Welcome to the March 2013 Natural Living Blog Carnival: Naturally Spring Cleaning.
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month our carnival participants have written posts about how they keep their homes clean – naturally.
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Spring is finally here! And this year I’ve jumped the gun on spring cleaning. I’ve been excited to thoroughly clean each room, so I started working little by little since the first week of March.
I’ve finished four rooms – and I have four to go. Since I’m a busy mom, I’m trying to tackle just one room a week. Now that the kitchen and bathroom are already finished, it should be fairly simple from here on out. (But two of the rooms are my children’s bedrooms and another room is their playroom … talk about messy.)
This year I have a personal spring cleaning challenge: do a thorough spring cleaning by only using natural products.
Honestly, I’m not so great at making my own products. (My Pinterest attempts often are fails.) Even if make something I love, I either forget the recipe or simply forget to make it. So relying on homemade cleaners to deep clean my entire house has definitely been a stretch for me.
So far, though, so good. Here’s a quick list of my cleaning projects and products:
Living Room
- I vacuumed spiderwebs out of my windows. (The creepy webs were there – with big spiders – all summer, and I’ve been waiting until it’s freezing cold to get rid of them. I realize it’s been cold for about four months now, but at least it’s finally finished.)
- I washed knick knacks with a mixture of warm water and castile soap.
- I dusted with a microfiber cloth.
- I washed windows with a homemade spray made of three tablespoons of white vinegar, two cups of water, and ten drops of lemon essential oil.
- I polished wooden furniture with a homemade concoction of one part lemon juice (I simply squeezed half of a lemon), two parts olive oil, and a splash of white vinegar.
- I disinfected doorknobs and light switches with hydrogen peroxide.
- I vacuumed the floors and all of the cushions and furniture.
Dining Room
- I polished our dining room chairs, table, and sideboard with my lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar mixture.
- I washed windows with the homemade window spray.
- I dusted with a microfiber cloth.
- I vacuumed the floor.
- I disinfected doorknobs and light switches with hydrogen peroxide.
Kitchen
- I washed the inside of our refrigerator and freezer with castile soap and warm water. I washed all of our appliances and cupboards – inside and out – with the castile/water mixture, too.
- I washed the outside of our refrigerator with the homemade window spray.
- I dusted with a microfiber cloth.
- I disinfected doorknobs and light switches with hydrogen peroxide.
- I cleaned the inside of our microwave by taking out the turntable and washing it with our dishes. Then I mixed one cup of water and two tablespoons of lemon juice in a small bowl and microwaved it for ninety seconds. Once it was finished, I wiped the inside of the microwave with a cleaning rag (a scrap of an old T-shirt).
- Who needs highly toxic chemical oven cleaners when you have baking soda and white vinegar? I tried the same method as last spring – I sprinkled baking soda in the oven, poured white vinegar on top, waited for twenty minutes, then I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.
- I mopped the floor with warm water and castile soap.
- Finally I cleaned our kitchen sink by sprinkling some table salt in and scouring everything with a squeezed half of a lemon.
Bathroom
- I washed the mirror and window with the homemade window spray.
- I scrubbed the inside of the toilet with a squirt of castile soap and a sprinkle of baking soda. (Sorry my measurements are never exact.)
- I disinfected the outside of the toilet by first washing it with a mixture of castile soap and warm water – then I wiped everything down with hydrogen peroxide.
- I scrubbed the floor with warm water and castile soap.
- I disinfected doorknobs and the light switch with hydrogen peroxide.
- I scrubbed the shower/bathtub with an old toothbrush and a mixture of baking soda and castile soap. What a soapy and scouring clean. I finished with a rinse of white vinegar to disinfect. (The vinegar left quite an odor until the next morning’s showers, though. The smell was so strong that my husband asked me to not clean with vinegar again.)
What’s next?
Since bedrooms are my next places to clean, I’ll do more dusting and window washing. I’ll also wash all the linens and curtains with soap nuts and dry them with dryer balls. I’ll also need to wash our hardwood floors. Readers have recently shared how brewed tea works wonders on wood floors, so I just may experiment with it.
When it comes to spring cleaning, what are some of your favorite all-natural cleaning recipes?
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Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival!
Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed. Just click here.
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Mandi says
Wow! You are on a roll with the spring cleaning. :) We recently moved into our new home, so there isn’t much spring cleaning to be done, except for organizing the basement. Uh! I don’t even know where to start.
Kristy K says
You really motivated me today! I started spring cleaning a few weeks ago, got one room finished then quit… it’s hard to spring clean when it’s still cold out :):).
Hilary Kimes Bernstein says
I completely agree! I keep telling myself that if I do my spring cleaning inside now, then when the weather actually warms up I can just spend my days outside. And have a sparkling clean house to come inside to. ;)
CelloMom says
Don’t we just love that castile soap! That’s my go-to cleaner – and I can get it in bulk at my local health food store, so that cuts out the plastic packaging. On wood, I like to use old fashioned Murphy’s Oil Soap, very friendly, and leaves a great smell.
Chrystal @ Happy Mothering says
You are way ahead of me with spring cleaning! I need to get started. I love using vinegar, but haven’t used castile soap much, other than as a body wash. I need to give that a try!
Peggy says
Where do you get your castile soap?
Hilary Kimes Bernstein says
Typically I buy my castile soap from Vitacost.com or a natural foods store like Earth Fare. It’s also sold at Target.com. I buy Dr. Bronner’s or Dr. Woods brands.
Dana says
I am curious about your husband’s reaction to the vinegar. I like to clean (mostly my kitchen counters so far, but looking to use it more) with vinegar. My husband hates vinegar in food, odor, everything. Are you going to continue using vinegar, use less so it doesn’t smell as potent, or use another product? I want to be environmentally and health conscious in my cleaning, but my sweet husband just really dislikes the smell!
Hilary Kimes Bernstein says
Hi Dana! Since writing this post, an Accidentally Green reader shared her recipe for citrus-infused vinegar: http://accidentallygreen.com/making-your-own-safe-bathroom-cleaners/. Supposedly the citrus rinds completely take away the odor of vinegar! I desperately need to try this … and plan to ASAP.