How To Clean Your Healthy Home on a Budget

By Sharon Delia

Why is it imperative that you get those harmful chemicals out of your home? The answer is simple. It's because you care. You care about the health of your family, your loved ones, your pets, and yourself.

Natural, nontoxic cleaning can gratify you in knowing that you are protecting your family's health and that your home is a place for your bodies to rest and recuperate rather than promote harm.

You can find volumes of information and countless reasons to use non-toxic cleaning products, but the main point here is that we make an effort to simplify our lives, save money and quit breathing what is unhealthy for us in our own homes.

How can you clean with natural, non-toxic products and save money? Make your own. It is easy and straightforward. All you need for the following nontoxic cleaning recipes are:

White distilled vinegar

Baking soda

Washing soda

Liquid vegetable soaps called castile soap

Tea Tree oil

Clean spray bottles

Glass jars

You will find these products in supermarkets, health food stores, hardware and home improvement stores. Ounce for ounce, homemade cleaning formulas cost about one-tenth the price of their commercial counterparts-and that includes costly, but worthwhile essential oils and concentrated, all-purpose detergents for homemade recipes.
Note: Make sure to label all your homemade cleaning products, and keep them away from pets and children.

WINDOW CLEANER

• ¼ - ½-tablespoon liquid castile soap
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 cups water
• Spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you may have used.

OVEN CLEANER

• 1 cup or more baking soda
• water
• a squirt or two of liquid castile soap

Sprinkle water generously over the bottom of the oven, then cover the grime with enough baking soda that the surface it totally white. Sprinkle some more water over the top. Let the mixture set overnight. You can easily wipe up the grease the next morning because the grime will have loosened. When you have cleaned up the worst of the mess, dab a bit of liquid castile soap on a sponge, and wash the remaining residue from the oven.

ALL-PURPOSE SPRAY CLEANER

• 1-teaspoon borax
• ½-teaspoon washing soda
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• ½-teaspoon castile soap
• 2 cups very hot tap water
• Spray bottle

Combine the borax, washing soda, vinegar, and liquid castile soap in a spray bottle. Add very hot tap water, shaking the bottle gently until the minerals have dissolved. Spray on to the area to be cleaned and wipe with a sponge, rag, or cellulose sponge cloth.

DISINFECTANT SPRAY

• 2 Cups Water
• ¼ Cup White Vinegar
• ¼ tsp. Tea Tree Oil
• ¼ tsp. Lavender Oil

Combine and store in a spray bottle. Shake occasionally. Use where ever a disinfectant spray is needed.

Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it"

Kenyan Proverb ~ "Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children."

Henry David Thoreau ~ "What's the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"