How "clean" is your house?

If you are like me, you have a "product" for every purpose--including cleaning your house. A dear friend of mine from back home told me about a book titled Green Goes with Everything, and after reading portions of it, I realized that there was more that I needed to change in our lives than I had even previously thought!  There are so many unnecessary poisons lurking in our homes that we just simply don't need!  So after much research and reading online, I came up with a few simple, easy-to-make, and effective cleaning mixtures that I wanted to share!

The nice thing about using nontoxic ingredients in your cleaners is that everyone at home can help clean!  I would never have felt comfortable handing over a bottle with a big skull and crossbones on it to my daughter to help me clean--no way!  With some simple concoctions made mostly out of household ingredients, I feel so much better about not only having my family help me clean, but I no longer worry about their skin coming in contact with these cleaners or about them getting sick from them.

The first very basic cleaner is a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% water.  This can be used on pretty much  EVERYTHING!  I gave my daughter a little spray bottle of this and she went around the house and cleaned all the windows and windowsills and they looked beautiful!  AND...she totally enjoyed helping out!  Win-Win!!

If you want a mixture that is a little bit stronger, simply add about 30 drops of Tea Tree Oil to your vinegar/water basic cleaner.  (I used a 32 oz. empty spray bottle to make mine.)  Tea Tree Oil is known for its natural antimicrobial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties.  When cleaning in general, I'll use the basic vinegar/water cleaner, however, if I'm cleaning anything meat has come in contact with (or the bathroom!), I use the Tea Tree Oil mixture.

Recently, I decided that I also wanted to find an alternative to the usual floor cleaner I use that I know is laced with chemicals whose names I probably can't pronounce.  I searched the Internet and found this great "recipe" for cleaning my laminate floors!  SO simple yet it worked so well!  The best part is that it does not require rinsing either!
Here is what I used:

1/4 cup dish soap

1 cup lemon juice

1 to 2 cups of water

2 cups vinegar

I used a 32 oz. empty spray bottle I purchased at Lowe's Hardware to make this mixture (same type of bottle used to make the Tea Tree Oil mixture above).  I bought this great microfiber washable head mop at Walmart for somewhere in the range of $11, and I was now ready to clean my floors!  I just sprayed and mopped--so easy!  The best part of it was that there was no waster, no pads to throw away, and it was all natural!  Woohoo!
Here is a photo of one of the bottles I used, along with the Tea Tree Oil I purchased at Trader Joe's.  I am assuming you could find this at pretty much any health food store.
* I just wanted to add that Tea Tree Oil can be toxic in concentrated form and if taken internally, and it should not be left within reach of children.

Happy Cleaning!

Enjoy!
=o)
Jen