So Fresh and So Clean Part 4!

In my never-ending quest to be cleaner and greener, I've tried a homemade furniture polish. Here's my video:

**Warning: if you get motion sickness, you might want to look away - this is definitely the worst video yet**

Version 1:
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/2 t. olive oil


Version 2:
1/4 c. vinegar
1/2 t. olive oil

So after letting that sit and dry for awhile, we found that  a. our coffee table is clean and fresh, b. our coffee table is shiny and polished, and c. we did without using harsh chemicals. Now here's my brutal honesty: I definitely don't feel comfortable recommending this method for high-end and high-polished woods. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how great the acid from the vinegar/lemon juice is for polishes. But, for low-end quality stuff like what we have - hand-me-downs, thrift-store purchases, side-of-the-road pick-ups for college-aged and young people like us...it's definitely something you may be interested in. But again, I have to be honest - I'm not in love with this polish. After awhile, it's a tad bit sticky (although that may be because I used fresh-squeezed lemon juice instead of the bottled kind - because we never use that and therefore never buy it) and lacks the "super high polish" look we get from the Orange-Glo and Old English polish. It may also be because I had to halve the recipe because I only had 1/8 c. lemon juice...maybe there just wasn't enough olive oil in 1/4 teaspoon.

And there it is, folks.  I just realized that I actually used 1/8 teaspoon of olive oil, and not 1/4 teaspoon when I halved my recipe - mental math fail. So this post may, in fact, be a total bust. I shall try again (with correct amounts of lemon juice and olive oil)...



TAKE TWO:


So after my miscalculation, I went ahead and mixed together a new polish to try out:

This mixture definitely worked better than the first one - I was very pleased with the results. I still stick by my first comment on not recommending it for high-end furnitures with high-gloss finishes...but for your average run of the mill furniture, it works pretty darn well! No discoloration, no weird smells, spots, stains, streaks, or sticky spots.

I'd still rather use lemon juice than vinegar, because I love a clean citrus smell, but that'll have to wait until next time.

Love,
Vanessa


P.S. If you get the urge to try this out, let me know how it works out for you. I'd love any feedback on your organic/home-made cleaning products.

So Fresh and So Clean Part 3!

This organic cleaning is becoming an obsession - but it's so cheap and easy (and so good for Mother Nature), it's hard not be excited about it.

This segment is over the window, glass, and chrome cleaner that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

There's two versions of this cleaner (in case you don't want to purchase Dr. Bronner's - although I can't imagine why you wouldn't - it's amazing!)

Version 1:
1 c. water
1 c. vinegar
1/2 t. Dr. Bronner's

Cost: $0.10 for two cups of cleaner



Version 2 (cost: $0.09):
5 parts water
1 part vinegar

Cost: ~$0.09 per cup of vinegar used


Windex: $1.44 for two cups ($2.87 for 32 oz. bottle)*
Invisible Glass: $2.00 for two cups ($2.75 for 22 oz. bottle)**

*(Priced from Walmart online)
**(Priced from Amazon online)

And I've found, with any glass/window cleaner - you want to use as dry a cloth/paper towel as possible because it's way less streaky. Although, the first time I used my home-made cleaner I used a damp paper towel on our bathroom mirror and it ended up so clear and streak-free that I stood amazed for several seconds. I've also read that newspaper and coffee filters work really great on glass and mirrors - although I've never tried it myself.

Happy Cleaning!

Love,
Vanessa

So Fresh and So Clean Part 2!

So I don't know about you...but I'm super excited and on-board with all this organic cleaning. Here's our video on how to make your own All-Purpose Surface Cleaner!

To Recap: this stuff is seriously great - we use it for everything from cleaning out Anya's cage after she has a wee little accident (I threw that little pun in just for fun! and I rhymed - free of charge), to cleaning up our kitchen counters, and bathroom surfaces. Basically for anything you'd use spic-n-span or 409 or stuff like that. We even use it to mop our kitchen floor, since it's cheap linoleum tiles. The best part is, since it's organic and there's no harsh chemicals - I feel much better about using my countertops as a surface for preparing foods (i.e. rolling out tortilla dough). (And for those of you who know me really well, you know I'm a total germaphobe - so now I'm okay with setting down a piece of bread or an apple onto the actual kitchen counter - yay!)


Here's your measurements:

1  28-32 oz. spray bottle (I recommend buying new so there's no residual chemicals in the bottle)
2  c. water
1/2  c. white vinegar
3/4  c. hydrogen peroxide
1  t. Dr. Bronner's
20  drops tee tree oil (not necessary if you buy the Dr. Bronner's with Tea Tree Oil in it.)
Optional: 20 drops lavender essential oil (for the smell)






Just for fun, I thought I'd show you the costs:

Spray Bottle - $1.00
Water - (essentially) free
White Vinegar - $ 0.09
Hydrogen Peroxide - 0.18
Dr. Bronner's - $ 0.01

That's a grand total of $1.28 for 26 oz. of my all-purpose spray. And that includes the $1.00 for the spray bottle, which is a one-time purchase, so from here on out it'll only be $0.28 - you just can't beat that. But let's compare*, shall we?


Fantastik -  26 oz. for  $9.75
Fabuloso -  26 oz. for  $3.05
Spic-n-Span -  26 oz. for  $1.48
Mr. Clean -  26 oz. for  $2.92
409 -  26 oz. for  $4.05

*These prices came from Amazon - and they don't include tax or shipping. 




I think you get the idea - cheap! The closest that compares to the organic stuff we make is Spic-N-Span - which is what Stephen and I used before. We got it at the Dollar Tree, so it was only a buck, which technically makes it cheaper than what we use (at least for the first time purchasing the spray bottle - after this ours will always be cheaper) - but we get the added bonus of a chemical-free cleaner, which Spic-n-Span definitely isn't. And, we've found that the organic cleaner we use cuts through grease, grime, gunk, and soap scum just as well as the Spic-n-Span did (if not better). And if it dribbles on the floor and Anya runs to lick it up (yup - it's happened), I don't have a panic attack worrying if it's going to make her sick. And if you find that it's not quite cutting through grease and grime the way you want it to, just add another teaspoon of Dr. Bronner's (we ended up doing that after making the video, bringing the cost of our cleaner up a whopping  ONE CENT) - different dilutions will have different cleaning strengths. For super tough stains or dirt, you can dab it undiluted and it won't harm any surfaces (carpet, tile, wood, granite, formica, etc.) because it's all-natural, baby!

So once again we have economically smart and ecologically safe - two of our favorite things! If you're not at least looking into organic cleaning - you're being silly!


Love,
Vanessa


P.S. When you're making your own surface cleaner (or any type of cleaner), you're cutting down on waste by not buying plastic bottles every time you run out. And Dr. Bronner's soaps come in biodegradable containers - naturally!

So Fresh and So Clean!

**Warning!: I am not good on camera.**

However, bear with me because the information is totally worth my bad on-camera persona.

To Recap: Stephen and I are trying to move away from using harsh, icky chemicals for cleaning our house to using all natural and organic cleaners. There are two reasons you should do the same:

1. It's organic! - It exposes you and your family to less chemicals and it's good for the Earth - which is always cool.

2. It's cheap! - White vinegar is like $1.50 a gallon and baking soda is super cheap too (I can't find the price online...but you've bought it before...you know). And I only used maybe a cup of each. Those expensive (and nasty smelling) chemically cleaners are way more than that.


So here's your step-by-step:

1. Rinse out your sink and get rid of any residual food scraps (running your garberator if necessary).
2. Dump about 1/2 - 1 cup of baking soda into your sink drain.
3. Pour 1/2 - 1 cup of white vinegar down the sink drain.
4. Get excited watching the scientific reaction - aka bubbles!
5. Run about a gallon of boiling hot water down the drain - or until all the baking soda film is gone.
6. Marvel and enjoy your clean sink drain!


I totally recommend this method of drain-cleaning - our sink smells so fresh (aka like nothing at all) and is squeaky clean - and BONUS: I didn't have to get my hands icky. No scrubbing or putting on gloves to deal with harsh cleaners! So try it - you know you want to. (Extra bonus: you get to watch it bubble like those school science project volcanoes.)


Love,
Vanessa


**Update: According to Stephen (via his father - who used to own his own plumbing business) you can use this method repeatedly for drains that are slow (aka clogged with soap, grease, etc.)**