Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Household Cleaning Products

Australians reportedly spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on cleaning products for our homes.  Are we healthier and happier as a result?  I for one have jumped off the chemical bandwagon and have opted for a more natural approach to cleaning my house and clothes.  It not only saves me money but my house is clean and smells lovely!

I have put together a simple collection of basic ingredients for my cleaning kitty.  Many years ago Justin and I invested in a steam mop.  I have come to realise that people either love or hate these mops but I am a big fan.  It simply uses steam to clean the hard floor surfaces in our home and marks/dirt come away with little effort.  The pads are made of cloth and are easy to wash and dry.  If there are marks that are 'baked' on to our tiles, I simply dab a small amount of eucalyptus oil on a rag and rub it over the mark.  Voila - marks come off straight away.

Eucalyptus oil is an ingredient that I use in many of my home made cleaning products.  My all purpose spray is simply vinegar, eucalyptus oil and a small drop of washing up detergent (to disperse the oil) and I use this to clean down bench tops, shower and bath.  I also spray the toilet seat and surface with this spray. 

I use vinegar and a small amount of bicarbonate of soda to clean the toilet bowl.  I then drop a small amount of eucalyptus oil in the bowl to make it smell lovely and fresh. 

I alternate between using a glass cleaning mit and vinegar/newspaper to clean the glass mirrors in the bathrooms.  I have read that newspaper these days doesn't clean glass well because of the type of ink they use in their print but I haven't come across any problems in using this.

I haven't purchased paper towel in years so newspaper (the free weekly one) is all I have at my disposal for window/glass cleaning.

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