As I promised in my last post, here are the other 3 of 6 suggestions for using commonly found ingredients in your kitchen to create your own green and natural cleaning products and solutions. These were excerpted from an article in the April 2009 issue of Real Simple magazine. Be sure to check out some of the books in the resource section at the end, including a room-by-room guide from Real Simple and continue to share your real-life experiences with these solutions, if you’ve used any of them.

Borax
A water softener that when added to laundry, makes detergents more effective. It’s also alkaline so it’s effective at killing mold and fungus. Pour it into your toilet bowl, swish it around then let it sit overnight before flushing. Add it to dishwater to soak and clean your china (including hand painted china), and sprinkle it on the bottom of your dishwasher and let it sit overnight to deodorize it.

Vinegar
Because of its acidity, this common kitchen ingredient can wipe out tarnish, soap scum, mineral deposits as well as dirt and grease. Pour equal parts vinegar and water and run it through the brew cycle in your coffee machine. Halfway through turn the power off for about an hour then resume. When done, run several cycles with clean water. Use it straight to clean drains (flush afterwards with cold water). Spray it directly onto walls to kill mold (rinse after 15 minutes and let dry). Use a 50/50 mixture with water to clean mineral deposits in your steam iron. Add a 1/4 cup to a bucket of warm water to clean almost any type of floor (except marble and wood). Mix 1/4 cup with 2 cups of water and a squirt of castile soap in a spray bottle and use as a window or glass cleaner (for best results wipe off with newspaper).

Baking & Washing Soda
Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) and its cousin Sodium Carbonate (washing soda) are hardworking cleaners that effortlessly cut through grease and grime. Washing soda is stronger and can’t be ingested. Use washing soda for tough jobs like cleaning barbecue utensils, stove burners, and even removing tough stains from garage floors or other concrete surfaces. You can sprinkle the washing soda directly onto the concrete and sprinkle a little water to form a paste then let it stand overnight, scrub and hose down or wipe clean. For stove burners, soak them overnight in a mixture of 1/2 cup washing soda and 1 gallon of warm water, then clean as usual. For stained tea cups and coffee mugs use a mixture of 1 part baking soda to 2 parts water and soak for 30 minutes before washing them.

Some additional resources for more information and recommendations:

Better Basics for the Home, Annie Bond

Green Clean, Linda Mason Hunter

Naturally Clean, Jeffrey Hollender

The Naturally Clean Home, Karyn Siegel-Maier

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, Robert L. Wolke

To access a wealth of natural cleaning tips, visit www.realsimple.com and do a search on ‘Natural Cleaning Guide.’

Sometimes I wonder if the effort it takes to find a good green cleaner or variety of cleaners is worth the investment of time and money when there are so many safe and natural ingredients that are probably already in your kitchen (or certainly widely available for a low cost) you could use to make your own green cleaning solutions. Below 3 of 6 suggestions taken from an article in the April 2009 issue of Real Simple magazine. Check back in a few days for the other three as well as additional resources.

Lemons
The acid in lemon juice removes dirt and rust stains and works especially well as a scouring paste when mixed with table salt. Use it to clean stainless steel countertops by dipping a lemon half in baking soda and running it across the surface (then wiping clean); increase the grease-cutting power of your dishwashing liquid by adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to it; deodorize your garbage disposer by cutting a lemon in half and running it through the disposer; clean stains out of grout by adding a little juice to a teaspoon of cream of tartar to make a paste and use a toothbrush to scrub it out; or brighten your laundry whites when you add a 1/2 cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle.

Liquid Castile Soap
This gentle, plant-based liquid soap is great as a natural body wash and because of it’s ability to loosen grime and dirt from surfaces, it can do double duty as an effective floor and surface cleaner too. Combine 1/4 cup (i.e. 2 oz) of liquid castile with a gallon of warm water and use it to wash your car, or mop your floors (if the floors are greasy you can add 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar and a couple of drops of orange essential oil to the mix). You can also use it to clean leather upholstery (add two drops of soap to a quart of warm water). Combine 1 tablespoon of soap with 1/3 cup of baking soda and go to town on your sinks, showers, tubs, and ceramic tiles.

Cooking/Vegetable Oils
You probably never considered that the same oils you cook with can be used as furniture or even shoe polish! Plant-based oils like olive and safflower dislodge dirt, diminish scratches and bring new life and luster to wood that has aged or dried out from exposure to the sun. Make your own polish by mixing 2 cups olive or vegetable oil with the juice of 1 lemon. Use it to keep rattan and wicker furniture from drying or cracking. You can even use it to clean cast iron cookware by making a paste with vegetable oil and a teaspoon of coarse salt to remove cooked-on debris. And a little vegetable oil can help remove paint or stubborn glue from your hands (Jojoba oil is especially good for this, though a lot more expensive).

Have you tried any of these solutions? If yes, then share your experiences with us by commenting below.

If you want to take your all natural, earth friendly cleaning a step further, you can easily make your own green cleaning supplies at home. This way, you can also lessen the environmental impact on your local landfill by leaving the plastic containers at the store and not in your garbage can.

If you happen to own an LCD television or a computer monitor, you’ve probably discovered that cleaners like Windex are useless for getting your screen streak free. However, did you know that a simple solution of one part white vinegar and one part water will get your screen looking as good as new? If you add in one part rubbing alcohol to that solution, then you have a safe and effective cleaner for your windows and mirrors. Not only does this solution work just as well as chemical-based cleaners, it’s simple to make and costs a fraction of store-bought cleaners.

You’ve probably wondered what chemicals are hiding in that bottle of Drano or Liquid Plummer but didn’t think there were any other options for unclogging your drains. If you were one of those kids who made a volcano at home for a class project or a science fair, you may want to try this experiment. Simply pour two tablespoons of baking soda into your drain and then add vinegar and stand back. Wait a few moments, add some warm water to see if the clog is removed.

Furniture polish is another one of those items that many of us can’t imagine living without. What looks better than a freshly dusted and polished table? There is an all natural alternative to those nasty aerosol wax polishes. Start with one part olive oil, one part vinegar and then add in a teaspoon or two of lemon juice. Transfer this mixture to a spray bottle and you have the cheapest and most effective furniture polish ever. Liquid wax jojoba is also a good choice (though pricey for cleaning -I personally would save that for your skin care needs). All natural lemon oil may also be an excellent solution to the problem.

Selecting green cleaning products for your home often comes down to simple common sense and questioning the beliefs you may have come to accept as truths handed down to us from generations of advertising and marketing campaigns. These campaigns have set the standard for cleanliness in our minds based on the notion that harsh detergents and chemicals are the only way to effectively get the job done. Try a kinder, gentler approach and see for yourself.

Thankfully, natural cleaners have made great strides in the United States and abroad so you no longer have to go to specialty stores to find them. Most major grocery chains carry at least one brand of all natural cleaning products. But how do you know what to choose? Here are some general tips on what to look for:

• Phosphate-Free & Bleach-Free Laundry Detergents. Phosphates are water-softening mineral additives once widely used in detergents to enhance their stain-removing capabilities. In addition to threatening aquatic and plant life, they can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if ingested, and skin irritation due to their corrosive nature. Bleach is harmful to your lungs and mucous membranes and produces trihalomethanes –toxins linked to cancer– as well as absorbable organic halides, which are harmful to marine organisms. Look for dish and laundry detergents that are free of both phosphates and bleach.
• Chlorine-Free Dishwasher Detergent. Just as too much chlorine in your pool can irritate your lungs and eyes, chlorine fumes in steam that leaks from dishwashers can irritate your eyes and make it harder for you to breathe. Chlorine also tends to contain organocholorines, which have been known to cause cancer and leave a chemical residue on your dishes that can transfer to your food.
• Ammonia-Free Bathroom Cleaners. As mentioned earlier, ammonia can be harmful to your lungs as well as an irritant to eyes and skin, which frequently comes in contact with bathroom fixtures that have been cleaned with it. You’re better off with an all-natural cleaner that uses vegetable enzymes or natural mineral polishers like borax or an old standby like Bon Ami polishing cleanser.
• Plant-Based All-Purpose Cleaners. Look for plant-based cleaners as these are biodegradable which means they can be broken down by fungus, bacteria, or other naturally occurring organisms, and are safe to release into the environment. Look for cleaners with surfactants made from natural sources like coconut or olive oil, and use citrus essential oils rather than “fragrances” that smell like citrus that may combined with harmful chemicals like ethoxylates, butyl cellusolve (a skin-penetrating neuro-toxin) or ortho-phenylphenol (a harsh eye and skin irritant).

The key with any green cleaner is to carefully look at the ingredients and claims involved. If you’re dealing with a cleaner that is made primarily from harmful chemicals instead of organic extracts, all natural oils, or things like baking soda and calcium carbonate, you should probably be shopping for a better option. Keep in mind that few cleaning products actually provide a list of ingredients on the bottle. Don’t be fooled by claims like “Citrus Power” or “Oxy Active.” It can have natural claims on the label without actually being a natural product, or as is often the case, it may contain a combination of natural ingredients and harsh chemicals. And consider making your own green cleaning supplies.

It is truly amazing how the green revolution has changed our lives. We separate our garbage, carpool to work, and even consider buying hybrid cars just to help save Mother Earth. Ironically, many of the everyday household cleaning products we still use are loaded with dangerous chemicals that are anything but environmentally friendly, and potentially quite toxic for us.

Even your laundry detergent or dish soap can be problematic. Environmental activist Barry Commoner did a study that demonstrated the increase in phosphates found in one city’s wastewater from 20,000 tons in 1940 to 150,000 tons in 1970. Phosphates, though made from naturally occurring minerals can damage the level of oxygen in the water, which in turn has disastrous effects on fish and plants alike. And the extra fragrances that are typically included in both detergents and dryer sheets often contain phthalates –chemicals used by industry to soften plastics. Studies suggest that these toxins can affect brain development in children, among other things.

The good news is that there are now a growing number of safer alternatives that can keep your home sparkling and your mind at ease. But before you run out to the store to find these new innovative products, it helps to know a little about what nasty chemicals may be lurking in the cleaners you have under your sink right now, so you can be sure to pick greener replacements that will also get the job done.