February 20, 2008 | Bathroom, Laundry, Floors, Kitchen, Vinegar, Cleaning tips, Being Green, Cleaning products
Thanks to Shannon for hosting Works for Me Wednesday. This week I’m going to share the most important tips I have on frugal green cleaning. Let’s face it - stocking up the cabinets with Seventh Generation, Method, and other ‘green’ cleaners can be expensive. But there are ways to do it without breaking the bank. Here goes.
First, raid your pantry. Here are some great cleaners you can make straight out of your pantry:
- Window / glass cleaner - 1/4 cup vinegar with 14 oz water
- All-purpose cleaner - 50/50 dilution of vinegar and water
- Floor cleaner - 1/2 cup of lemon juice in a bucket 1/2 full of water
- Furniture polish - 1/2 cup lemon juice with 1 TBSP olive oil (refrigerate what you don’t use, as lemon juice will become rancid if left out)
- Bathroom cleaner - 3 parts vinegar, 1 part water as main solution. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice and 2-3 drops of tea tree oil (from your local natural food store) to kill mildew and mold.
- Kitchen abrasive to cut grease - make a paste out of salt and lemon juice, use that around the base of your faucet, the drain in your sink, even on your glass shower door. It’ll cut grease and mineral deposits.
Second, don’t fall for marketing ploys. Cleaning companies would love for you to believe that if the bottle doesn’t have a crooked neck you can’t use it to clean your toilet. They’d also love for you buy into their 1-product-1-purpose idea. But that’s a lie. Use products that accomplish multiple purposes. The things listed above will do that just fine.
Third, if you’re not into making your own cleaners, do yourself a favor and purchase something that you can dilute for different purposes. We recommend Shaklee H2 as our top choice, but Clorox GreenWorks dilutable is another good option. Both of those will greatly reduce your cleaning product budget - all you need is your own bottles and tap water.
Lastly, there are 2 powdered products you’ll find on most grocer’s shelves that are both inexpensive and highly useful. Get yourself a can of Bon Ami - it’s about $0.89 in the cleaning aisle, and it’ll take care of most any difficult task, from Calphalon pans to laminate counter tops to the gunk in your shower. My second favorite is Borax, found with the detergents - it’s a ‘laundry booster,’ which means you can use less laundry and dishwasher detergent by adding a bit of Borax, thereby stretching your buck a bit further. You can also use it in your toilet, on your showers, sinks - anywhere your cleaning needs an extra boost.
So there it is. Let Kermit know that it really is easy being green. And check out Shannon’s place for more great tips from the blogosphere.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://broomhuggers.com/2008/02/20/wfmw-green-cleaning-on-a-budget/trackback/
Nichole says:
Thanks for the cleaner “recipes”! I’ve been trying to make my own cleaner, but the proportions have been off.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm