Your family spends hours in that sanctuary called home. You want it to be safe, including free from harmful bacteria and other microorganisms. You and others in your home invest time, energy and money to keep it clean. Now here's the question - what products are you using to clean it? For most of us, its name brand cleaners from the store. Now here's a question I'll bet you don't know the answer to - what's in them?
Try this exercise for an experiment: visit the EPA's Learn About Chemicals Around Your House Site, take the tour and be prepared to get your eye's opened about every day cleaning products most of us buy and use in our homes. It also provides information on possible dangers associated with many household cleaners, especially where children are concerned.
So what can you do? Try making and using your own green cleaning products. Many natural cleaning products are just as effective as name brand cleaners and you can easily make them with non-toxic ingredients. Need some additional reasons?
- They're extremely simple to make and customizable - most green cleaners revolve around a few common household ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, liquid castile soap, lemon juice, essential oils and so on.
- You can make them for a fraction of the expense of store bought cleaners.
- You can reduce the bottles, cans and containers of various cleaning products to just a few, and reduce the worry of how to safely store them and dispose of them.
- It's convenient - no need to worry about running out of a cleaner. Most green cleaning ingredients can be purchased in bulk and stored right in your pantry.
- Thanks to Pinterest and the many good blogs on the subject, there's a plethora of good cleaning recipes for just about everything.
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| Copied with permission of Full Circle Home |
- Add essential oils or lemon for fresh scent. Did you know that tea tree and lavender oil are naturally antibacterial? Many people cringe at the thought of using vinegar for disinfecting because of the smell, but adding freshly squeezed lemon to your vinegar solution really helps.
- Label your cleaners! If your house is anything like ours, we have family in and out at all hours and not everyone is current on all of the cleaners and their uses.
- Have your cleaners prepared and keep them handy. We like to use a stylish spray bottle for our kitchen surface spray and we display it on the counter, where it's conveniently at our fingertips.
Full Circle. It comes with just about everything you need to get started, including a recipe guide, microfiber cleaning cloth, mixing container, two juicers, labels and two clear spray bottles with graded measurements. The guide has over forty easy to follow recipes including surface sprays, disinfecting sprays, abrasive cleaners, floor cleaners, bath scrubs, laundry soaps, polishes and even recipes for dog shampoo and car washing soap! Try one of these two recipes from page 9 of their recipe book.
We think the green cleaning trend is here to stay, and we expect their use to increase. We enjoy the convenience and cost savings of using these cleaners, but most importantly we know we are creating a safer environment for our family and pets. How about you? Try one of these recipes and let us know what you think!
