Switching to vinegar and baking soda for cleaning your home is a big positive step, and has a big impact on your health, your budget, the health of our lakes and drinking water, and the health of our planet (less plastic packaging=less pollution). So kudos to you for even considering this big change- and vinegar is a disinfectant so watch out germs!
The biggest challenges to the switch is scents and bubbles. Cleaning with vinegar smells like vinegar, however it only smells for a few hours after you clean, if you think about cleaning with your normal cleaners you really only smell them for a short while after so don't worry you and your house wont smell like fish and chips and...vinegar...vinegar (you might sing that song in your head though). You will get over this quickly, if you try vinegar and than you go back to foaming scrub bubbles or whatever the potion you will be shocked at how hard it is to even stay in the room. As for the bubbles it is definitely a big change but never fear a good cloth and scrub down will show you how effective it is, especially if you have hard water - you can see the calcium build up on the cloth.
The Mix
Next time your out of your regular spray cleaner fill it up with half vinegar half water...seriously...that's it! You can add some essential oils but really they are only going to add a little bit of smell, not really worth it because they are a little bit pricey. I use micro fiber cloths for the wet cleaning and an old cut up towel for the drying, or "polishing".
Toilette
Add a 1/2 cup of vinegar to the toilette water and let it sit for a few minutes, depending on your routine you can add the vinegar and than clean the shower and sink and than sprinkle a scoop of baking soda on the inside of the toilette bowl and in the water. Clean the rest of the toilette and than give the bowl a scrub and dry. If you have hard water and that didn't get the yellow ring out add another 1/2 cup of vinegar. Let it sit for as long as you can and give it another scrub. It really is the vinegar that does the work, the baking soda is more of an abrasive for extra power.
Shower/Sink
Spray down with vinegar solution and scrub with cloth, rinse, and dry for a good polish (if your that fancy). If you have a ring or need some extra scrubbing power for the tub sprinkle some baking soda for the abrasive. This solution will work excellent on glass shower walls and doors as well. I have a stand up shower with a plastic rough surface base and I sprinkle baking soda on it and than hit it with a scrub brush.
Fill your mop bucket with super hot water and add 1/2 cup of vinegar, again you can add an essential oil if you like. Any mop will work, but I highly recommend the KD-Cloth mop, you can grab these at most of the home show events in Kawartha Lakes or online, they say you can just use hot water but mine is a little old now so I add the vinegar.
Kitchen Sink
Sprinkle baking soda in the sink and spray with vinegar solution. Use the baking soda as an abrasive and give it a good scrub, including the drain, then rinse and dry, it works so well!
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Kitchen Counters
Spray with solution and wipe. I actually don't do this because I have white granite so you cannot see streaks or film (vinegar would take care of those) I just use my daily sink cloth and if I have a germy mess I use dish soap on the cloth to disinfect. I also use the sink cloth and soap for the dinner and coffee table.
Windows
Spray with vinegar solution and scrub with cloth, and dry off. Again I'm also going to recommend the KD Cloth, it is amZazing!
Kitchen Drain
Put a scoop or two of baking soda directly into the drain and add a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Let sit for 5 minutes and rinse with hot water.
Other chemical and waste free cleaning...
Dusting
Trade in the Swiffer for a micro fiber dust cloth- it works exactly the same (I put them to the test side by side) bonus- you can buy a cloth for the same price as a box of swiffers but you can use it for years instead of having to purchase new Swiffer cloths every so often.
Furniture Polish
2 parts olive oil 1 part lemon juice- dust off and rub down with mixture.
For anything I missed I'm sure the answer is vinegar or baking soda, seriously every time I google natural or chemical free way to clean (insert anything) it is always vinegar! It is so easy and it will make you wonder why you have 5 million products at your house.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Julia Taylor
@sogreenithurts
I read your post, Great post with Nice information.. Thanks for sharing !!
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