Another Obsession

A few months ago I got deep into using baking soda, vinegar and essential oils to clean everything. There are some really good books on this subject but the one I found most appealing was Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home by Linda Mason Hunter.

It started with vinegar. Both of our bathrooms have ventilation issues and mold on the shower grout is a battle we constantly wage. Somewhere I heard that a few drops of tea tree oil in white vinegar was a mold cleaner and suppressant. Then I heard vinegar mixed with water was a great window/mirror/chrome cleaner. Sure enough, on both accounts I was impressed with the results. Then came the deluge of books. I checked out most every book the library had on the subject and the primary ingredients for clean cleaning are baking soda, vinegar and essential oils.

Essential Oils can be expensive but considering that you only use a few drops at a time they last forever. White vinegar is what, .80/gal and baking soda something like .80/big box. This is a cheap way of cleaning and cleaning well. There are two other ubiquitous ingredients for green cleaning and Tara introduced me to one of them when we were dating...Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap (the guy was nuts...you have to read a label - .pdf file - on one of the bottles to see what I'm talking about but he made a great product). This is another one of those expensive upfront but lasts forever kind of things. A gallon is about $50 but this stuff can 1) be diluted indefinitely 2) be used in every soap application you can think of. The last ingredient, borax, I haven't tried yet.

Tara and I are very fond of Ecover products as well as 7th Generation but I think we will limit those name brands to a couple of applications only. I can approximate a lot of household cleaners with the soap, vinegar, oil & baking soda but I am not going to do the cooking and blending that some of the applications require.