Natural Cleaning for Beginners

I’m becoming more and more intrigued by the concept of natural living as I progress into a more adult-like life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to go paleo or anything… I love grain and dairy (as you can tell from my posts of various recipes), but I am interested in taking simple steps to remove obvious chemicals from other areas of my life. 

Most of this change in my life is curiosity driven. I usually read a handful of articles and say to myself “Can you really clean your entire house without chemical-filled products? Those products surely exist for a reason; natural cleaning must be less effective. It must be! That’s it; I’m testing this B.S. and proving that it doesn’t work.” 

But you know what? So far, the things I’ve tested have worked shockingly well. 

The first thing I changed was the use of commercial cleaners for my home. I made this change for this little man: 

He loves bleach. LOVES. It’s weird. Whenever I used a cleaner that had bleach in its ingredients (including just a bleach/water mixture), Martin would roll around in the residue much like a normal cat would do with catnip. I figured that couldn’t be good for his health... probably. So: 

Vinegar became my close friend. Did you know that vinegar is an amazing household cleaner? I put a simple 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water in a spray bottle, and use it to clean pretty much everything! 

I even used a baking soda and vinegar approach to unclog an exceptionally stinky, slow draining kitchen drain. Take that Draino. To do that, I dumped about half a cup of baking soda down the drain, poured an undetermined amount (I would guess about 2 cups) of vinegar down the drain, then put the drain’s plug in place. 

We all know that the baking soda and vinegar chemical reaction produces a gas that creates enough pressure to inflate a balloon. Imagine that same pressure pushing down your kitchen drain, demolishing any clog in its way. It was remarkably effective. And baking soda and vinegar are both deodorizers, so the drain’s stink was gone, and stayed gone. 

Speaking of baking soda, when it comes to greasy messes (like on the stove top), that is my go-to cleaning agent. Vinegar does not cut through grease or oil very well, so when I have bacon fat or butter splatter on my stove top, I sprinkle some baking soda on the mess. Let it absorb the grease for a couple minutes, wipe it away, then use vinegar to clean like normal. Did you know that baking soda is also very effective at putting out SMALL grease fires? True story! 

Now, with all that wonderful stuff I just said about vinegar and baking soda, it’s time for some truth. There are three instances when I use chemicals while cleaning the house: 

1) The toilet bowl. There’s just something about fecal matter that makes me feel very comfortable with killing everything with bleach. I use a commercial cleaner for inside the bowl, and a water/bleach mix for the outside of the bowl, the seat, and the lid. 

2) Wiping down my kitchen counters and sink after I work with raw meat. Much like fecal matter, the potential for the spread of bacteria and virus is just too great for me. I use a water/bleach mixture to clean up after any raw meats. 

3) Windows. While I have read of ways to clean windows with natural products, I just haven’t tried these methods yet. I tried using vinegar on the windows, but it left a foggy film. So for now, I stick with Windex. I’ll get ambitious enough to try something else soon, I’m sure. 

Now, today was just a glimpse at the changes I’ve made. I have also had success with homemade dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, deodorant, and toothpaste. Some of those things are still in testing phases, so not ready to be blogged about yet, but next week I will share my Kneesh approved homemade chemical-free deodorant! 

***Some notes on safety*** 

If you are putting cleaners in a general spray bottle, please, please, please label the bottle! Even if you live alone, you’re the only one that cleans, you keep your cleaners in a locked cupboard, and there is absolutely no way anyone else in the world could ever get hold of your cleaners, still label them. Please. I even labeled my spray bottle of plain ol’ tap water that I use to sprits my hair while I’m styling it. 

If you are using a chemical that is hazardous in any way (like bleach), please include the concentration of the chemical on the label. My bleach solution is made of 3mL of bleach diluted in 500mL of water. 

Finally, bleach is ineffective if it is too diluted, and damaging if it is too concentrated. About a year ago I took a food handling certification course, and I was given a tube of test strips for chlorine concentration. 

Concentration is measured in parts per million (ppm), and, according to Health Canada, chlorine bleach should have a concentration of 100-200ppm – that is a very small amount of bleach! You can see that my bleach solution is about exactly 100ppm, so it could be a little bit stronger, but it is still effective. 

I’ll note that when I made this bleach solution a year ago, the concentration was much closer to 200ppm, so obviously chlorine bleach breaks down in water over time. Something to keep in mind if you have your cleaner around for an extended period of time.