It’s a great choice to switch from chemical, mass-produced household cleansers to green, sustainable cleansers. It might seem like a more daunting task than it actually is, though. You really only need the following ingredients, and you’re all set!
Basic Ingredients
1) Baking Soda
We all need a Simple Green Scourer. There are times when greasy grime really needs that tough action of a scouring powder to tackle it. Your green scouring powder needs to be extremely gentle not to scratch the surfaces of your home, but it still must be tough.
The easiest product to use has to be baking soda. The fine particles in the bicarbonate are wonderful for getting through grease and grime, but they are extremely gentle on plastics.
In fact, I’ve found the only way to keep plastic bottles and bowls properly clean AND scratch free is with baking soda. There simply is no green scouring powder which can beat it.
Best of all, it’s cheap – really cheap. Buy the biggest bag you can (forget the big brand, why bother paying more for a prettier box), and it will last you months.
This scourer can be made into a paste with a little water and rubbed on just about anything for a thorough yet gentle clean. It battles its way through soap scum, grease, it even soaks up smells – what more could you ask for?
If you are concerned about aluminum in baking soda, check out these links. They might give you some perspective:
2) Vinegar
Vinegar is a great natural disinfectant.
Another cheap and simple cleaner, which you can never stop finding uses for, yet mild enough not to be worried about using or keeping in the cleaning cupboard. It’s the perfect eco-green cleaning product if ever there was one.
Disinfectant cleaners are rarely green or environmentally friendly. This is to ensure every microbe is destroyed. They tend to contain pretty toxic substances such as ammonia and bleach. Salt is very different. Admittedly it won’t be used in hospitals, but unless your home is full of immuno-suppressed folks, do you really need that kind of antibacterial cleaning?
Vinegar has been used for centuries as a food preservative because it is such a powerful destroyer of micro-organisms. Its high acidity makes life impossible for microbes in your pickles and it can do the same on your work surfaces.
The only thing about vinegar is that you must remember to buy the highest acidity you can, if you really want your Simple Green Cleaning Product to act as a disinfectant or anti-bacterial cleaner. 5% acidity is fine, and is what you will usually find. You can use any type you like, but distilled malt or white vinegar is usually the most economical.
3) Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is also a very strong disinfectant, but most people find the smell of this to be a bit more abrasive than vinegar. Nonetheless, it works wonders and is very economical.
Unlike vinegar, hydrogen peroxide seems like it’s better used on it’s own.
4) Castile Soap (i.e. DR Bronners)
One of the cheapest green cleaners has to be ordinary castile bar soap.
From this you can make your own soft soap and soap flakes. Simply grate your bar of vegetable based soap to produce flakes, boil these up in water, and you create soft soap which can be diluted further as a general household cleaner.
How does soap work?
According to Planet Science,
Soap breaks up the oil into smaller drops, which can mix with the water. It works because soap is made up of molecules with two very different ends.
Check out this article at TheAtlantic to learn more about why washing with (and without) soap help to clean your hands!
Other uses for Castile Soap
It is even good as a windscreen wash on the car, since detergents (even mild ones such as dish-washing detergent) can corrode the varnish on your car’s paintwork. But be careful not to use it on the painted parts of the car since soap might remove any protective wax already on the car.
Don’t forget that soap can be used outside too. It isn’t just a green cleaner; it’s also a safe pesticide. It’s great for dealing with insect pests and fungal problems on your garden plants.
There is no product too basic and unassuming to be rejected as a simple green cleanser. The most basic ideas are often the best, and they simply cannot be beaten when it comes to price and their low environmental impact.
5) Salt
This is probably the cheapest Green Cleaner you could ever have and it is already sitting in your kitchen cupboard. Of course it isn’t very glamorous and it rarely comes in particularly exciting packaging, or indeed with any added flowery fragrance. But, all this is good, it simply makes salt more economical and much much more environmentally friendly. No wasted perfumes or packaging for this green cleaner.
Salt has been used for thousands of years to preserve foods and prevent decay. Why? Because salt inhibits microbes and bacteria. That’s why there is so much of it in anything canned or pickled – it kills germs. Now of course, since salt is not sold as a green cleaner we can not make any claims to just how many germs it will destroy. But, in practical terms for ordinary households, it can prove a pretty effective tool in the battle against dirt and germs. Just like vinegar, in fact.
How to Use Salt
Salt is also a fine scourer brilliant for coaxing the dullest stainless steel sink into a brilliant shine. You can use it in many of the ways you would use baking soda, though it is not an odor absorber in the same way as bicarb.
We all know salt will help mop up wine stains, but it will also try its best to absorb grease too which makes it great for dealing with spills.
Try it, just make sure you buy the biggest budget pack to keep costs and packaging down and environmental benefits up!
Optional: Essential oils
Many essential oils, like tea tree, rosemary, clove, and lemon have antibacterial and cleansing properties, so adding them to the core 5 ingredients can enhance these properties in your cleansers, and make them smell great!
You’ll also need water, a sponge or other cleaning apparatus, and some good old elbow grease to get yourself on the path to a completely green, natural cleaning lifestyle.
Consider using these ingredients for most of your general household cleaning. The video below goes into them a little more in-depth.
Credits
Photo by YUSUF Yulipurnawan
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