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Environmentally friendly household cleaning products

Great news! You can clean almost all of your house, including some of those stubborn stains, with the use of a few natural substances that are cheap to buy and easy to obtain.

What you need

• White vinegar

• Sodium hydrogen carbonate (bicarbonate of soda, baking soda)

• Borax

• Tea tree or eucalyptus oil

• Cloudy ammonia

• Lemon juice (fresh)

• Pure soap

• Steel wool

The Cleaning Agents

• Vinegar: is a dilute solution of acetic acid. Vinegar is used as a bleach, disinfectant, deodorant, and anti-mould cleaner.

• Bicarbonate of Soda (chemically known as sodium hydrogen carbonate): is an excellent general purpose cleaner. It can be used as a powder or as a solution.

• Borax: is sodium borate. It is poisonous so you must be careful when handling it. Borax is used as a fabric and water softener, stain remover, bleach and disinfectant.

• Lemon juice: is a weak solution of citric acid and is a mild bleach, deodorant and cleaning agent.

• Cloudy ammonia: ammonia hydroxide solution. Although cloudy ammonia can irritate the eyes and smells obnoxious, it quickly breaks down in the environment. It is a powerful bleach and cleaning agent.

• Pure soap: is a sodium salt of an organic acid (a carboxylate). Soap is a surfactant or wetting agent which allows water to combine with greasy substances so that they can be removed from dishes and clothing. Pure soap is totally biodegradable. Commercial brands include Velvet and Preservene.

• Steel wool: very effective abrasive for stubborn dirt and stains.

• Tea tree oil: comes from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia, a native plant to eastern Australia. Tea tree oil is one of nature’s most remarkable antiseptics and disinfectants.

• Eucalyptus oil: comes from the leaves of the eucalyptus trees. Like tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil is a strong antiseptic which will kill many organisms. The oil of gum leaves is also used in the treatment of colds and influenza and as an additive to your clothes washing to remove greasy oily stains.

The Kitchen 

To clean: 

• dishes – grated soap flakes, vigorously stirred to form a lather. You can buy old-fashioned soap shakers at some hardware and camping stores.

• ovens, hotplates – use cloudy ammonia, or scrub with damp bicarb-soda (used in this book to mean bicarbonate of soda).

• burnt saucepans – cover the base with vinegar or damp bicarb-soda and leave overnight. Use steel wool and a little water the next day. For stubborn marks boil some vinegar in the pan for five minutes.

• benchtops and sinks – sponge with damp bicarb-soda or borax.

• Tiles – wipe with vinegar on a sponge.

The laundry 

To clean:

• floors – use cloudy ammonia or vinegar.

• washing machine or troughs – sponge with damp bicarb-soda or borax.

• clothes – grated soap flakes made into a solution. Add quarter of a cup of borax and 5ml of eucalyptus oil for greasy clothes. To whiten clothes add a small amount of borax, lemon juice or cloudy ammonia.

• tiles – wipe with vinegar and steel wool or bicarb-soda on a sponge.

• stains on clothes – wipe a small amount of tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil on the stain before washing. Some stains can be removed by using borax, vinegar, lemon juice or cloudy ammonia.

The bathroom 

To clean:

• mirrors – cloudy ammonia, vinegar or borax solution.

• plastic shower curtains – scrub with vinegar and hang in the sun.

• baths and basins – steel wool with damp bicarb-soda or borax.

• moulds on tiles – vinegar, cloudy ammonia or bicarb-soda.

• toilet bowl and cistern – wipe with vinegar or leave half a cup of vinegar in the bowl overnight.

Personal Hygiene and Toiletries

For a

• deodorant – use bicarb-soda, either in powder form or as a spray-on solution.

• hair rinse – use diluted vinegar or lemon juice.

• toothpaste – use bicarb-soda, mixed with a little salt.

• shine to jewellery – soak gold in cloudy ammonia for ten minutes, dip copper in weak vinegar or rub with a paste of bicarb-soda and lemon juice, and clean silver by dipping it in a hot solution of bicarb-soda which contains a small piece of aluminium foil. Aluminium and stainless steel are simply cleaned by using warm soapy water and a little bicarb-soda.

• shampoo – use bicarb-soda for a dry shampoo and brush out or lemon juice and a beaten egg and then rinse.

From Getting Started in Permaculture by Ross and Jenny Mars

          Candlelight Trust 1998