Wednesday, September 12, 2012

DIY All Purpose Cleaner

Oh goodness do I love all purpose cleaner! You can use it on everything! Including surfaces that you eat on... So do you want it to be safe and chemical free? I sure do! I made it my mission to find something that disinfects and is safe for consumption because if your using it to clean surfaces you eat on it shouldn't be something inedible or even worse toxic. So now I use a orange zest/vinegar solution. It works wonders because vinegar is one of the best natural cleaners! Vinegar Disinfects and is non-toxic. The orange zest adds a great smell and it also adds shine to counter tops, stove tops, and glass surfaces and it makes everything smell great!!

So here's how you do it. You'll need a quart size sealable container. I used a glass jar. Then you peel 7-8 oranges and stuff the peels in to your container. Then, you simply fill the jar with vinegar and seal it then shake it up a bit. After that you just wait to weeks for the solution to set up. Once you've waited the two weeks dilute it to one part water and one part vinegar and orange solution. And you're done! You can put the mixture in your squirt bottle and use it that way or store it in an old Pinesol or Mr. Clean bottle to use on the floors. This recipe takes such little effort and its very effective! You can even make fresh orange juice after you're done peeling the oranges (I always do!!).

DIY Disinfectant Wipes

Are you sick of buying Clorox or Lysol wipes? Don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE disinfectant wipes but, I hate the chemicals, the wasteful packaging and not to mention the cost! Well not to worry there is a way to keep the convenience of the wipe with out all the chemicals or cost.
Now there are many ways you can do this. You can use paper toweling (I always use the brand Viva by Kleenex they are stronger and work best when wet.) although you will have to cut the roll in half with a sharp serrated knife. Or you can be even more eco-friendly by cutting up old tee shirts or flour sack cloths into squares. With the Paper towel method I like to use either the old Clorox wipe container I had or use an old coffee can and cut a hole in the lid to pull up the wipes. When you use cut cloth you can use and sealed container (like tupperware or baby wipe container). Both methods are effective, I find that the paper towel method is more convenient. However, the cut cloth method is defiantly more eco friendly (being that you can wash them and reuse them).

Here's the recipe:
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
Optional: 10 drops of your favorite Essential Oil (or your favorite dish soap about a teaspoon will do.)

Then all you have to do is pour mixture over your paper toweling or cloth in its container. If you use the paper towel method after it's wet it should be easy to pull the card board out. Then you just pull the sheet of paper toweling out from the center and viola! You have disinfectant wipes!
If you chose the cloth method you simply pour the mixture over the cloths let them soak  and then use, wash, repeat. So simple, so affordable, so green.