With spring around the corner, I find myself stuck aboard the cleaning wagon. When I first started making homemade cleaning products, I’d occasionally find it challenging to get an area completely spotless. It can be frustrating to scrub twice as hard, when a chemical-laden spray used to eat through the grime in seconds. Using all the tips I’d learned, I was always able to get it clean, but not without some effort.
The good news is that there’s an easy way to spare myself the intense, muscled scrubbing: the monthly onceover. When I stay on top of things, revisiting each room weekly, the cleaning isn’t more than a basic wipe. Such a relief.
Copy instructions for your favorite cleansers onto recipe cards, laminate them or place in a Ziploc, and stash them in your supply cabinet. It’s also easy to glue a small wooden or cardboard box to the inside of a cabinet door, stack your recipes inside the box, safe but handy.
Hungry for more non-toxic spring cleaning tips?
For quick online references, these sites offer detailed recipes and tips:
- The Green Guide: Tips for housekeeping, cleaning, and much more.
- DIY Network: Check under the “Household Tips” section.
- Natural Healthy Home Cleaning Tips: Recipes, recipes, recipes!
- The Daily Green: Nontoxic Spring Cleaning article with pictures.
- The Fun Place: List of cleaning tricks to save time and money.
For a handy, tangible reference with fresh recipes, nab one of these books about natural housekeeping from your local library:
- Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan
- Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin
- The Naturally Clean Home: 100 Safe and Easy Herbal Formulas for Non-Toxic Cleansers by Karyn Siegel-Maier
4 thoughts on “Non-toxic Products—Worth the Scrub?”
Judi Seeders
(March 16, 2009 - 2:42 pm)Our family started to go green about 5-8 years ago when my mother-in-law, who had been fighting cancer, was told to do as much with natural organic food and cleaners as possible. I started to grow our own herbs to give to her. I had so many that I started making herbal packs for friends and relatives. A co-worker shared some of her natural cleaner recipes. Now I make our cleaners with Castle Soap as one of the base ingredients. I also make our laundry detergent. You don’t have to pay big bucks for going green. Books like The Naturally Clean Home shows you how to keep your home in a green way with little expense and lots of great smelling natural cleaners.
Becky
(March 20, 2009 - 1:06 am)Great blog, and great reference sites. I am new to the whole “green” cleaning, however once I decided to change my ways, I did some research and found Beth Greer’s great and helpful website http://www.supernaturalhome.com where I was able to get a lot of great green cleaning tips as well as green personal care items. I even discovered that Beth has even written a book which includes a ton of great “green” tips as well.
admin
(April 1, 2009 - 7:12 am)Where can I get liquid soap? I am trying to use some of the non-toxic products found on the past Vibrant Life issue. I’m guessing the liquid soap in the recipes is not the same liquid soap I use know since they have chemicals in them.
Christine Emming
(April 1, 2009 - 8:45 am)Great tips, guys! It’s amazing how much information you can find once you get serious.
Any natural liquid soap product that you can find and buy economically will be fine for your cleaning needs. Many people use a castile soap, which can be found at any natural foods store or by doing a quick online search. There are many kinds of castile soaps available, but the reason you’re using castile soap is that it’s derived from vegetable oils rather than chemical products. Hope that helps!
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