If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Ally is my baby. She’s three and she’s a fiesty little cat. I love her regardless and refuse to use chemicals around the house, for me and her.
So I clean with vinegar, borax, baking soda, lemon essential oil, and Dr. Bronner’s.
I use the following recipes:
All-purpose cleaner
Mix 2 tbls of white vinegar with 1 tsp borax. Mix that with 1 cup of hot water and pour into a spray bottle and then add more water and 1/4 cup Dr. Bronner’s. I add 20 drops of lemon essential oil on top of that.
For clogged drains
I put a 1/2 cup baking soda down the drain with about a cup or so of white vinegar. I let that foam it’s way down and wait about 30 minutes. Then I pour some boiling water to finish the job (don’t use too much!). I only do this max of once a month or so and it keeps my cloggy shower drain clean.
Scouring
I make a paste of water and baking soda, and scrub away. Then I wash it off with water.
Hand soap
I use mix 2 parts water to one part Dr. Bronner’s. It cleans well, but is pretty runny.
I use vinegar for a few things because it’s cheap! It makes a great rinse aid for the dishwasher, and really, who wants to spend that much money on Jet Dry. I just pour about 1/4 cup in every so often, but I don’t put it in the rinse aid compartment of course. I just pour it in “loose”.
It works perfectly for cleaning up the microwave, too. 1/4 cup vinegar with 1 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl and pop it in the microwave until it starts to boil itself for a bit. Then I can go in and wipe down the microwave effortlessly afterwards. If things are still stuck, repeat until it wipes out.
Oh, and the scouring thing… I do a paste of baking powder and water to clean up the stoneware (like the pizza stone) or sometimes my glass cooktop or non-stick wok will start to smell a bit… funny. I’ll use the paste on any of those things and they’ll be clean and free of funky smells.