Greener Cleaning

One of the last things to go for me was my blessed Comet Bathroom spray.  Nothing could compare to it's cleaning abilities, or so I thought.

This is going to be a hopefully a not too fancy, not pinterest worthy, no pic post.  Most of them are. ;)

What I have in every bathroom:

Spray bottle with half vinegar half water.  I like to keep them in the shower to spray a little afterwards too.  Vinegar is antifungal and combats mold and hard water and odors.  Don't like the vinegar smell??  Well you get used to it, really, and it fades away to nothing once it dries.  And let me tell you, you won't build up toxic fumes that weaken lungs and immune systems in your home.  You can even add some antibacterial and or antiviral essential oils, like clove, grapefruit, lemon, tea tree, the list in endless (and some essential oils are very affordable, to your spray bottle).  The bottle I have with essential oils I under the sink to protect it from light.

Washing soda and/or baking soda.  I recentely saved the lid of a shaker of parmasean cheese and put it on an old mason jar with a half and half mix of baking soda AND washing soda,  it works amazingly well at grime!!  AND natural!! No more pausing to hack up a lung and open a window while I clean.  And no lingering toxins.

Windows:

Half vinegar half water.  Old hand towel.  You will think at first, THIS isn't working!! But it does it really does, as good or better than windex.  Just don't get your cloth overly damp.

"Armorall" for vehicles:  A little water, a drop of dishsoap, and a little olive oil.

Cleaning and shining up your wood table( mine gets a water film and this brings it back to rich shiney life):  Half vinegar/half sunflower oil.  Olive oil is fine too.  Wipe with the wood grain.  Test a small area first just to be safe.

Hand soap:  this I have been doing for 5 years now, and it's so easy and doesn't dry out your hands and you are avoiding all that junk we talked about in the hand sanitizer post.  You will need a foaming hand wash dispenser and castile soap.  I do about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in the bottle with castile soap then fill up the rest with water, shake and voila!  As you can see, I avoid exact measurements at all costs if I can, it wastes my time. ;)  You could also add germ killing essential oils if you prefer. 

*A note on Tea Tree oil:  I have read not to let boys use it as it can disrupt their hormones.  So for something that the whole family is using often throughout the day, you can choose from many other essential oils.

Laundry:  I have gone back and forth with making my own with kirks unscented castile soap and using ALL free and clear.  The best homemade I ever made was with the borax, washing soda and Dr. Bronners bar of soap.  But that wasn't cost effective enough for me.  And darn it, it takes TIME when you make your own stuff.  I have practically eliminated fabric softener.  1/4 cup vinegar in the rinse.  I have also read that if you dry on a lower setting, it doesn't get so staticy.  Sometimes if I have a load that's real bad in the winter. I'll use a sheet of unscented.

Ok, that's all I can think of at the moment. 

A documentary if you have the time.

Laundering Your OCM Washclothes

Once again, story of my life blogging, I've been meaning to post this for a while and blah blah blah.  So if you do OCM cleansing you have probably discovered how the oil can build up in your washclothes and start repelling water like a duck's back.  I had searched online and hadn't found any good advice on this, so I had to trial and error it on my own. 

What I did that finally worked for me:

Whatever towel load you usually wash the clothes in, start with just the washclothes on your longest sturdy washing cycle, small load, HOT water.  I use All free and clear detergent ( yes I know, not homemade but I keep coming back to this...) use what you would for a full load especially if this is your first time getting the oil build up out, you may then be able to decrease the amount you use once you are getting them properly clean everytime and also depending on how soft your water is.

Use about a half cup of Washing Soda< not to be confused with Baking Soda, they are NOT the same, but it is natural.  I had been using oxyclean free, but I discovered that not only did this work better, it was cheaper too.  I didn't measure, I dumped some in and I''m guessing I did about that much. ;)  It's an excellent degreaser and it works wonders dry on a damp sponge to get that brown dirt, oil goo build up off your washer tub.  And the ring around your bathtub.

Put about 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the softener dispenser.

I then start the timer for 9 minutes and let the washer clean the crap out of washclothes.  When the timer beeps, I move the water setting to warm, and load size to a full size and then put in the rest of my towels and launder as normal.  The cycle on my washer still has another 10 minutes or so, so the towels didn't miss regular clean time. 

Aw yes, I get my washing soda at Walmart.