I have been using white vinegar in my washing machine rinse cycle for years now. My clothes come out of the dryer smelling fresh and feeling soft. But until now, I haven’t been able to get rid of the static cling.
Cleaning the bathroom doesn’t have to involve toxic chemicals. You can find great natural bathroom cleaning products that have the same cleaning power as conventional cleaners. And if you are a DIY kind of person, I have found three easy recipes for making bathroom cleaning products out of household ingredients. They are all natural, smell great and work better than most conventional cleaning products! Read about them in my post on ModernMom.com!
Have you seen the latest commercial for Bounty paper towels? A little girl reaches for a washcloth to clean up a spill, and her mother grabs it from her, appalled that she would want to use a dirty old dish rag. Bounty’s new campaign claims it is “time to ditch that germy dishcloth.”
I have seen this commercial quite a few times because we use Hulu for our tv watching and they tend to replay commercials. And every time I see it, I grit my teeth.
It seems as though the cold weather is driving all of the bugs to find warmth in our house. We are currently battling ants, fruit flies, stinkbugs and these little black beetles. Of course, using conventional insecticides is not an answer in our home. Such products are poisonous to both people and house pets. And children are particularly susceptible to the dangerous effects of insecticides since they are more likely to pick up that roach motel or crawl on the floor where you just sprayed ant killer.
As a former paper towel addict, I can attest to the fact that it is possible to give up paper towels. We have been on the same roll of paper towels for over a year now. Giving up paper towels is good for the environment and for your wallet. Only recently have I started using them again to make Homemade Hand Sanitizing Wipes; although, my plan is to try to use reusable cloths cut from old t-shirts for my next batch.
When we are away from home, we can’t always find a bathroom to wash our hands. So, I rely on hand sanitizing sprays and wipes to clean hands, faces, toys, steering wheels, tables and just about anything else. Sometimes those messes include caked-on dirt or other things that a spray or gel just can’t remove. That’s when wipes come in handy. I found a couple of great recipes for homemade hand sanitizing wipes.
I have always resisted the idea of making homemade cleaning products. I barely have the time to clean let alone make the cleaning products too. But I am slowly coming around. I still have my arsenal of tried-and-true, store-bought, green cleaners. And for some things, store-bought is all I use. However, I am realizing how easy and cheap it is to make things like furniture polish and stovetop cleaner with ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. So here is what I use for cleaning, both the store-bought and the homemade versions.
A war has been waging between ants and me for some time now. It seems like, no matter where I live or how clean my home is, I always have ants – crawling in the trash, marching across my kitchen counters, trailing along the floor. Since I really do not want to use harsh poisons or chemicals inside or outside of my home, dealing with the ant problem has been a frustrating battle.
When my baby was born, I turned into a germaphobe. I saw germs everywhere – on the floor, on restaurant tables, on his toys. And the hardest part was that I was just as afraid of the chemicals in the cleaning products as I was of the germs. So I found ways to clean these things naturally.
