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lundi 29 septembre 2014

Cleaning Your Home With Green Ingredients

By Nancy Kyle


Cleaning a home is not something that many people enjoy, but it is something that needs to be done. There are various cleaning chores that should be dealt with on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in order to keep your home sparkling and sanitary. And if you keep up with these chores, you will probably go through a lot of cleaning materials.

But a lot of cleaning products are not exactly the safest things to use. Many of them contain ingredients that can be hazardous to both the user and the environment. Instead of going straight for these, you might instead try using some green alternatives first. You can make them yourself from common, non-hazardous ingredients, and they are proven to be quite effective.

Most natural cleaning solutions call for varying levels of a few different ingredients. Most often, you will see ones that use water, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and baking soda. Almost everything in your home can be fully cleaned using these safe, natural components.

For glass surfaces, a good solution is made of half a gallon of water and 4 or 5 tablespoons of lemon juice. You may have heard about using old newspapers to wipe them down, but this is simply a bad idea. It can leave a big, shredded, inky mess. An old-fashioned wash cloth or an old shirt is a much better option.

To restore the shine to your old, wooden furniture, you can create a polish from two units of olive oil mixed with a unit of lemon juice. While most store-bought furniture polish is odorous and full of hazardous ingredients, this homemade concoction is effective, pleasant-smelling and even completely edible.

If your furniture is made of vinyl, you can remove stains and get it shining using only a wash cloth dipped in lemon juice.

To a greater degree than wood polishes, metal polishes are made with harsh chemicals. If you need to remove the tarnish from copper, brass or another metal surface, try using this recipe before going for the store-bought stuff. Create a paste by mixing together equal units of flour, salt and vinegar. Rub the metal surface down with a soft cloth dabbed in the paste. You should notice results fairly quickly.

A fireplace that sees regular use will show it with smoke stains around the exterior. You remove the unsightly dark marks with a paste made of cream of tartar and water. Rub it onto the stains and let it dry. Then, scrub it off and it should take the stain with it.

As a last little bonus, you can use vinegar to absorb the fumes from fresh paint. You can leave an open bowl or cup of it in a room that is being painted, or was just freshly-painted, help make the smell more tolerable. If you leave for a long period, be sure to replace it with a fresh container midway through.




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