Natural Cleansers that Work

Today, my mother set out on cleaning the kitchen cabinets and appliances.  First, pure vegetable oil was used to wash off the cabinets.  It did a good job; working as well as any chemicals that could have been used would work.  Being 98% natural, it is an excellent way to do cleaning, and is very sustainable overall.  Overall results were good.

Second, lemon oil was used over the pure vegetable oil to give the cabinets a shine.  It worked well overall, and the cabinets have an excellent shine to them.

Lemon juice was used on grease stains on the cabinets.  This worked well overall.  We found there was more grease on the cabinets than we thought!  However, removing the grease was very easy overall, and the cabinets looked much better than they did before we used the lemon juice.

Finally, baking soda and vinegar were used on the white appliances.  Removing debris left on the oven was very easy overall, and relatively effortless.  After the reaction, the stains and debris lifted right off, and made cleaning very easy.

Overall, these products were great for cleaning these areas of the kitchen.  Although I didn’t really test them myself, my mom was very pleased with the ease of use and the outcome.

The Scores

·          

      Sustainability

o   Baking soda and vinegar: 9.5

o   Lemon juice: 9

o   Lemon oil: 9

o   Pure vegetable oil soap: 8.5

·         Practicality

o   Baking soda and vinegar: 10

o   Lemon juice: 10

o   Lemon oil: 10

o   Pure vegetable oil soap: 10

·         Overall

o   Baking soda and vinegar: 9.75

o   Lemon juice: 9.5

o   Lemon oil: 9.5

o   Pure vegetable oil and soap: 9.25

Scratch Paper

What happens to paper you only use once?  For most of us, we immediately rid ourselves of it.  However, using one side of the paper, and recycling it when the other side of it is blank, isn’t very sustainable.

For a while, now, I have been keeping a bin in my room titled “Scratch Paper.”  This is where I put my paper when I print something out one-sided, and end up not using it.  Examples of this could be scholarship applications that I decided not to apply for, school papers I printed out with an error on them, and entrance essays I had edited. 

The reason I’m keeping these papers is for reuse.  There are a lot of things that I print out only for temporary use, and then do nothing with.  I am trying to cut down on this by reusing these papers before I put them in my recycling bin. 

So far, the biggest problem has been trying to figure out which side to face up in the printer.  Other than that, I have no complaints and no problems with this system.  I encourage you to try it – what could go wrong? 

Beginning Test of Natural, Homemade House Cleaners

Today, I made three of the natural, homemade cleaning supplies I said I would make on an earlier blog.  I made the all-purpose cleaner; air freshener; and mirror, glass, and window cleaner.

These products were relatively simple to make, although it was somewhat difficult deciphering how to mix the water and soap for the all-purpose cleaner.  Overall, however, the cleaning supplies are proving to be relatively good overall.

So Far

I haven’t really had much of a chance to actually full-out test the supplies, as I finished making them about half an hour ago.  However, the air freshener and all-purpose cleaner were given a trial run after I finished making them.  I couldn’t try out the mirror, glass, and window cleaner because the spray bottle I put it in was defective.  I’ll be purchasing a new one next time I’m at the store.  For now, here are initial impressions of the products.

·          

      The all-purpose cleaner cleaned the counter I sprayed it on pretty well, and didn’t leave any soap behind.  However, the counter had been cleaned off right before I tested that, so I’ll have to see how well it works once I actually get to clean with it.

·       

            The air freshener didn’t have a scent.  However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, it could possibly cover up bad scents without producing its own scent.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll try adding more lemon juice.

I decided to make only these three products because I already had supplies for the other cleaners, and having even more of them would not be very sustainable.  As I run out of these supplies, I’ll make these recipes and report back. 

Finally, here are the three recipes for the products:

All-purpose cleaner

½ cup pure soap

1 gallon hot water

(I could have added ¼ cup lemon juice for scent and grease, but opted not to.)

Mirror, glass, and window cleaner

1 part vinegar for every 4 parts water

Air freshener

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups hot water

1 tsp lemon juice

I have not yet made the recipes for dish soap, scouring powder, furniture polish, floor polish, copper cleaner, chrome cleaner, brass cleaner, silver cleaner, drain cleaners, and drain uncloggers.  Please let me know if you would like the recipes for these as well.

Source: http://www.greenhousewife.com/green-household-recipes-general.php

Reuse Plastic Bread Bags

Thanks to Green Living Tips (link below), I have come up with some excellent ideas to reuse bread bags.  Although it would be very difficult to keep the bread bags out of the garbage system forever, there are many ways that you can keep it out for a while and keep other items out of the landfill by using bread bags in their place.  I will be keeping my bread bags to use for these purposes.  This is an important thing to do because plastics take a very long time to deteriorate, and when they do they release many toxins into the environment.

Ideas for the reuse of plastic bread bags include:

·          

      Packing sandwiches

·         Packing material when sending out packages

·         Storing small items

·         Replacing freezer bags

·         Cake icing dispenser

·         Gloves

·         Seedling bags

·         Trash bags

·         Meat seasoning bags

Most of these ideas have a basic theme: replacing other plastics bags that you would discard as well.  This is an excellent way to reduce your waste, and the right path to sustainability.  Although this isn’t the best solution to becoming more sustainable, it is on the right path, as reducing our waste is one of the first steps to becoming more sustainable.

I will continue to report back on my progress in reducing the bread bags, as well as any new ideas I come across.

Source: Green Living Tips: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/292/1/Reusing-bread-bags.html

Make Your Own Environmentally Friendly Household Cleaning Products

Why would I have bought all the products above at a trip to the store last night for the above products?  That is so that I can make environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.

Cleaning products that come from the store tend to have environmentally damaging products in them, such as chemicals and sulfates.  These chemicals can be very degrading to our environment, and it is very important that we look toward these products without these damaging chemicals.

And although products that aren’t quite as polluting, such as those from Green Works, are very good and an excellent step towards a more sustainable life, how difficult could it be to make your own environmentally friendly products? 

Thanks to Green Housewife, a website (link below) with a lot of great environmentally friendly ideas, I have come across some recipes for environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.  I have decided that these merit a try, and on paper they look very promising.

In the upcoming days, I will be making and testing out these supplies.  I will report back, one by one, on how well they work and whether they’re worth the extra work, along with their recipes.

I have recipes for the following products:

·        

           All-purpose cleaner

·         Liquid dish soap

·         Mirror, glass, and window cleaner

·         Scouring powder

·         Furniture polish

·         Floor polish

·         Copper polish

·         Chrome polish

·         Brass polish

·         Silver polish

·         Air freshener

·         Drain cleaner and unclogger

·         Tub and tile cleaner

As I finish making these, I will report back on their effectiveness.

For those of you wondering, the products above are baking soda, vegetable oil, three spray bottles, table salt, lemon juice, pure soap, and vinegar.

 
Source: Green Housewife: http://www.greenhousewife.com/green-household-recipes-general.php