I’ve been working on eliminating chemical cleaning products from our household. Why? Well for a couple of reasons. All of the 
research I’ve been doing while I write for Thirsties has really helped grow my appreciation for the less-expensive, earth-friendly alternatives that I already keep on hand. Now that I’ve expanded my knowledge about anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-microbial products such as Tea Tree Oil, grapefruit seed extract and colloidal silver, not to mention my staples of white vinegar and baking soda, I’ve got just about every base covered from cleaning the kitchen, to wiping down the leather couch and getting rid of the ring around the tub.
I’ve just given myself a challenge: not to buy a single commercial household cleaning product between now and 2013. The mad-scientist in me likes the idea of mixing my own “potions,” adding a drop of this and a dab of that and experimenting with my own concoctions. I’ve already started buying both baking soda and vinegar in bulk. My very favorite thing about natural cleaning products is that their ingredients can be used for so many other things around the house–from cooking to cleaning and treating cuts and scrapes.
As I was searching for a recipe for homemade dish-soap, one of the few things I’ve yet to figure out on my own, I came across a really great website called frugallysustainable.com. The frugally sustainable homeowner herself (Andrea) says “100% of her cleaning needs are met with the following products:”
Borax
Baking Soda
Super Washing Soda
White Vinegar
Castille Soap
**essential oils
Here is Andrea’s recipe for liquid dish-soap, or rather, her daughter’s. One thing that I just recently realized is that I love my dishwasher. I mean, I love my dishwasher so much that I just wrote a whole blog about it. Can I possibly make my own dishwasher detergent? Because otherwise I’ll be making an exception to my Green Goal and I haven’t even started yet! Give me a minute.
Ok, I’m back and guess what?? I found a recipe on myhealthygreenfamily.com. I have to make a big trip to the grocery store but this is going to be fun. Now I just need a some beakers and white lab coat and I’ll be ready to get to work on my first batch of cleaning products and detergents. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I love this goal! Good luck! My husband is always teasing me for doing similar stuff…like saving the swiffer bottle, and making him drill a hole through it so that I can mop the floors with vinegar/water and essential oils. A bonus we’ve found is that the natural cleaners you make at home keep bugs at bay too. They hate the smell of lemon, lavendar and tea tree oils.
Oh man! I totally need a cleaner for our leather couch as well! My 13 month old has pen all over it! haha Thanks for an inspiring post! I’ll check out the links you provided.
Great goal, Elizabeth! One of my favorite books is Country Ways and Wisdom. It has cleaning recipes, gardening tips, beauty recipes, etc.. It also has beautiful photos which make it all the better. Thanks for the links!
~Sonya
We started doing this as well! So much easier, and lasts longer than any of that store bought stuff. Most of the time I find it also cleans better! 3 cheers for cleaner safer products!
Awesome tips! Thanks so much.
Great tips! And good luck on your goal! I do a lot of cleaning with a white vinegar/ water mix and it works great.
We are doing more of that as well. We did notice that they dishwashing detergent didn’t work for us but maybe that is because our dishwasher is ancient
That’s a great goal to set, I too would love to eliminate chemical cleaning products.
I also recently decided to start making my own cleaning supplies. It’s actually a pretty awesome feeling to know that not only is a room/area clean, but it’s 100% safe AND you made the cleaning product yourself. That’s a great goal – if I wasn’t so in love with my Honest brand dishwashing soap, I may follow suit. Good luck!
I’ve noticed that the homemade cleaners give me fewer headaches than some of the very perfumey commercial stuff (essential oils seem to be OK for me) — AND I have less to worry about when my little one proves that there’s no such thing as child-PROOFing!
LIsa, that’s a great point. I loved the fact that when I saw Cooper had dragged a bottle of my spray cleaner out from under the sink that it was just water, vinegar and grapefruit seed extract. It means that the kids can help me clean and I don’t need to worry about the chemicals.
I love this! I am not as brave as u but I am trying to buy all natural cleaner to cut down on the chemicals and toxins in our house. Priorities change when you have little ones crawling around on your floors. I don’t want my little ones exposed to any kind of chemical I am using to clean the floors counters ect. We are working on getting our cleaning supplies more and more “green” every day.
That’s a really great goal! I love that you provided some resources for us to follow along with you!
The worst is oven cleaner. I used some recently when we were cleaning our apartment after moving out, and the stuff made my throat constrict so I could barely breathe. Baking soda and vinegar seems like a pointless combination since they will neutralize each other, but my friend said she used that solution to clean her oven the other day and it worked better than oven cleaner, so maybe it’s time for me to try it out. Maybe it’s grit from the baking soda?
Thanks for the help! I’ve started making my own produce wash and would love to keep going making my own cleaning products. Makes one less thing to worry about as I start into baby proofing
I don’t know if this counts but I buy Sal’s Suds by Dr Bronners. My All Purpose cleaner is a teaspoon of Sals Suds to 32oz of water and some EO. My Dishwasher liquid is 2oz of sals with 5oz of water in a foamer bottle. I do buy method wood floor cleaner for the wood/bamboo and tile/lanolin/marmolin i use 24oz water, 2oz ACV, and EO.
I do buy laundry soap and dishwater soap.
I’m all for living green!! And no GMO!
How fun to mix you own cleaning products, i like melaleuca personally
I love this idea, but what about washing cloth diapers? I read another posting (on this website) saying not to use these products on cloth diapers. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the useful tips!
You and me both!! Ever since my daughter was born, I’ve been more and more concerned about the chemicals that are in our apartment.
I have really been wanting to start cleaning with natural, chemical-free solutions that I can make at home, too! It’s a little bit hard for us to gather enough money together to buy all of the necessary ingredients right now, though, so I found an easy way to start with this link I found on pinterest: http://www.littlebrickranch.com/2011/04/what-is-wet-pink-and-gross-all-over.html
Basically, you just soak some orange peels in vinegar for 2 weeks, dilute it in a spray bottle and bam! You have an extremely cheap, natural, all-purpose cleaner! I’m excited to try it!
Good luck on your natural cleaning adventures!
Oooo let me know if you figure out dishwasher detergent/soap!! That’s one that we can’t live without either and I would love to know/learn how to make it…as long as it doesn’t require a chemistry degree!
Oooh, like that goal! I may (slowly) follow suit. Trying to do mostly vinegar and baking soda based cleaning now. Have to admit that I will prrooobbbaaabbblllyyyy finish the bottle of pine sol that I have. (It has such a great smell!) Thanks for the links.
I’ve been using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide for over a year now and love not having a pile of cleaners under my sink! We are hoping to get a new dishwasher before the next baby comes in November, so thanks for the link to the recipe. I hope it works!
even better, go for no products and use a high quality microfiber cleaning cloth and water! (i use norwex, but i;ve heard of other good ones as well)
We have currently done the same thing! slowly switching out our laundry detergent & cleaning products for the more homemade eco-friendly version. It’s been going great so far and we too have use frugallysustainable.com as one of our go to sites. The other one being thehealthybeehive.com which is another goody!
Good luck in your Green Endeavors!
This is great. I’ve been considering reducing my chemical dependence. I can already c u in ur lab coat and googles w steaming beakers! Lol
This is awesome! I already use homemade laundry detergent and have been wanting to use other homemade cleaning products, as we are on the quest to elminate chemicals and artificials from our household. Thank you! =)
I think I will join you in this goal. We have been slowly replacing our old cleaners with cheaper, green alternatives. We even stopped buying paper towels, and bought reuseable zwipes wipes which work great!
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