EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

Beyond those listed in part 1 and part 2 of this series, here are a few more natural cleaning tips and tricks I've picked up over the years while sharing my green home-cleaning solutions. If you have some eco-cleaning wisdom of your own that you think other readers might benefit from, please use the comments section below and share them.

• Light a match or burn a candle to eat up bad smells in the bathroom.
• Mix water, baking soda, salt and vinegar into your preferred consistency for an all-purpose cleaner.
• Place baking soda and tea-tree oil in toilets before scrubbing.
• Mix 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 quart warm water for a streak-free window cleaner.
• Clean windows with crumpled-up newspaper and buff until shiny.
• For clogged drains, put on a pair of gloves and use a channel wrench to open up the easy-to-access plumbing under the sink; it's the only guaranteed solution.
• For clogged-drain wimps: pour baking soda down the drain/disposal, follow with vinegar and allow to foam for several minutes before flushing with boiling water.
• To clean porcelain, rub with cream of tartar sprinkled on a damp cloth.
• Cover hard-lime deposits around faucets with vinegar-soaked paper towels for one hour before cleaning to soften deposits.
• Prevent oven cleanup by placing a sheet of aluminum foil on the oven floor. Reuse the foil as many times as possible.
• Sprinkle salt on an oven spill while oven is still warm; scrape away the spill after oven is cooled and wipe clean.
• Clean cooking pans while still warm, before hard crusting.
• With burnt food in the pan, add more water and heat again to dissolve and soften burn residue before cleaning while still warm.
• Rub salt into copper pan stains with half a lemon.
• Add 1 cup of white vinegar to automatic dishwasher rinse.
• Grind lemon rinds and ice until pulverized in garbage disposal to disinfect and sharpen.
• Combine dish soap and hydrogen peroxide to lift red-wine stains like magic before your very eyes.
• Remove other stains on carpet and clothing with club soda.
• Remove heel marks on floors with a pencil eraser.
• Use toothpaste to clean your best silver.
• Clean chrome with undiluted vinegar.
• Clean stainless steel with a paste of baking soda and water.
• Clean brass with equal parts salt, flour and vinegar.
• Sprinkle baking soda in shoes to deodorize.
• Deter moths with Osage oranges, cedar chips, crumpled newspaper and lavender flowers.

Be sure to leave your environmental cleaning tips below!

Read Part 1: Cleaning Your House Without Harming the Earth
Read Part 2: Think Like a Germ

Also see: My Body Is a Self-Cleaning Organism: Natural Body Cleansing Tips

[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

Comments (10)

Subscribe to this comment's RSS feed

Write comment