How to Green Your Cleaning Routine

Sarah Jessica Smith - Contributor

Posted on Thursday 13th August 2020

 

Cleaning your house is an important bundle of chores you don’t want to miss out on, no matter how busy you are throughout the day.

If you fail to clean your windows, floors, and wipe the dust off your TV set or computer, you won't even be able to enjoy lying down on the couch or watching the TV, because you will get constantly reminded that you didn't do your chores. So, regular home maintenance is not something you can just sweep under the rug and hope for the best.

That said, when it comes to your cleaning routine itself, there's always room for improvement, and if you are reluctant to use commercial cleaning products full of potentially harmful or poisonous chemicals – there are the green alternative you may want to look into.

In this article, we’re going to present to you some of these green routines, as well as suggest some ways of cleaning certain surfaces in your house in a new way.

Here’s the deal.

Green Cleaning Arsenal

Let’s start by introducing some of the most common cleaning solutions that you can find just sitting around your household. What you may find surprising is that many of the food ingredients and other substances you’re about to see can be as effective as commercial cleaners, while being available to you at a fraction of the cost.

Baking Soda

Relatively inexpensive and easy to get a hold of in an off-chance you don’t already have it, baking soda is one of the most frequently-used multi-tools in green cleaning. The reason why this substance works so well for removing stains is that it is fairly gritty and it reacts well when placed on a stain.

So, it mixes with the stain and changes its surface, which makes it easier for you to wipe away the entire thing. (You do need to give it a minute or two before the reaction starts.)

Also, baking soda mixes well with other green cleaning agents such as white vinegar and lemon juice.

Lemon Juice

Speaking of the devil, lemon juice is your main ally when it comes to any sort of grease-tackling situation.

Thanks to its acidity, lemon juice will penetrate the grease and break it up, so that you can remove it more easily. It is precisely this property of lemon juice that makes the manufacturers of commercial cleaning solutions put lemon-based chemicals in them.

Another function of lemon juice is that it acts as a disinfectant and doesn't smell as bad, which can't be said of all-natural cleaning means such as vinegar, for example.

Olive Oil

While olive oil does not necessarily pack the same stain-removing punch as the two substances above, it is still considered a useful cleaning solution for how it can tackle dust (especially the old sort of dust that got stuck to the surface) and improve the appearance of wooden surfaces.

For removing dust, all you need to do is get a paper towel or a rag, put some olive oil on it, and then go gently over the surfaces you want to clean to pick up the tiny dust particles along the way. On the other hand, olive oil can be used just as successfully for simply polishing up wooden surfaces such as tables, drawers, and other pieces of furniture.

Alcohol

Another disinfectant everyone knows about would certainly be alcohol.

It can be used as an odor remover and also as a base for cleaners and other sorts of disinfectants. If you have trouble applying this means of disinfection, and generally don’t like getting in contact with cleaning chemicals, you may want to consider obtaining a spraying contraption. There are many of these models currently on the market, Clean’d Supplies being a good example, so you won’t have that much trouble finding the best sprayer model for your needs.

All in all, making your cleaning routine greener can not only reduce the maintenance costs of running a household but also be an environmentally-friendly solution, too. With a little bit of patience and willingness to experiment, you can get excellent results from natural cleaning means.

 

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