Living green and pinching pennies: Make your own eco-friendly cleaning products

Summer hasn't officially hit just yet, so if you are still wrapped up in spring cleaning and are supporting a green living lifestyle then listen up. No doubt you should have long ago ousted all of the toxic and chemical laden cleaning products of the past and are instead looking for those that are both eco-friendly, supporting the environment and your health. With the growing demand for products that are more sustainable in not only their ingredients but also their production it has been refreshing to see more and more manufactures jump on board the green wagon. This means that the prices of greener cleaners are actually very comparable to those of the past.

Still, times are tough and if you are looking to save some money and still support your green living creed you can actually make your own eco-friendly household cleaners on your own. There is an array of possible recipes, if you wanted to call them that, and for a great basic home cleaner you need only vinegar and water; mix on part vinegar to three parts water and viola!  You can make a large batch and store it away…if you were to do the math the cost of production there was merely cents!  If you want to make those windows of yours sparkle so that you can make the most of available sunlight and daylighting you can use club soda and put it into a sprayer bottle; mist your glass and then wipe it gently with a dry cloth. Club soda also works at taking out carpet stains if you just apply it to the spill.

What happens when a green living home gets met with a not so pleasant smell? For that you can look to baking soda and you can sprinkle it onto the carpet and leave it to sit there for about thirty minutes; after that time you just need to vacuum it up.  You can do a similar technique by sprinkling regular table salt onto your carpet, allow it to sit for fifteen minutes before vacuuming, and this will actually help restore some life into dulling carpet.

Some of the toughest stains may be on your tile and around those bathtubs, so for an excellent bathroom cleaner you will want to mix one cup of vinegar with ¼ cup of baking soda. Allow it to dissolve and then you will apply this to your tile or the inside of your toilet and let it set for about five minutes before you start to scrub it away. Lastly, if you need to spruce up the look of your wooden floors or furniture you will want to take one cup of olive oil and mix it with ½ cup of lemon juice; shake it up inside one of those spray bottles and then mist it over the area you will then polish.  Today green living is not only essential if we are going to preserve our earth for future generations but it is all the more accessible thanks to eco-friendly products that we can either buy or instead make right at home!

Photo credit: Flickr