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May
17

More Natural Cleaning Tips

You guys let me know that you really liked the cleaning tips, so here are a few more.  My roving reporter, my finger on the “Pulse of the NBD community”, my sister Peggy, has informed me that “my public” would also like some recipes.  I believe I will post one of our (my family and hers) favorites tomorrow.  It also happens to be one of the easiest recipes I know, and is gluten and dairy free.  Her family has no dietary restrictions, but they love the recipe.  Please let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to cover, as well.  On a side note, please be forewarned – your days of happily, innocently applying your standard deodorant are numbered.  You may still choose to use standard deodorant, but it will soon be accompanied by a nagging feeling.

On to the cleaning tips:

Here is the closest way I know to have fun cleaning your toilet:

Pour a cup of vinegar in the bowl, and then add a half cup of baking soda.  Watch it foam (that’s the close to fun part).  Let it sit for about thirty minutes while you do other things, then come back and scrub with your brush.  If there are still stains, you can sprinkle some more baking soda on your brush.  For the rest of my toilet, I just spray 100% vinegar on it, and wipe the germs away.

Funny story from Crunchy Betty if you want to clean your toilet/give up pop for good:

The Story of a Toilet

This is off-topic, but it’s an interesting story. And we’re talking about bathrooms, so it fits in well.

My parents have this toilet in their house, upstairs, in the attic bedroom. It’s weird. It’s old. And when you’re, um, on it, your face is about an inch from the wall in front of you. It’s also connected, without a door, to the main “bedroom.”

It’s the toilet nightmares are made of, really. Not just little kid a-snake’s-going-to-crawl-out-and-bite-my-butt nightmares, but a grown-up’s nightmare of odd colored rusty gunk that takes five hours to scrub and then comes back the next day. And it runs a lot. Like, marathon running. Well, not like marathon running, because a toilet doesn’t have legs. I mean, it runs for marathon lengths of time. (I could have picked a less confusing word there and saved you all that reading. But … no.)

So, I stayed in this room for a good bit of time a few years ago. The toilet and I bonded, sort of. I told it to stop being so creepy, and it told me it would only keep flushing if I’d shut up and leave it alone.

And then one day, a cute boy was coming to visit. I couldn’t risk letting him see that toilet the way it was – all 19th-century boiler-room rusted and freaky. So I scrubbed and scrubbed, with everything in that house (sorry, dog) and nothing worked. And then I remembered about how Coke (that is Coca-Cola) rots your guts and dissolves pennies and all that.

I figured the toilet was kind of like a penny-plated gut in some odd way, so I poured a 2-liter in. And let it sit for 30 minutes.

Ran the toilet brush around the toilet bowl a time or two, and it. was. completely. clean. So clean, you could see your reflection in it. So clean, you could make soup in it. So clean, it blew your mind and made you even have the tiny, fleeting thought that you could put soup in it. Clearly, you still haven’t recovered.

Remember this story the next time you order a Coke.

For deodorizing drains:

Pour a cup of baking soda down the drain, then follow with boiling water (or a cup of hot vinegar).

Alternately, some people freeze vinegar ice cubes, then put them in their garbage disposal.  Freezing them will deodorize your freezer, and grinding them will deodorize your disposal.

Fabric Softener idea, according to Grinning Planet:

PROBLEMS WITH DRYER SHEETS AND FABRIC SOFTENER

Your supposedly non-toxic fabric softener or dryer sheets likely include some of the following not-so-snuggly ingredients: alpha-terpineol, benzyl acetate, camphor, benzyl alcohol, limonene, ethyl acetate, pentane, and chloroform. According to the manufacturers’ Material Safety Data Sheets, these chemicals have the potential to do things to you such as:

  • cause central nervous system disorders, headaches, and loss of muscle coordination;
  • irritate mucous membranes and impair respiratory function;
  • cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, or drowsiness;
  • cause liver or kidney damage;
  • cause skin disorders and allergic reactions;
  • cause cancer.

One of these chemicals even contains the warning “Do not flush into sewer system” (which, unfortunately, happens every time fabric softener with this particular chemical gets used). Another of the fabric softener chemicals appears on the Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous waste list.

People are exposed to the chemicals by breathing the aromatic molecules in the air near the clothes or by absorbing them through the skin via direct contact with the clothes (which, by design, retain some of the fabric softener/dryer sheet molecules).

You may now be thinking of several “buts” to our suggestion that dryer sheets and fabric softeners are not safe. Let’s explore them:

BUT #1: ”If the product is allowed to be sold, it must be safe.”

RESPONSE: You’d think so, but it’s just not so. Most chemicals used in household products have not undergone in-depth testing to determine their effects on people, particularly long-term effects.

BUT #2: ”I don’t feel ill when I use these products; in fact, I LIKE the smell.”

RESPONSE: Chronic chemical exposure usually takes years to catch up with you, and the negative effects are often subtle and emerge slowly. The connection between chronic chemical exposure and an emerging health situation may not be obvious. Further, the chemicals used in fragrant products can induce a narcotic effect in humans, enticing you to crave more exposure at the same time you’re suffering the overall negative effects of the exposure.

BUT #3: ”The static cling! Aeeieieee!”

RESPONSE: Yes, while people may be willing to give up the cozy smell that dryer sheets impart to their clothes, static electricity in clothes that come out of the dryer is a problem. Some solutions are listed below.

Solution:

Vinegar is a natural fabric softener. Use 1/2 cup in the wash cycle. (But don’t use bleach at the same time—mixing vinegar and bleach may create toxic fumes.)

I add 1/2 of vinegar right into my fabric softener dispenser in my washer.  I wasn’t using fabric softener prior to this, but I figured I’m using vinegar everywhere else, so why not my clothes.  I haven’t really noticed any difference, good or bad.

For bathtub cleaning, I got a recipe from Live Renewed:

Homemade Soft Scrub for Bath and Tile

This recipe is adapted from the recipe for Earth Paste in Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan (page243). It is quick and easy to put together and effectively cleans the bath (hooray). Make this in small batches because it can dry out and harden when stored. This recipe makes enough for two to four uses. Keep any remaining mixture in an air tight container.

Ingredients
3/4 cup baking soda (slightly heaped)
1/4 cup castile soap (I use Dr. Bronners Peppermint)
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon vinegar

Method
In a bowl, combine the baking soda and castile soap. Add the water and stir with a fork.

Lastly, stir in the vinegar. The mixture will fizz a little. Stir to make a nice soft, paste-like, consistency. (This is important – the vinegar must go in last or else the scrub will be like sludge instead of a creamy paste.)

Scoop out the scrub with a sponge and start cleaning.

This scrub can also be used to clean the toilet.

I would personally recommend picking up some castile soap, because it is very handy and comes up in a lot of recipes. I use Dr. Bronner’s unscented kind, but they have many others scented with essential oils.  I haven’t really gotten into essential oils with you guys because I am pretty new to them, myself.  I didn’t use them for a long time because I thought you had to wear long flowing skirts and attend renaissance faires to use them, neither of which I do, but I’ve been proven wrong!  They are powerful, natural cleaners, and so much more.  We’ll cover them at a later date.

Microwave cleaning:

Put a 1/2 cup of vinegar and a 1/2 cup of water in the microwave.  Bring to a boil to create steam.  Baked on food and odors will then be able to be wiped away.

 

I hope these tips are helpful!  Feel free to come over and demonstrate any of them at my house.  I’d be perfectly fine with you showing me your cleaning skill in any area of my home!

 

 


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4 Comments

  1. Bernadette
    Posted May 17, 2011 at 1:57 pm | Permalink

    This is great, I can’t wait to try the toilet recipe! Sara has just discovered that she is the same height as the toilet and it’s her own personal pool so I would like a natural cleaner for those times she slips away without being noticed.

    • admin
      Posted May 17, 2011 at 4:47 pm | Permalink

      Come on now, who among us hasn’t wanted to take a little dip in the porcelain pool?!

  2. Peggy
    Posted May 17, 2011 at 8:57 pm | Permalink

    First of all when I began reading bernadette’s comment I didn’t think she’d say ” can’t wait to try the toilet recipe.” I thought it would be your soup recipe. It threw me for a loop.
    Secondly, I’m finally mentioned in the blog!! Although from here on out for my privacy I’d prefer to be called Pippa.

    • admin
      Posted May 17, 2011 at 9:27 pm | Permalink

      How funny! That gives me an idea – they say that toilet bowls can get quite clean, so perhaps we should experiment . . .

      It would’ve been fun to have been calling you Pippa from the beginning. But, alas, you are out there already for all to see. The t-shirts emblazoned with your name are being printed, and there’s no going back now!

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