All right, so when you think about things like environmentalism, I'm probably not the first person who comes to mind. ;o) However, a few months ago I made a few changes in how I clean in order to cut down on some of the chemicals around our house, more for our family's health than for the planet but hey, if the earth benefits from it too, great! (Some people are very dedicated when it comes to living an all-natural, healthy, earth-friendly life. I am not one of them, but I feel like something is better than nothing.) It turns out that you can clean and disinfect almost everything in the house with vinegar and/or baking soda: I had heard about using vinegar on wood floors for a streak-free clean, and at work two years ago they started requesting "green" cleaning products and vinegar for cleaning the classrooms. It makes sense if you think about it, I mean, we can EAT baking soda and vinegar so it must be pretty safe, right? (Then again, we eat hot dogs and those things are SCARY. I guess that's why I just try not to think about it while I'm eating them. Hey, I said I wasn't living the perfect all-natural life, didn't I? ;o) Plus, although they disinfect, they don't eradicate every single germ which is actually better: if you are in a completely sterile environment, your immune system doesn't get a chance to develop and you actually get sick more.
Anyhow, I keep spray bottles upstairs and down with a mixture of approx. 2/3 vinegar and 1/3 water and use these for cleaning surfaces. I keep boxes of baking soda near the vinegar, and use a combination of the two to clean sinks, toilets, tubs, etc. It removes soap scum really well and it's fun to watch it bubble and fizz...reminds me of the model volcanoes kids used to make for science fairs. :) I also read today that vinegar can be used to clean stainless steel appliances...wish I'd have read that before I purchased more stainless steel wipes earlier in the week! I still use Pledge Multi-Purpose on the wood furniture, but am going to try a combination of lemon juice and vinegar, which I also just read about today. Think I'll probably stick with Windex on the windows, but seriously, one or two chemical cleaners as opposed to a whole collection of them is great! It's pretty cheap too....I buy vinegar by the gallon and the Target brand is cheaper than a gallon of milk.
It's very possible that everyone reading this already knows these things and I'm just a step behind, but I thought I'd share just in case. Goodnight!
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