White Wine Gets Out Stains and 7 Other Eco-Friendly Home Cleaning Tips

Toss the toxic blue stuff! It’s bad for our planet, and for you. White vinegar and water work wonders on windows. Learn more eco-friendly tricks for home cleaning here!

Today’s modern home is loaded with products designed to clean, disinfect, or “freshen” your bathroom, kitchen, furniture, and even the air your breath.

Commercial home cleaning products are not just more expensive when compared with natural alternatives, they are full of toxins known to have effects on your skin, lungs, nervous system, and even your endocrine and reproductive systems.

These dangerous toxins invade your body either through the fumes they create, or through contact with your skin – and it doesn’t stop there.

Toxins from home cleaning products eventually find their way from your home drains or garbage cans to your soil, your drinking water, and the air you breathe, affecting all humans, animals, and plants.

Thankfully, there are eco-friendly and health-friendly home cleaning products that you can make at home for just about any job you need.

Here are 8 ways to clean your home naturally:

1. Kitchen Countertops: Use white wine to remove those nasty rings and stains from your countertops with an added benefit: the alcohol in wine also disinfects and kills the common food bacterium, salmonella.¹ You don’t have to sacrifice that expensive pinot grigio though. Any dry, white wine or cooking wine will do the job.
2. Windows: Forget the blue stuff! Mix two teaspoons of white vinegar with a quart of warm water and fill a spray bottle. Wipe your windows with this solution and a cotton cloth, then dry with a squeegee. Old newspapers are also great, but be sure to recycle them afterwards!
3. Bathroom Tubs and Tiles: For everyday cleaning, just rub in some baking soda with a damp cloth or sponge and rinse. For much tougher jobs and for disinfecting, wipe surfaces with a bit of white vinegar, then follow up with baking soda for scouring.
4. Oven Cleaner: Wipe your oven with a sponge and warm water. Mix a thick paste of ¾ cup baking soda, ¼ cup salt, and ¼ cup water and spread throughout its interior. Let sit overnight, remove the paste with a spatula and wipe clean. For really tough spots, you might need fine steel wool. Prevent future tough jobs by lining the inside of your oven with foil, and clean after each use.
5. Furniture Polish: For varnished wood, mix a few drops of lemon essential oil into a ½ cup of warm water. Mix well and spray onto a slightly damp cloth, then wipe furniture. Finish by wiping with a dry soft cloth.
   For unvarnished wood, mix two teaspoons each of olive oil and lemon juice and apply a small amount as evenly as possible to a soft cloth. Use wide, even strokes while wiping.
6. Stainless Steel Cleaner: All you need is white vinegar. Simply dampen a cloth with undiluted white vinegar and wipe!
7. Carpet Stains: Try a solution of equal parts white vinegar with warm water. Spray onto the stain and let sit for several minutes before brushing or sponging with warm soapy water.For deodorizing, simply sprinkle baking soda on your carpets several hours before vacuuming.
8. Natural Air Freshener: This is a fun one because everyone loves walking into a home that smells nice. Unfortunately, commercially available air fresheners are full of synthetic substances, and are completely unnecessary because nature has provided us with many other options that you can get through essential oils.

Simply choose one of your favorite scents, like orange, lavender, or peppermint and mix a few drops with water into a spritz bottle, and spray. Or add one of these oils to water and simmer on the stove.

The best news? Your health, creativity and immune system will benefit as well:

• Essential oils have aromatherapy benefits – they can boost your mood, energize your mind, spur creativity and calm stress, depending on the type you choose.
• Essential oils have natural anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties that are great for keeping your household clean.

With essential oils, you only need a few drops to get the benefits, so a little goes a long way!

Eco-Friendly is Easy!

We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our planet, and to future generations to do everything in our power to figure out eco-friendly ways of living.

By implementing the tips we’ve suggested, or doing a little bit of research before turning to commercially available home cleaning products, you can make a big difference, with hardly any cost to your pocketbook, or your time, and big gains to your health and the health of your family!