Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Natural Cleaning Solutions - Vinegar is DA BOMB!

Da BOMB!  Seriously I will be saying this all day now..  Yes I am an almost 31 year old goober!  I'm very proud of that fact, it makes me a silly mom for my silly boy's.  Ok, so back to the point!  Yesterday we talked about being a Crunchy Mom!  So today I thought I would let you know how to actually make these natural cleaning solutions on your own!

Natural cleaning solutions are NOT hard to make and they are most certainly comparable or better than your big product cleaners and just remember I have 3 boys potty trained and of course a hubby all using the bathrooms.  Four guys using the bathrooms means a lot of dirt and pee.  That smell lingers...   All of that said I have never once needed a back up to get anything "cleaner".  To just put this into perspective I was a huge fan of scrubbing bubbles color changing spray foam.  It went on easy, was easy to clean and left my shower and bathroom sparkling but the smell was overwhelming!  I hated having the boys in the bathroom with me when I was cleaning.  If I could barely stand the smell imagine what it did to their growing brains...

There are other options like green products but they are expensive and when I can make my own why would I spend that kind of money??

So I naturally started searching on Pinterest to find ideas!

There were a TON of different recipes but most were the same starter ingredient which was the ever clever, Vinegar!  Vinegar is the most amazing product for me, right up there with coconut oil which is also amazing!  We can talk about that amazing oil in the future.

The first one I used was a orange and cinnamon cleaner but I wasn't a fan of the cinnamon so I decided for the second try to skip the cinnamon but as I was making the second batch I got the mail and finally got my lemon essential oil!!!  This is a great natural disinfectant so I decided to add it to the orange to make a citrus cleaner.  So here is my adapted recipe:

Orange Lemon Vinegar Spray
Get a clean container either plastic or glass, I used a plastic soup freezer container.
-fill a container with orange peels - 5 or 6, more if you have a larger container(we are using the peels because you want the yummy oils and smells that are right there in the skin)
-Add 10 drops of lemon essential oil
-fill the rest of the container with plain ole white vinegar!

Put a lid on it and let it sit for 24 hours minimum but 2 weeks is preferable and then you are ready to use it!  I will transfer this mixture to a spray bottle and its good for up to 6 weeks!

My peels were determined to stay on the orange so excuse the small pieces.  After peeling 2, I gave more to the boys and just cut them up first then took the peels off.

If you need something abrasive for soap scum in the bath use a paste of water and baking soda first then use the vinegar solution and if you are wondering where to use this, anywhere is the answer!  I use this in my kitchen to the bathroom.  I even mop the floors with it mixed with water, baking soda, and a tbl of Dawn!  I still use Dawn just FYI.

Furniture Polish

Mix 1 Tbl of your vinegar solution and 3/4 cups of olive oil.  Dampen a rag then squeeze out excess water.  Dip your damp rag into your mixture and wipe onto furniture or stainless steel.  Use a clean dry rag to buff off.

There are so many more ways to use vinegar as a natural cleaning solution and I am just getting started using them all!  I will post more later when I am able to make them and give it a few weeks to test out!  Have a great day and have fun making your own natural cleaning solutions in your own home!

No comments:

Post a Comment