The Easy-Breezy, Breathing-Easy Cleaning Arsenal: 12 Natural Cleaning Recipes

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Lemons are natural disinfectants. Photo By Povy Kendal Atchison

The labels on most household products read like the periodic table violently collided with a bowl of alphabet soup. What are those ingredients, and what might they do to our homes, our pets and our loved ones? A foolproof way to know what’s in your cleaning products is to make them yourself. It’s easy and economical, with the added benefit of reducing your household’s carbon footprint by creating less packaging waste and less pollution from manufacturing and shipping.

Wing It! 

Feel free to improvise with proportions; none of these recipes are set in stone. When it comes to making soft scrubs, I find myself mixing until the right texture is achieved. It’s like cooking a favorite recipe—rely on instinct and use trial and error to refine. The fun part is trying out essential oils to find your preferred fragrance. DIY cleaning will soon become second nature, and your home will look, feel and smell naturally fresh.

Shopping List 

With these 15 items, you can clean just about anything.

■ Baking Soda: scrubbing, whitening
■ Beeswax: polishing wood
■ Borax (sodium borate): removing stains/disinfecting
■ Club Soda (or any unflavored fizzy water): lifting stains
■ Cornstarch: absorbing stains
■ Hydrogen Peroxide: disinfecting, removing stains
■ Lemon: removing stains and odors
■ Liquid Dish Soap:  sudsing power
■ Olive Oil: polishing wood
■ Pine Oil: cleaning soft wood floors
■ Plant Essential Oils: chemical-free fragrance (do a sniff test before buying to make sure you’re not sensitive to the fumes)
■ Salt: scrubbing
■ Toothpaste: polishing metal
■ Washing Soda (sodium carbonate): scrubbing, removing stains and cutting grease
■ White Vinegar: disinfecting, removing stains

Un-Dirty Dozen: 12 Easy Cleaners 

Remember, even all-natural cleaning ingredients can be irritating. Open windows to ventilate rooms while you clean, and wear gloves. Store homemade cleaners in sealed containers in a cool, dry place.

Carpets and Drapes
Attack fresh stains and spills right away by covering them with absorbent baking soda or cornstarch. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes, then sprinkle with club soda (the fizz helps lift stains), and vacuum and/or blot. Do not rub fresh stains, which can spread them, or use hot water, which can set them.

To clean carpets and drapes, get rid of surface dirt by vacuuming, hanging, shaking out and, if necessary, beating with a broom handle. Next, presoak stains with the solutions below, depending on the type of fabric, for 30 minutes, taking care to spot-test fabric for colorfastness first.
■  For wool or silk, use equal parts cold water and white vinegar or lemon juice.
■  For cotton, linen or synthetic fabrics, use equal parts cold water mixed with hydrogen peroxide, baking or washing soda, or borax.