With five basic and inexpensive ingredients (baking soda, borax, soap, washing soda, vinegar/lemon) you can create your own household cleaners. You can also personalize them with your favorite essential oils.
Check out http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm or google “household cleaner recipes”.
This post was submitted by Kim.
Yes! I recently cleaned some very tarnished silver with washing soda, aluminum foil and boiling water. Cheaper, easier and I don’t have to worry about harsh chemicals in my body.
Comment by Karen — September 3, 2009 @ 7:28 pm
While I like the idea of making cleaners from natural acids, bases, etc., one should remember that things like baking soda, soap, borax, and other commercially-available “natural” products often require significant amounts of resources in order to extract them from the earth and/or process them into a product that can be sold at market. Indeed, just check the Wikipedia page on sodium bicarbonate (i.e., baking soda) to begin to get an idea of what it takes to either synthesize or mine this salt. Unless you have these things right in your backyard (literally), I’m not too sure using them should be called “green”. If we as a global community are truly going to be conscious of our impact on our home (Earth), we have to look at all of our activities in a rational and informed way.
Comment by David — September 4, 2009 @ 12:44 am
David, I’m wondering then if you have other suggestions for home cleaning products? While I would not want to use a product that requires “significant amounts of resources” I also no longer wish to poison my body and home.
Comment by Jen — September 5, 2009 @ 12:54 pm