Make Your Own Cleaning Products

Making your own cleaning products is easy, safe, inexpensive, and better for both the environment and your health. Cleaning and washing our homes with toxic chemicals can impact our health in a negative way.

It’s easy to get back to the basics and use old-fashioned remedies, which are just as effective without leaving a toxic film all over your home. Not only are we touching these chemicals but we are also breathing in the residues of these products on a daily basis.

Using a range of ingredients can be helpful around the home. Here are a few of my favorites.

Vinegar

Plain white vinegar is great natural disinfectant due to acetic acid, which deodorizes and helps to remove stains. You can use it on every surface except marble and granite. Vinegar can be mixed with water and essential oils to make a great cleaner or mixed with baking soda to make a paste to clean the most stubborn stains. It’s great to use for cleaning out the refrigerator and ovens.

Baking Soda

You can simply sprinkle baking soda on surfaces and scrub away with a little water to form a thick paste. You can use it to clean kitchen drains, add to your laundry to give you whiter whites, remove carpet stains or mix with vinegar for all-purpose cleaning.

Washing Soda

This cleaner is stronger than baking soda, and is excellent for scrubbing grease and removing stains. It can be mixed with water to clean toilets or use in general cleaning mixes. It can also be a great replacement for borax.

Essential oils

These oils have natural antiseptic qualities and offer a natural smell that is mood enhancing. Use 100% essential oils not fragrances. You can easily add them to water to make a natural air freshener or  to cleaning mixes to add a lovely scent.

Olive oil

Not just good with veggies, olive oil is great for polishing wood mixed with lemon juice and vinegar and reviving your old wooden chopping boards.

Castile Soap

This is an all-natural olive-oil-based soap that can be used in an all-purpose cleaner, for washing floors, walls, and any other surface that needs a good clean.

Lemon Juice

Lemons are a great all-purpose cleaner that help fight grease and grime and helps to deodorize. You can be use them as an ingredient in all-purpose cleaners and removing stains from clothes.

All-Purpose Cleaner

This recipe is great for bench tops, bathrooms, shower screens, kitchen cabinets, tables, kitchen sinks and other surfaces that need a clean-up.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of distilled or boiled then cooled water
• 1 tsp washing soda
• 1-2 Tb liquid castile soap
• 4 drops tea tree
• 4 drops of grapefruit
• 4 drops lavender
• Spray bottle (16oz)

Note: You can use any essential oil blends you like for a nice smell with antiseptic qualities.

Directions

Using a funnel, pour into the spray bottle the washing soda, castile soap, water and essential oils and mix and spray. Each time you use it, give it a good shake, and use a cloth to wipe the surface afterward.

Mold Spray

Mold is often found in bathroom and has the risk of causing health problems when left untreated. People often believe they need to use bleach and other harsh chemicals but this home remedy will clean the mold found in the bathroom.

Ingredients

• ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide
• 1 cup of distilled or boiled and cooled water

Directions

Mix together in a spray bottle and spray on the areas effected by mould and leave for 1 hour then clean away with a bathroom brush if its in-between the grout or with a cloth or simply rinse.

There are also specialized microfiber materials that don’t even require any substance but water to give a good clean.

If you prefer not to make these yourself, you can still become familiar with ingredients that are natural and buy natural cleaning products from your health market or online. Read the ingredients, as it should be clear what each ingredient is.  Look for bottles that say all natural, bio-degradable, grey water safe, plant and mineral-based, free of harmful ingredients.

You can learn more about these 18 easy chemical-free cleaning remedies.