Copper Cleaner Paste

 

Copper is one of the best materials to cook in

- it heats fast, and it cooks evenly. It is,

however, a little high maintenance in

appearance. If you do not like the patina that

forms on copper (or brass) after use, you will

want to use this recipe,which costs next

to nothing to make and is bio-friendly.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tsp salt

1 cup white distilled vinegar

Flour, enough to make solution into paste

 

Mix the three ingredients, adding flour until your solution thickens to a paste. Smooth the paste all over your copper or brass surface evenly so that it will not leave streaks. Let sit for 10 minutes, and rinse thoroughly in warm water. Dry your copper immediately to avoid water spots.

Disposal Cubes

 

This is a nifty little trick to sharpen up your

kitchen sink disposal blades, freshen the smell

emenating from your sink, and generally clean

out your in-sink disposal.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Left over lemon peels

Ice cube trays

Water

Container for frozen cubes

 

 

Save the peels from a lemon that you've squeezed all the useful juice out of. Snip the peel up into little pieces, and put the pieces into an ice cube tray. Fill the ice cube tray as you would normally for ice cubes, and pop it in the freezer.

 

Once the disposal cubes are frozen, pop them out of the trays and into a container to keep them corralled in the freezer.

 

At least once a week, turn on the sink tap to full cold, turn on your disposal, and pop two of these cubes down the drain for their cleaning benefits.

 

 

Bathroom/Shower Spray

 

 

This shower spray makes your whole bath

smell delightfully pepperminty and helps keep

mold and mildew at bay in between deep

cleanings. I did feel a little sketchy going into

the liquor store and asking them for the

cheapest vodka they had, so I may have

assuaged my awkwardness by delicately

letting the cashier know it was for cleaning.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

cheap vodka

20-30 drops peppermint extract

water (you can use distilled here, I prefer not to)

 

Add the peppermint extract to 1 part vodka and 5 parts water, and mix. Spray showers daily (after showering, and particuarly focusing on the corners of shower curtains), and spray other bathroom surfaces before wiping clean.

Dishwasher Tabs

 

 

After letting many others experiment with

recipesfor me, I settled on this recipe that I

tweaked a little. The cleaning results are

excellent, though I confess I am a

pre-scrubbed dish kind of person. I eliminated

Borax from the recipe, after giving more thought to

eventually converting to a grey-water system. We're not there yet, but when we do convert, all of my cleaning recipes will be non-toxic for the environment.

​

Ingredients:

 

1 1/4 cup washing soda

3/4 cup baking soda

1 1/2 cup anhydrous citric acid

1/2 cup sea salt

1/4 up to 1/3 cup vinegar (add as needed)

15 drops lemon eucalyptus oil

ice cube trays

rubber gloves or latex-free gloves for protecting your hands

 

*Turn on a fan in your work area, or set up a cross-ventilation, as the baking soda and vinegar will react and produce a fair amount of carbon dioxide.

Whisk all of the dry ingredients together so that they are thoroughly mixed, add the essential oil, and then the vinegar (which will fizz; it mushrooms up, but you can stop it's ballooning progress by popping it with your finger).

 

Stir further until the mixture is clumping fairly evenly, and then pack it into ice cube trays, taking care to keep the tabs small enough to fit in your dishwasher's tab slot. (Under-fill the trays, as the mixture will continue to mushroom up.)

 

Let the tabs dry fully in the ice cube trays, 24-48 hours, before popping them out and storing in a jar.

Distilled Vinegar

 

 

The uses are many:

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Produce wash (rinse produce in a bowl of 1 part vinegar : 4 parts water to rid it of bacteria and fungus - produce keeps much longer in the fridge)

 

-Fabric softener ----------->

 

-Drain deodorizer

 

-Lime deposit cleaner (fill a plastic bag with 1 part vinegar : 3 parts water and submerge showerhead for 30 minutes, fastening with a rubberband; rinse clean with cold water)

 

-Wooden cutting board cleaner (spray on, scrub with brush, rinse thoroughly, and let dry thoroughly)

 

-Flea & Insect Repellent (APPLE CIDER vinegar - add a tablespoon to your pet's water bowl each time you fill it up)

Laundry Detergent

​

​

All  you need is

SOAP NUTS!

​

Dab some essential oil (like lavender) on wool dryer balls and toss them in to dry with your laundry instead of disposable dryer sheets.

Hardwood Mopping

Solution

 

This solution works well on wood floors.

The Castile soap and the vinegar pack a

cleaning punch, and the tannic acid in the

black tea leaves the hardwood nice and

shiny. Lastly, the lemon ecualyptus oil adds

a fresh, clean scent.

 

NOTE: You'll want to cycle through this cleaner fluid on a regular basis to keep things fresh, so don't make too big a batch each time you need to refill.

 

 

 

 

*Fill a recycled pump dispenser or spray bottle with a watered down version of the solution to spray as you mop, as the swiffer mop does not hold enough fluid to clean a large surface area.

 

Ingredients:

 

1/4 cup strong black tea

1/8 cup vinegar

1 TBS Castile soap

10 drops lemon eucalyptus oil

 

 

Brew strong black tea (2 teabags for a normal cup).

 

Let tea cool, add all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

 

You may get some clumping when you add the Castile soap, this is fine, just break it up and stir thoroughly.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

 

 

Toilet bowls are one of the few areas where I

feel that strong cleaning chemicals may have

a place. Therefore, I was dubious that any of 

my natural cleaners would kill enough bad stuff

and leave the toilet bowl nice and clean, so I didn't

try out this cleaner until I ran out of commercial

cleaner and hadn't cleaned the toilets in more than a week... I have now been using this recipe for months with complete satisfaction.

.

Ingredients:

 

Liberal sprinkling of baking soda

20 drops of Tea Tree oil (also found at Trader Joe's)*

1.5-2 cups distilled vinegar

 

Lift your toilet seat and lid, and liberally sprinkle baking soda around the inside of the toilet bowl. Using a pipette*, dropper 20 drops of Tea Tree oil all along the baking soda. Splash the vinegar as evenly over the baking soda and enjoy the resulting fizz for a second. Then scrub the heck out of the bowl with a brush.

 

Shake out your toilet brush and lower the toilet seat (not the lid) over the brush, holding the wet brush end over the bowl to drip until you've finished cleaning the rest of the bathroom.

 

*Find a pipette here.

Stain Remover

 

 

I've been using this on everything from

laundry to our shaggy Moroccan wool rug

with great success.

.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 dark spray bottle (H2O2 is light sensitive; I like to use old glass vinegar bottles spray-painted black)

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup Castile soap

1/3 cup vegetable glycerin

1 Tbsp hydrogen peroxide

40 drops lemon essential oil

 

 

Pour all ingredients into your dark spray bottle and gently swirl to mix each time you use. Spray your stain as soon as possible to treat, checking a small, inconspicuous spot first for color fastness.

 

If you treat whites, leave the treated article in direct light (sunlight is best) for an extra brightening boost. If the article treated is colored, do not leave in light, as the color can be bleached.

Stone Cleaner

 

 

When we first moved into our home, it was

the first place  I had lived with stone surfaces

(we had formica and corian counters growing

up). Our friends and previous homeowners  had

graciously left a stone cleaner behind to get me

started, and I have since used it up and replaed it with this

homemade version, which leaves the counters and table

smooth and clean.

 

Ingredients:

 

70% isopropyl alchohol or stronger*

dishsoap

water

lemon essential oil

cap full of Thieves Household (optional)

 

*if you use 70% isopropyl, use a lower ratio of water, if you use stronger, like 90%, use a larger ratio of water

 

Add several drops of dishsoap (about 8-10) to a clear glass spray bottle (I like using old apple cider bottles from Trader Joe's with salvaged spray bottle tops), along with about 15 drops of lemon essential oil.

 

Then add about a 1:3 ratio of 70% isopropyl alcohol to water, add in the Thieves if you like, screw on your sprayer, and gently swirl the bottle to mix the ingredients.

 

Spray either directly on the stone surface to clean (if there's food gunked on), or onto your rag first for a gentler clean, before wiping down the granite/marble/quartz/composite surface.