12 Housekeeping Life Hacks for Naturally Cleaning Your Home
Cleaning products are the last bastion of chemicals in many homes. After all, it’s so much easier to just buy a spray bottle of this and a jug of that. But you can clean your home naturally with simple ingredients and easy to mix recipes. Try our 12 housekeeping life hacks for naturally cleaning your home to keep your home clean AND healthy.
1. Vinegar is Your Friend: Some of my favorite cleaners are vinegar, baking soda and citrus. You could make practically any homemade cleaner if you have those three items.
2. Don’t Scrub Your Toilets: Yep, you read that right. Don’t do it! Instead, fill a mason jar with vinegar. Punch a couple of small holes in the metal lid with a nail. Drop that jar into your toilet’s water tank upside down. With each flush, a little vinegar will seep out of the jar and keep your toilets clean and yucky growth-free!
3. Ditch Dryer Sheets: Seriously, those dryer sheets are toxic! Instead, use wool dryer balls or soap nuts to keep your clothes fresh and static-free.
4. Soak Your Oven Doors: Don’t use yucky oven cleaner. If you prep and soak your oven doors properly, you can make them sparkle without chemical intervention.
5. Cook up Some Odor Eliminator: Don’t bother with plug-ins or destinking sprays. Cook up a batch of citrus rings, cloves and cinnamon sticks in a pan of water on your stove. Let it simmer away the stankiness for a couple of hours.
6. Nuke Your Sponges: To kill the bacteria on your sponges, microwave a damp sponge for two minutes.
7. Iron Salt: If your iron has yucky melted stuff on it, iron some salt! The particles will stick to the salt and make your iron shine.
8. Despotify Your Faucet: If you rub waxed paper on your faucet, the layer of wax film will keep water spots and fingerprints off your faucet.
9. Clean Your Machine: And, in the only healthy use for Kool-Aid category, put some lemon flavor powder in the detergent cup of your washing machine. (You can also buy plain citric acid.) The citric acid will break down lime and rust deposits and clean up your cleaning machine.
10. Gunk Remover: Is there anything you can’t do with baking soda and coconut oil? Mix them half and half to remove sticky gunk residue.
11. Stainless Steel Cleaner: Clean off stainless steel appliances with a bit of cream of tartar and water instead of buying expensive specialty cleaners.
12. Leave Shampoo Behind: No, it’s not your home, but you can’t leave yourself a mess once your home is sparkling. I started this earlier this year. And, for me at least, it’s super easy. Go without shampoo and instead rinse your hair in hot water, vinegar or baking soda.
Keep in touch with Kristi on Facebook, Twitter @VeggieConverter and Pinterest
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