Earth Friendly Cleaning Products

Your healthy-conscious self gets anxious about keeping up with the dirt in your house so that no one gets sick. But, did you ever stop to think that you should worry more about how that dirt is getting in the house before you have to use an earth-friendly product to remove it?
 
Possibly the dust all over the place catches your eye and you go after it with a damp cloth that has been dipped in a washing soda/water solution for the floors and a lemon/olive oil combination for the wooden furnishings.
 
But, you might have prevented all that dust from collecting in the first place if family members had not insisted on leaving piles of  dust-covered periodicals all over the house in order to save some  article that probably can be found by the Internet in minutes.
 
A “Remove your shoes upon entering!” directive will help to keep dust to a minimum and save your carpets and floors from requiring constant cleaning.   And, keep the outdoor pooch and kitty outside with the grime and insects in their fur.
 
Since you can’t be on the premises every minute, show everyone where you keep a canister of cornstarch to sprinkle on the carpets in the event a handyman parades through your house and deposits grease from the street.  Tell them to wait about a half-hour before vacuuming it out.
 
There also should be a second canister which contains the “Big Three” — namely, an equal amounts mix of  vinegar- salt – borax made into a water-based paste  which can be rubbed into deep-down carpet stains and left on the rug overnight before vacuuming it out. 
 
Green-Clean is everyone’s duty and responsibility.    You cannot do it alone. Your  family will be healthier and happier what with having Green-Clean know-how and involvement.

It might be pretty scary to think about using inexpensive household ingredients from the kitchen to polish your fine wooden furniture — especially, if that dining room table was a gift from your great grandmother and, according to her, cost “an arm and a leg“.

If the table is varnished, there is some immediate protection afforded to the wood with that process and you do not have to be concerned that a cup of warm water mixed with a teaspoon of lemon oil is going to hurt it. However, do not flood the table with this mixture. Merely daub a portion of it into a cloth (a “retired” t-shirt works well) so that the fabric is mildly damp before wiping it over the surface of the table. Once your home-made polish is spread evenly over the table surface, take another cloth and wipe over the top of the table so that there is no chance of too much moisture.

If the table is unvarnished, you are looking at another type of treatment to protect the wood and the environment. Combine a tablespoon of lemon juice with a tablespoon of olive oil and apply it to a cloth which you will squeeze evenly over the table in order to get the oil into the wood and then spread it. There is that old saw about using a petroleum salve-type product to take care of water rings on the coffee table in the living room.

Apparently, moisture-covered glasses were set haphazardly on this surface while everyone was watching the Super Bowl game on the plasma. While this does the job, instead, you might want to go the fridge and take some mayonnaise and smear it on the water rings over-night. Usually, after 24 hours, the water rings have disappeared. It is not that hard to go green with wood. Try it!

Putting together non-toxic cleaners is not too difficult once you realize that there are some basic products that do a whale of a job.

For instance, combine warm water with a tablespoon of white vinegar in a quart-size spray bottle and you will only have to grab a newspaper or soft cloth to make your windows sparkle.

Or, mix together a half cup of borax (or baking soda) with a cup of vinegar in a gallon of hot-as-you-stand water and you will find things looking a lot cleaner in no time at all.

Baking soda, borax and ammonia meet hospital standards for cleaning and disinfecting an area.  Look for pine-oil solvents..  Avoid products containing chlorine bleach or sodium hypochlorite.

Mix two cups Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) with a quart of hot water and spray on those mold stains on the tile in your shower.  Do not rinse off or use the shower for at least an hour.

Time to clean your drain even though it is not backing up?  Timely maintenance is always preventative maintenance.  Mix a half cup of salt in a gallon of hot, very hot water (from the faucet) and do a good rinse.

Clean your gold with toothpaste.  Clean your stainless steel with olive oil. Use White Vinegar full strength to fight mildew. Sodium Carbonate Decahydrate is sold under the name of Washing Soda.  It  is different from baking soda.  It  softens water, cleans walls, cuts grease.  But, if  you have sensitive mucous membranes, they might get irritated.

There are biodegradable unscented soaps in bar, powder and liquid.  You might want to check the labels in the store when you are purchasing the products.  If your favorite store does not carry it, request them to do so. Also, there are numerous websites which feature store-boughten biodegradable products. Check them out!

The green movement is an effort to make our society conscious of what action is necessary in order to preserve our environment for future generations.

People are worried about how using fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is going to harm the environment for today and for our children and their children’s generation.  Conscientious persons are checking out whether cleaning products and all kinds of services are ethically-produced,  energy efficient, and recyclable.

For instance, cleaning products generally come in plastic bottles which, once the  product is gone,  all too often end up in a dumpsite.  The  whole idea of saving the environment once the biodegradable product is emptied from  the bottle is subject to compromise if the container is trashed.

The bottom line of green is to ensure that materials remain in circulation rather than end up in landfills.  The good news is that the plastic that a number of companies use in their bottles is recycled after the consumer has used it.

There are hotlines to call for a full ingredient expose for particular cleaning products purported to be biodegradable.  Yet, there are so many sources certifying cleaning products as being having either the standard to be acceptable for green or not acceptable.  Yet,  who is the last word in certifying  the certifier?

Hollywood actors who are concerned about green have created and marketed all-purpose concentrates and cleaning products that dissolve grease, grime and dirt.  The components for such  products include pine, de-acified citrus, maize, and olive seeds — among other things.
These cleaning  products feature all-natural and non-toxic ingredients that are safe for you and the planet.  The prices of such products are pretty much in sync with what you pay for the allergy-causing, fume-producing item for which you had a coupon at your local supermarket.
So what is preventing everyone from going green?  You tell me.