Green

Lately, I have started making some of mine own household cleaner. Now I don't really buy into the whole hippie mentality of not wearing a bra, refusing to shave, or burning incense. I also don't think we should refuse to use gas or live in trees or anything. But I will tell you there are some "liberal" ideas I can get behind -- many of these involve $AVING green in addition to being green.

The idea of making my own cleaner first came to mind when I was watching HGTV and they were mentioning some easy tips to help clean your house, with things you have around the house (e.g. clean your stainless steal appliances with olive oil, unclog your drain with baking soda and vinegar, etc.). I thought these tricks were nifty and used a few of them myself and shared them with some friends. But, these aren't things you do everyday (at least I don't) so no real changes were made to my cleaning routine.

Then one day my mother in law (who I frequently tease about being a hippie), talked to us about the wisdom in exposing our family to fewer chemicals. At the time, I wasn't TOO concerned about it, as we don't have kids yet. But once we got Kairi, and I needed to clean the house, I started to notice just how strong the chemicals are and I started worrying about her inhaling them. (I'm sure this is just a foreshadowing of what I will be like as a mother.) However, this still wasn't enough for me to really do much about it, except worry and try to clean when she wasn't in the room.

Finally, I was watching something on TV (probably on HGTV or TLC) and they mentioned how much you can save by making your own. Now I may not be a hippie, but I am definitely cheap. I am ALL about the saving of the money. So I decided to google this topic and see what I could see.

Although I haven't tried most of what I found (there are TONS of options) I have implemented one, and not even strictly intentionally. A couple of weeks ago, Kairi threw up some hairball-ish stuff on the carpeting. Ugh and ick. Despite her best efforts of attempting to bury it, I knew that wouldn't cut it and more strenuous steps would have to be taken. We don't own any carpet cleaner, and as I said, I'm cheap. Then I remembered something; the lady I babysat for last year (who was very environmentally conscious) cleaned stains out of her carpeting with baking soda and vinegar.

So, I pulled out our baking soda, sprinkled it on the carpeting, mixed what we had left of white vinegar with some warm water, put it in a spray bottle, and spritzed the spots. Oohh bubbly chemical reactions! Best of all, it worked!

Well there weren't that many stains, so I had a lot of the vinegar mixture left. Then something popped into my mind. I recalled the internet saying that water and vinegar can be used as a cleaner. So now I use my vinegar/water mixture to clean off my counter tops in my kitchen and bathroom, as well as the mirrors and surfaces of the toilets. Now, if you have some serious stains or soap scum or something, you will need something stronger; but for basic wiping down, it's great! And cheap. Huzzah!

You may be wondering, will I switch to entirely homemade cleaner? Truthfully, I don't know. I'll have to try some more out and see how well they work. And there is also the laziness factor, which can at times be stronger than the cheapness factor. But, I am willing to try! We'll let you know how it goes!