August 16, 2011 By Sprout Savvy
Clean your home naturally!
Leslie Reichert knows a thing or two about cleaning your home naturally. Often referred to as, the “Martha Stewart of Green Cleaning”, Reichert has a warm and sparkling personality that makes cleaning seem fun! Her book, The Joy of Green Cleaning, is a handbook for DIY cleaners. Her green cleaning coaching skills have been sought about by many well-known websites. She is an a contributor to The Daily Green, Deepak Chopra, Woman’s Day and also a frequent home keeping expert on Martha Stewart Living Radio. Read more about Reichert at www.thejoyofgreencleaning.com. Sprout Savvy recently interviewed Reichert to learn more about natural cleaning.
What are some of the dangers associated with conventional cleaning products?
Conventional cleaning products are full of many different toxic chemicals. The companies that make these products do not need to list the ingredients. Even when they list some of the ingredients, they can hide others in the word “fragrance.” You never really know what you are spraying in your home. One example is the ingredient formaldehyde. It is found in numerous cleaning products, but rarely listed on the label.
What is a recipe for a good all purpose cleaner?
White vinegar kills 99.9 percent of the bacteria so I mix up 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup hydrogen peroxide and between 6 and 8 drops of Tea Tree oil and place it in a spray bottle. This is great for kitchens and bathrooms.
Will this cleaner disinfect and kill germs?
It will work as well as your conventional cleaners. The Good Housekeeping Institute did a test and found that vinegar killed 95 percent of mold and 99.9 percent of bacteria. You can’t get much better than that.
Does this natural all purpose cleaner work as well as conventional cleaners?
It really does, but people don’t trust it – mainly because it doesn’t smell like a “cleaner”. To help them get use to it, I suggest putting lemon essential oil into the vinegar so it smells like a cleaner and not like salad dressing. The lemon oil cancels out the vinegar smell. Most of cleaning is about the smell – people think the smell of chlorine is the smell of clean. The smell of clean really has NO smell at all.
What other products do you recommend?
There are also some great new technologies that help take the chemicals out of cleaning. I’m a big fan of high quality microfiber. I also love Ecosponges, which use the technology of friction instead of chemicals to clean soap scum off of fiberglass. Along with new technology the old fashioned recipes that my great grandmother used to use really work. My book is based around an old fashioned laundry soap that is similar to a soap she would have used back in the late 1800s. It’s pure and rinses totally out of your clothes so it doesn’t cause skin irritations like a detergent. The entire book is filled with recipes you can make to clean your home – with ingredients from your pantry. You can get a free recipe and a video on how to make it on my book site: www.thejoyofgreencleaning.com
This couldn't be better!
ReplyDeleteHelpful as it is, it also brings benefits to our environment and to the cleanliness of our house.
Knowing how to make your own homemade cleaners is very important when it comes to green cleaning. These recipes are great!
ReplyDeleteCleaning should be made in accordance with nature that is to say green. We must respect nature no matter if it is cleaning, driving your car,etc. Good point. Compliments from Dry cleaner pick up
ReplyDeleteReally, These all the great tips. I read your blog. And i tell this is the very informative blog. Baking soda is a great oven cleaner. For an easy and non-toxic cleaning with no smelly fumes, you should sprinkle water on the interior surfaces of the oven. Then baking soda is sprinkled over the water, using enough to form a white paste. This mixture should be left to sit for twelve hours, then wiped away. Whatever grease is left can be removed with a vegetable-based dish detergent.
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