Natural Cleaning

We are getting more aware of the damaging effects of mainstream cleaning products on our health and the environment. More and more of us seem to suffer from environmental allergies or are becoming sensitive to chemical substances. More and more children are getting asthma – apparently mainly as a result of toxic household cleaners. The more we read about the environmental effects of household cleaners the more we want to get rid of them and go green, organic and natural. But how can we clean properly without bleach, anti-bacterial, grease-dissolving, limescale-removing detergents?..

You perhaps have already tried some eco-friendly products – most don’t work very well, do they? Well, they used not to anyway. I did try most of them a few years ago but none of them cleaned as well as bleach or my favourite cleaning agents.  Since then I’ve noticed many new products claiming to be natural, eco-friendly, non-toxic, organic  and so on… but I haven’t tried them yet. I’m sceptical about their effectiveness and shocked by their price-tag!

So what shall we do? What can we do? Firstly, we should talk to our grand parents or elderly neighbours and ask them about how they used to clean their home before all these chemical products were available? How did they vacuum without a proper vacuum cleaner?  You’ll be surprised what you’ll hear!  In fact, you’ll learn that with just a few natural products, you can clean your home very effectively.

I decided to look into cleaning naturally, effectively and cheaply. I quickly discovered that I didn’t need to buy those new, expensive eco-friendly products – I can make my own for a fraction of the price.

In this series of articles I will share my findings with you. First read about the basic natural products that can be used for cleaning. I’m sure that there are plenty of others that I didn’t list – if you know any, please add your suggestions! Then read the recipes I’ve collected, from books and online, to create your own cleaning detergents – I have already tried a few of these and they really DO work!

We, at DiyTogether, are very excited about this subject and would like to invite all our readers to participate and share good tricks & tips, old-fashioned methods and useful remedies to make our homes clean, healthy and safe.  For those who don’t like the idea of DIY cleaning materials but want to find stores that sell environmentally friendly products I’ll put together a list of online stores, chemists and other sources. If you know of such places and online venues please let us know by adding a comment!

So let’s get on with discussing the properties & qualities of some natural cleaning products and how to make your own natural cleaning remedies.