Chemical-Free Green Cleaning

With friends, family, carolers, coworkers, and anyone else you see fit to invite over for a homey holiday soirée likely to be traipsing their way through your abode, ‘tis the season for a nice, deep cleaning. Of course, there’s nothing merry nor bright about exposing yourself or your guests to harsh cleaning chemicals. To keep your holiday lounge—aka your living room—spic and span without fear of needing to break out your hazmat suit, stick to chemical-free cleaners. Since time is of the essence when there are cookies to decorate, popcorn to string, and snowballs to throw, cleaning with all-natural ingredients is key not only for your health, but for your stopwatch as well. Making a trip to your cupboard for the requisite ingredients is definitely going to be easier than fighting your way through the holiday throngs that await you at the grocery store. With these three simple cleaners, your guests’ eyes will only twinkle with happiness, not chemical irritation.

Lemon Juice
Like vinegar, lemon juice derives its cleaning power from its powerful, naturally acidic properties. Want to experiment? Soak an old penny in lemon juice and watch the grime and tarnish dissolve and the original sparkle and shine return. Lemon juice provides some antibacterial and antiseptic properties for cleaning and gives off a clean, natural scent.
TIP: Commercial sprays build up over time and dull wood furniture’s sheen. Mix one cup of olive oil with one half cup of lemon juice for shine without waxy build up.

Baking Soda
Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a non-toxic, non-polluting, inexpensive product that can work wonders in your home. Sodium bicarbonate is a naturally occurring substance that is found in all living things, and its unique property is that it helps regulate PH balance. It is especially good at neutralizing odors.
TIP: Baking soda can be added with your liquid detergent to up the cleaning quotient in a load of laundry, and can also be used as a fabric softener/deodorizer during the rinse cycle.

Vinegar
Vinegar is another readily available, inexpensive, non-toxic and biodegradable product with multiple uses. It has natural antibacterial properties and makes a powerful cleanser. Many of the cleaning agents added to today’s over-the-counter products can be carcinogenic with exposure over time. After all, our environment is host to pollutants whose dissemination we have no control over. Why not exert control where we can? Still shy about vinegar? No, your house is not going to smell like salad—the strong smell of vinegar vanishes when your cleaning solution dries.
TIP: Straight vinegar works great for cleaning the bathtub and works miracles on the toilet bowl. Buy the inexpensive stuff in gallon jugs and skip the balsamic or flavored varieties!