by mixing 1/3 white vinegar, 1/3 rubbing alcohol and 1/3 water with 3 drops of dishwashing liquid.

Make Reusable Swiffer Covers

There’s no doubt that Swiffers and other floor cleaning tools that use disposable pads can be convenient. But all those sheets add up fast, not only in cost but in the amount of trash you put out each week. Instead of buying refills, sew up a few of your own covers with a pattern you can find at Berlin’s Whimsy.

De-Gunk Microwaves with Baking Soda and Lemon

The citric acid in lemon juice can loosen even the crustiest food residue that gets splattered all over microwave interiors. Place lemon wedges in a small bowl of water and nuke them for two to three minutes. Let it sit without opening the door for about ten minutes, then wipe out the inside. If you still have any odors or nightmarish globs of unidentifiable gunk left behind, use a paste of baking soda and water to scrub them right out.

Polish Wood With Olive Oil

Add a teaspoon of olive oil to a quarter cup of lemon juice for a non-toxic, gentle furniture polish that will remove dust and bring wood surfaces to a brilliant shine. Because this mixture is free of petroleum and waxes, it won’t build up into a dull, gunky finish over time.

Remove Rust with Salt and Lime Juice

Not only is rust hard to scrub away, sometimes it’s impossible – like when it starts to appear inside a tea kettle. Most commercial rust cleaners are highly toxic, so they’re not exactly ideal for use in bathrooms, let alone on a furnace that comes into contact with food. For spots you can reach, slather them in a paste of salt and lime juice, let it sit for a few hours and then scrub it off. To clean the inside of a tea kettle, just add a cup of lime juice and then fill it up with water. Let it sit overnight and then boil it for about ten minutes.

Disinfect Surfaces With Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil instantly kills bacteria, viruses and mold, so it’s an ideal antiseptic cleaner for extra-germy spots like doorknobs and toilets. Add two cups of hot water to two tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax, plus 1/2 teaspoon liquid dish soap and 1/2 teaspoon tea tree oil. Put it all in a spray bottle, shake it and apply it to any surface that needs to be disinfected.

Deodorize Carpets With Baking Soda

Carpets absorb odors all too easily, making it hard to get rid of a smell like smoke or pet urine. Make them smell almost new again (minus the overwhelming plastic smell of off-gassing VOCs) by sprinkling them with baking soda and letting it sit overnight before vacuuming it all up.

Dust With Old Socks

If your dryer is in on the sock-eating conspiracy, you probably have a few lonely socks sitting around. No need to throw them away. Put one over your hand like a glove and use it to dust surfaces around the house. This works especially well with athletic socks that have been turned inside-out, since the inside is usually textured.

Polish Metal Surfaces With Half a Lemon

Easily remove food residue, fingerprints and other grime from stainless steel or chrome surfaces by slicing a lemon in half, dipping it in salt and rubbing it on the surface in circular motions. Rinse with water.

Unclog Drains With Baking Soda and Vinegar

Drain cleaner is enough to give anyone a migraine. Next time, don’t put yourself through the trauma of gagging on toxic fumes. Dump 3/4 cup of baking soda down the drain and chase it with 1/2 cup white vinegar. Plug the drain, let it sit for 30 minutes and then rinse it out with a kettle full of boiling water. If you do this on a regular basis, you probably won’t have a problem with clogs anymore.

Brighten Yellowed Linens With Lemons or Salt

You don’t need bleach to get white sheets, towels and other laundry looking crisp and bright. Add a quarter cup of lemon juice to the assign machine and then hang them out to dry in the sun. Alternately, you could boil them in a big pot of water with a few tablespoons of salt plus a few tablespoons of baking soda.

Kill Mold With Borax and Vinegar

Mix half a cup of white vinegar with half a cup of Borax (the type sold in the laundry aisle, not the bug-killing kind.) Dilute that mixture with 1/4 cup of warm water, then pour it into a spray bottle. Apply it immediately to moldy surfaces to kill and loosen the mold spores so they’re easy to wipe away.

Organize Cleaning Supplies with a Shoe Holder

Over-the-door shoe holders can organize a lot more than just shoes. Keep all of your cleaning products and tools – which should include boxes of baking soda, bottled vinegar, Borax, empty spray bottles, dish soap, reusable rags, socks and essential oils – visible and handy. Everything will be easy to access and you’ll be able to tell at a glance when you’re running low on a certain item.

Photos: Muffet, Horia Varlan, Beaufort’s TheDigital, Andrew Comings

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Do you ever pass those big, expensive bottles of essential oils at the natural foods store and wonder who needs that much? Most of us are used to using just a few drops at a time; after all, they’re super-concentrated. But next time, you won’t blink an eye at the thirty dollar price tag on that 4-ounce bottle of tea tree oil. Why? Because it’s possibly the most powerful essential oil there is, with dozens of medicinal, beauty and domestic uses. Seriously: you need tea tree oil. Lots of it. Here are just 10 examples of what you can do with it.

Mold Killer

I recently had a knock-down, drag-out fight with mold. Things got ugly fast when a leak in the basement wasn’t fixed quickly enough, and before long, mold was all over everything that was stored down there. While I had to throw a lot of things away, I saved a lot thanks to a really easy and natural solution that kills virtually all strains of fungus – plain white vinegar with about a teaspoon of tea tree oil added to it, in a spray bottle. Spray liberally and vigorously wipe all affected surfaces, but don’t rinse.

Laundry Scent and Booster

Anyone who’s ever dealt with dirty cloth diapers, cloth menstrual pads or a post-illness load of laundry knows that sometimes, your clothes and linens need a little something more than just plain old laundry detergent. But don’t break out the bleach. A teaspoon of tea tree oil in your wash water will kill any germs and other gross stuff – just hang them out in the sun to dry and stains will disappear, too.

Insect Repellent and Bite Soother

When all else fails – even trusty old citronella – tea tree oil keeps annoying mosquitoes, gnats and other buzzing and biting bugs far away. Pour about an ounce of tea tree oil and four ounces of witch hazel into a spray bottle, and shake it up before applying. Both ingredients are soothing to existing bites. You can add some cedar, lemongrass, or lavender to make it even more powerful and prettier-smelling, too.

All-Purpose Cleaner

Sometimes referred to as ‘Mother Nature’s most powerful antiseptic’, tea tree oil is a great addition to just about any homemade all-purpose cleaner recipe. Here’s my favorite: add 2 cups of hot water to 2 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax, ½ teaspoon of liquid dish soap and ½ teaspoon of tea tree oil in a spray bottle; shake it and spray it anywhere germs lurk, like doorknobs and toilets.

Relief from Chest Colds

Put 2-3 drops of tea tree oil in a basin of hot, steaming water, then cover your head with a towel and inhale the steam for up to 10 minutes. Since tea tree oil has antiviral properties, it can help keep that cold from getting out of hand, especially if you catch it early enough.

Cold Sores

Nothing says “kiss me” like a hideous, contagious eruption right next to your mouth. Tea tree oil can help make it go away fast, since its antiviral effect subdues the herpes simplex virus that causes cold sores. Apply a few drops to the sore with a cotton swab once a day until it’s gone, and don’t forget to pop some lysine, an amino acid that has been proven to stop the herpes virus from replicating.

Gum and Sticker Remover

Whether it’s a wad of gum someone stuck under your dining table or a stubborn label on a gift, tea tree oil is so astringent that it cuts through sticky substances with ease. Just pour on a few drops on a cotton ball and rub away.

Acne Buster

The active ingredient in tea tree oil, terpinen-4-ol, is thought to kill the the bacteria that colonizes our pores and throws the disgusting, unsightly parties that result in acne. Just a drop added to a paste of baking soda and castile soap makes a super-effective natural face and body scrub that will also buff away the dead skin cells that make breakouts even worse. Some people can be sensitive to high concentrations of this powerful oil, so if you get a rash, discontinue use.

Athlete’s Foot and Other Fungal Issues

As gross as it sounds, the same properties that make tea tree oil such a potent mold-killer make it great for the fungus that causes athlete’s foot, too. The same goes for any other fungal infection, like ringworm, dandruff and nail infections. Mix a few drops of tea tree oil in a base oil like sweet almond, olive or coconut and apply it to the affected area, add it to your shampoo or add it to hot water for a foot soak.

Head Lice Zapper

What do you do when your kid’s got a head full of creepy-crawly, blood-sucking lice? Blast those suckers into oblivion as soon as possible. But many parents inadvertently expose their children to even worse health problems when they resort to noxious chemicals. Try tea tree oil first – research shows that it can dislodge mature lice. Mix a teaspoon of tea tree with 4 teaspoons of either olive or coconut oil, rub it into the scalp and leave it on for 15 minutes; then use a nit comb before washing the mixture out.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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The sad truth is the carpets that hold up best to traffic are the ones coated with toxins. And we don’t want those in a place where humans dwell.

If you do have a healthy wool carpet in your home, you can still clean it without harsh chemicals like perchloroethylene – which the EPA has linked to kidney and liver damage. Naphthalene, made from coal tar, is also considered a carcinogen that can harm the central nervous system.

Ask cleaning services if they simply steam to lift dirt or apply shampoos to loosen those hard-to-clean coffee and wine stains. Treatments like Oxi Fresh use an oxygenated method by applying less water and natural ingredients. Some cleaners also use citrus-based products that smell much better than standard chemicals. Just check and see if their products are plant-based chemicals (Biokleen, NatureClean and Seventh Generation’s Natural Citrus Carpet Cleaner) or made with synthetics.

Here are some natural ways to go for maintaining cleaner carpet:

1. For daily maintenance, have guests and family members remove shoes when entering the house if you have carpet on the first floor. Otherwise, remove shoes before heading upstairs. Obviously there can be exceptions, such as when you are entertaining. Guests often complain about taking off shoes for a more formal event. They may have holy socks or need the height so their pants won’t droop.

2. ehow tells us to spot clean with vinegar and water by mixing equal parts into a spray bottle and applying to the stain, then blotting with a clean, dry towel. For tougher stains, you can make a paste of baking soda and water and coat the stain. Let the paste sit for about 30 minutes, then wipe away with a damp cloth. For deeper cleaning, they suggest going with biodegradable cleaners like AFM Safecoat added to a rented carpet cleaner.

3. Do It Yourself recommends regular vacuuming to prevent dirt and pet dander from settling into your carpet fibers, and to sprinkle on some baking soda before your sweep to eliminate potential orders. You can even add spice, such as cinnamon or cloves, in the baking soda before you spread it. Also, let the baking soda sit on the carpet to lift stains and dirt at least 10 minutes before you vacuum.

4. For spot removal, use a clean dry cloth or paper towel to soak up the spill and blot the stain rather than rubbing it. Once you blot it, apply club soda or soda water to dissolve and lift, then blot up the liquid. You also can use hydrogen peroxide and vinegar mixed with water or rubbing alcohol to lift the stains. You might also try making your own spot cleaner with a teaspoon of liquid dish detergent and one to two cups of water.

In terms of cleaning fiber rugs, such as sisal, it is best to just use water or soda water. These can be the hardest rugs to maintain because many products don’t work very well to get out the stains.

Let us know if you have some other tried and true green methods of carpet cleaning!

Image: adriagarcia

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