QUOTE
More natural ways to clean your home
There is so much discussion about food, gardening, etc., but I haven’t seen too much about what are good home cleaning products or personal hygiene. I’d love to hear from you about those topics. From what I’ve been reading, baking soda seems to be the “wonder” product for many things. Any tips?
Valerie Bate
Joplin, Missouri
There are way too many chemicals used in our homes today. We’ve been indoctrinated by advertising to believe we must spray this here to kill germs, that there to kill mold and mildew, still another over there to kill unpleasant scents. We “must” wash our clothes in a cocktail of detergents, bleaches, and fabric softeners, clean our toilets with nasty mixtures that would kill a horse. Drains? Even worse. Gee, what did our grandparents do? (Most of them lived to a ripe old age, too!)
Personally, I would much rather use common sense than chemicals. The drain is getting slow? Simply open the door under the sink and with a bucket underneath the trap of the drain, unscrew it, and dump out the clog of hair and other strange items that found their way in there. Screw it back and there you go.
Most cleaning can be done with simple natural cleansers. Vinegar will clean your windows, the shower, and tub. I use a green scrubbie and warm vinegar. It cleans everything up sparkling clean. Do you need more “clout?” Simply add a little salt to your scrubbie as you scrub the tile. Or use borax. It’ll do the job, too, without making your home glow in the dark.
Baking soda is your natural friend. Not only can you brush (and freshen) your teeth with it, but it acts as a scouring powder for your counter, fridge, and even toilet bowl. And nearly everyone knows that an open box in your refrigerator absorbs odors. I sprinkle some in the cat litter box before I refill it to keep it from advertising the fact that we have a litter box in our bathroom.
You’d be surprised at how clean your clothes get without bleach if you wash them in a wringer washer full of very hot water and a handful of homemade lye soap flakes. I grate a bar into a bowl of boiling water and let it set overnight on the night before wash day. Wash your whites first and progress through the dirties. Then hang them out in the sun. The sun whitens clothes better than bleach and does not cause an environmental impact. (Ever wonder how the old-time Mexican villagers could work hard all day and wear white clothes?) The answer is they were washed with old time lye soap and laid out on the rocks and bushes to dry in the sun.
I hope these have given you food for thought in a world full of chemical “musts.”
— Jackie
There is so much discussion about food, gardening, etc., but I haven’t seen too much about what are good home cleaning products or personal hygiene. I’d love to hear from you about those topics. From what I’ve been reading, baking soda seems to be the “wonder” product for many things. Any tips?
Valerie Bate
Joplin, Missouri
There are way too many chemicals used in our homes today. We’ve been indoctrinated by advertising to believe we must spray this here to kill germs, that there to kill mold and mildew, still another over there to kill unpleasant scents. We “must” wash our clothes in a cocktail of detergents, bleaches, and fabric softeners, clean our toilets with nasty mixtures that would kill a horse. Drains? Even worse. Gee, what did our grandparents do? (Most of them lived to a ripe old age, too!)
Personally, I would much rather use common sense than chemicals. The drain is getting slow? Simply open the door under the sink and with a bucket underneath the trap of the drain, unscrew it, and dump out the clog of hair and other strange items that found their way in there. Screw it back and there you go.
Most cleaning can be done with simple natural cleansers. Vinegar will clean your windows, the shower, and tub. I use a green scrubbie and warm vinegar. It cleans everything up sparkling clean. Do you need more “clout?” Simply add a little salt to your scrubbie as you scrub the tile. Or use borax. It’ll do the job, too, without making your home glow in the dark.
Baking soda is your natural friend. Not only can you brush (and freshen) your teeth with it, but it acts as a scouring powder for your counter, fridge, and even toilet bowl. And nearly everyone knows that an open box in your refrigerator absorbs odors. I sprinkle some in the cat litter box before I refill it to keep it from advertising the fact that we have a litter box in our bathroom.
You’d be surprised at how clean your clothes get without bleach if you wash them in a wringer washer full of very hot water and a handful of homemade lye soap flakes. I grate a bar into a bowl of boiling water and let it set overnight on the night before wash day. Wash your whites first and progress through the dirties. Then hang them out in the sun. The sun whitens clothes better than bleach and does not cause an environmental impact. (Ever wonder how the old-time Mexican villagers could work hard all day and wear white clothes?) The answer is they were washed with old time lye soap and laid out on the rocks and bushes to dry in the sun.
I hope these have given you food for thought in a world full of chemical “musts.”
— Jackie
