Green Cleaning Recipes

Soap-Water spray  (All-Purpose cleaner):

• small squirt of dish soap [Biokleen is my favorite] OR Dr. Bronner’s to a spray bottle full of water.
• Shake well to mix

Vinegar-Water Spray (All-Purpose cleaner, deeper clean):

• mix equal parts of white vinegar with water
• add your favorite essential oil [25 drops Lavender or Tea Tree are best for cleaning because of their antiseptic properties]
• ADVICE: don’t use this to clean the grease on your stove unless you’ve already cleaned with soap and water or baking soda and water

Scented Baking Soda:

• fill a shaker-type container with baking soda
• add about 10 drops of your favorite essential oil [Lemon is great]
• USE the scented baking soda anywhere you would use a cleaner like Soft Scrub.  It may surprise you how well it gets stains off counters!

Bathrooms Counters:

• fill the sink with Soap-Water mixture OR Vinegar-Water mixture
• use it to clean the counters, sinks, and all the parts of the toilet you touch with a sponge.

Toilet:

• sprinkle about ½ cup baking soda in the bowl and the water.
• pour about ½ cup vinegar into the bowl. Watch it fizz.
• scrub with a toilet brush.
• to clean the seat and rim, use your Soap-Water mixture OR Vinegar-Water mixture

Bathtub*:

• squirt some Dr. Bronner’s soap, about 1/4 cup or more, into a sealing container
• add about half as much water as you did soap.
• mix in baking soda, adding a little at a time until it forms a nice thick paste, about the consistency of store-bought cake frosting. If you add too much baking soda, thin it with a little water.
• USE  on a dampened sponge /scrub brush

Moping:

• fill sink with Soap-Water mixture OR Vinegar-Water mixture

Clorox Wipe Replacement*:

• Cut up old t-shirts or cloth into large squares
• placed them in an old Wipe container  filled with the soap-water solution
• Ta da! Wipes to use and then throw in the laundry basket.

Laundry Powder*:

Ingredients

• 1 bar Zote soap, or Fels Naptha or Ivory (laundry aisle of your supermarket)
• 2 cups washing soda (not baking soda, laundry aisle, made by Arm & Hammer)
• 2 cups Borax (laundry aisle)

Instructions

• Cut soap bar into large chunks and feed through your food processor grater.
• Combine grated soap, borax and washing soda in food processor with the processing blade
• ADVICE: You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your food processor. The processor will mix it all up and make it into a fine powder. [Since the hardest part is cleaning the food processor, make enough to make it worth your time!]
• Store it in an old plastic tub or some other sealing container.
• USE only 1-2 tablespoons per load. It won’t make as many suds as commercial stuff, but it really cleans amazingly well and it does not leave perfume/toxins on your clothes.

 

We recommend pairing the above recipes with TWIST cleaning products because they are all-natural and dye free [and somehow they manage to make cleaning a little more enjoyable!]

* courtesy of friends a www.supercinski.net