Greening my cleaning

We went to the library yesterday so I could look for a few sewing books to get some new ideas...too bad most of the books were lame with ideas from the 90's {cringe} I didnt exxactly feel like making that giant beaded shirt with the tapered pleather pants. I did find a few good ones, luckily. As I was browsing thru the books, maddy started taking ones off the shelf to look at - im sure its every librarian's nightmare. She was smart enough to stack them in a neat pile at the bottom of the shelf, so that made their job a little easier. As I was telling her to stop, my eyes gazed at a book she took halfway out of the shelf called Green Up your Cleanup by Jill Potvin Schoff. I've been wanting to do exactly that so i took the book, flipped thru it, and decided it was worth checking out. So at home, im reading thru it - going in shock from how incredibly harmful cleaners are. If you look at the back of most household cleaners, the ingredients are not even listed because they're so harmful and can get away with not having to display them. The book says to avaoid disinfectants with: Cresol, phenol, ethanol, kerosesne, formaldehyde, ammonia, chlorine bleach, sodium hydroxide, and phosphoric acid. Instead of using cleaers with said toxins, it gives a very simple recipe as a natural alternative. Its called the Mildew and Germ Killer and all you need is:
1 - 16oz spray bottle
2 cups of water
1/4 tsp of tea tree oil
1/4 tsp of lavender oil
Shake before each use and use on anything you want to disinfect / kill germs on. You spray on a surface and let dry - dont wipe.
there are recipes for Laundry soap, glass cleaner,dishwasher soap (which is good to use since most dishwasher cleaners are still allowed to use phosphates, which are extremely toxic for people and environment), All surface cleaner, Scrubs, etc.
The ingredients for most of these are:

• Liquid soap -#1 pick is Dr. Bronners Castile Soap (cheap and at trader joes!)
• Borax - a mineral similar to baking soda
• Baking soda
• Washing Soda - found in the laundry section of stores (where you'd find Borax)
• White distilled Vinegar
• Lemon Juice
• Oxygen Bleach (usually a mix of hydrogen peroxide and washing soda)
• Club Soda
• Essential oils like tea tree, lavender, lemon,orange, peppermint.

All these are super cheap and safe - though anything can be harmful if used the wrong way. I've taken all our harmful cleaners and took them out of under the sink and hid them high up in the pantry, away from everything. Ive so far made glass cleaner (1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar) I need to get crazy stuff like borax and washing soda and I'll be set.

Posted in: Go Green, Money savers