Painless and Easy Ways to Live a Green Life

It can take less than 5 minutes to make a year's worth of safe & effective money-saving household cleaning products! With a few simple ingredients commonly found around the home or in your neighbourhood.

Barbaracarder [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Laundry Soap
Combine 2 boxes of soap flakes with
1 box or bag of borax and
1 box or bag of washing soda (sodium carbonate) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) if you can't find washing soda

Repack in the bags or boxes and use 1-3 Tablespoons per wash
I pretreat stains in order to use less soap.

Laundry Stain Remover
Fill a reused squeeze bottle half full of vinegar, and fill to the top with any liquid soap, preferably Castille soap.
Squeeze onto stains before tossing into the washer.

Wood polish
Fill a reused pump or spray bottle half full of vinegar,
then fill to the top with any vegetable oil you have on hand.

All Purpose Spray Cleaner
Fill a reused trigger sprayer halfway with vinegar. Add 5-20 drops of inexpensive essential oils (not fragrance oils!) such as lemon, orange, cedarwood or lavender, then shake. Add water to the top. Shake before use.

Cream Scrub
4 parts baking soda
1 part liquid soap, preferably Castille soap
Add 5-20 drops of inexpensive essential oils (not fragrance oils!) such as lemon, orange, cedarwood or lavender.
Stir until it has a creamy texture like icing. This part is really fun and satisfying. Put the scrub into a wide-mouthed jar and use on porcelain, stainless steel etc with a wet washcloth or rag.

Recipes adapted from Women's Voices for the Earth DIY Natural Cleaning Recipes by Tracey Tief, Certified Natural Health Practitioner of AnarresHealth.ca and Anarres Apothecary

Photo © Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar, via Wikimedia Commons