14 Natural Cleaning Products in Your Kitchen
DIY Household Cleaners: Natural Cleaning Materials in Your Kitchen
Our homes should be not only beautiful, cozy, and clean, but they should also be safe for our health. We try to surround ourselves with green and eco-friendly things; we change furniture, get rid of synthetics, and watch over the ecological safety of food, but we rarely pay attention to the ingredients of detergents and cleaners we use.
Even the labels “eco” or “organic” don’t guarantee the quality and safety of the cleaner, as manufacturers often change only the name of the product but not its ingredients.
However, there are natural cleaning products that are absolutely harmless not only for people but also for our environment. And most of them you can right now get from your pantry.
- Baking Soda
- Lemon
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Coke
- Vitamin C
- Olive Oil
- Essential Oils
- Mustard Powder
- Toothpaste
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Activated Charcoal
- Baby Powder
- Potatoes
1. Baking Soda
Baking soda has an abrasive property and can be used instead of dishwashing detergents, oven cleaners, bathroom cleaners, and even carpet cleaners.
Application
- Cleaning carpet: Spread a thin layer of baking soda on a dirty carpet, lightly rub with a carpet sweeper and use your vacuum cleaner.
2. Lemon
Lemon is an excellent disinfectant, which scours off grease, dirt, and soapy stains on the tile. It also resists mold and is a natural aromatizer. It replaces kitchen and bathroom detergents.
Applications
- Cleaning cutting board: Wipe the cutting board to disinfect and get rid of meat or fish odor.
- Cleaning oven: Mix 3 tbsp. of lemon juice with 400 ml of water in a container and put it in a microwave oven for 10 minutes at the highest power. You will get an effective natural cleaner for the oven.
- Cleaning appliances: Lemon juice easily copes with limescale on kitchen or bathroom appliances.
3. Vinegar
Vinegar perfectly removes plaque. To get rid of vinegar’s odor, you will need to add a drop of lavender essential oil. It replaces mirror and window cleaners, bathroom equipment, tile, and floor detergents.
Applications
- Cleaning glass: Mix 1 tsp. of vinegar with 1 liter of water; pour this mixture into a bottle with a spray gun and use it for window and mirror cleaning.
- Cleaning tile: Pour some vinegar on the tile in the bathroom, wait 10 minutes and wash it off with clean water.
- Cleaning plaque: If there is a strong deposit in the sink, put a cloth moistened with hot vinegar on the dirty area, and in half an hour remove the plaque with a brush and soap.
4. Salt
Salt can replace kitchen, bathroom, and sanitary ware detergents and stain removers.
Applications
- Cleaning sponges: Place kitchen sponges in tanks with salty water to clean and disinfect them.
- Getting rid of odor in the fridge: Spray the mixture of salt and carbonated water on the fridge door and internal parts before defrosting or washing of the fridge.
- Cleaning wool rug: Sprinkle rug with salt and water and then vacuum in half an hour.
5. Coke
Coke easily removes limescale and soap plaque. It can replace shower, bathroom, tap, and sanitary ware, as well as tile detergents and oven cleaners.
Applications
- Cleaning burnt pots and pans: Boil Coke in a dirty pot or pan, and you will get it cleaned.
- Cleaning rust and corrosion: Apply Coke to a household item that needs to be cleaned from rust, and it will be gone.
- Cleaning drain: Pour Coke into the drain overnight to clean it from hair and grease deposits.
6. Vitamin C
Effervescent tablets perfectly clean dirty toilets.
Application
- Cleaning toilet: To get rid of limescale under the water line, throw several effervescent tablets of vitamin C overnight; in the morning, remove plaque with a brush and rinse out with water.
7. Olive Oil
Not only olive oil is the best cleaner even for the most expensive furniture, but it is also a very economical one—you will need just a couple of drops for cleaning. Oil refreshes and polishes wooden surfaces and replaces polish and wooden surface cleaners.
Applications
- Cleaning and polishing wood: A couple of drops on a cotton cloth will refresh and polish wooden and leather furniture, solid objects, and hardwood floors.
- Refreshing outdoor furniture: Wipe balcony or patio furniture with oil from time to time, to prevent it from drying.
8. Essential Oils
The disinfecting feature of essential oils prevents mold and turns cleaning into aromatherapy. They replace air fresheners and disinfectants, hardwood floor cleaners, and anti-mold detergents.
Applications
- Disinfecting kitchen or bathroom: Wash all bacteria-accumulated surfaces, such as kitchen tabletops, cutting boards or plumbing with lavender or tea tree oil.
- Cleaning hardwood floors: Clean the floors with a mixture of 30 drops of any essential oil and 5 liters of water.
- Cleaning fat from fabric: The oil of lemon, melissa, fir-tree, juniper, thyme, mint, and lavender dissolve any fat stains from any fabric within 3-5 minutes.
9. Mustard Powder
Mustard is an excellent fat repellent and can get rid of grease in no time.
Application
- Cleaning greasy dishes: 1 tsp of mustard powder per several liters of hot water will make greasy frying pans squeaky clean.
10. Toothpaste
Toothpaste cleans almost any surface without any effort. This is a perfect stain remover. It replaces abrasive agents, tile and sanitary ware cleaners, and stain removers.
Applications
- Cleaning carpet: Put a little bit of toothpaste on the stain, leave for a few minutes and then rinse off to get rid of ink, cosmetics, oil, coffee, or tea stains on the carpets.
- Cleaning cups’ marks from the furniture: Take a soft cloth with a small amount of toothpaste and wipe the wooden furniture to rid it of cups’ marks.
- Cleaning walls: Apply toothpaste to a painted wall to remove marks from sharpies or pens.
11. Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide disinfects any surfaces and replaces bathroom and kitchen cleaners or bleach.
Applications
- Cleaning and disinfecting cutting boards, tabletops, etc.: Hydrogen peroxide has an antibacterial property and is used in the cleaning of various kitchen items.
- Natural alternative to bleach: Mix hydrogen peroxide and lemon juice to create a natural alternative to bleach.
- Bleaching white dishes: Put white dishes for 10 minutes in a container with warm water and 2 tbsp of hydrogen peroxide to make them snow-white.
12. Activated Charcoal
It is the simplest way to get rid of unpleasant smells from the refrigerator and trash cans.
Application
- Getting rid of odor in the fridge: Put crushed activated charcoal in the fridge for several hours to eliminate odors.
13. Baby Powder
Baby powder is a simple cleaner from a drug store, which is obviously absolutely harmless even for babies. It replaces fabric and floor stain removers.
Applications
- Cleaning carpet: Sprinkle a fresh greasy stain on the carpet with baby powder, cover it with a sheet of clean paper and press it with something heavy. The next day, clean or knock out the dirt.
- Cleaning linoleum: Apply baby powder to remove any fresh stain from linoleum.
14. Potatoes
Applications
- Cleaning pictures: Rub 1 lb of raw potatoes and pour them with 4 liters of water. Heat the mixture up and put in a warm place. In a day, wipe the pictures with the mixture. It is also important to rinse the sponge in clean water and squeeze it well.
- Cleaning windows and tiles: Wipe the windows and tiles with a piece of raw potato and then with a clean and dry cloth.
© 2017 Shushanik