13 Natural Ingredients to Clean Almost Anything!

Everyone wants a clean home, but clean these days means more than no dirt and grime. It also means no potentially toxic chemicals. Clean up your cleaning act by ditching toxic commercial cleansers in favor of homemade versions. With this list of grocery store basics, you can clean just about anything.

Shopping List

With these easy-to-find items, you can clean just about anything.

■ Baking Soda: scrubbing, whitening
Use baking soda to eliminate odors and to whiten. A paste of baking soda and water can help whiten sinks and bathtubs, and a box of baking soda in the fridge, bathroom or cupboard helps absorb odors.

■ Beeswax: polishing wood
You can forgo oily wood polish in favor of all-natural beeswax. Find a local beekeeper, and you support your local economy in the process!

■ Cornstarch and Club Soda (or any unflavored fizzy water): lifting stains
For a quick treatment to stains on carpets or drapes, cover the stain with absorbent cornstarch. Let it sit for about 20 minutes, then pour fizzy club soda to lift the stain. Also try cornstarch on oil dripped on clothing.

■ Hydrogen Peroxide: disinfecting, removing stains
Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful disinfectant. To kill mildew, combine baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to create a paste, put on mildew and allow to sit for a few minutes before wiping away.

lemon

■ Lemon: removing stains and odors
Lemons are a great all-purpose odor remover in the kitchen. Run half a lemon over a dirty cutting board to help remove odors such as onion or fish. Put half a lemon (chop it up if your disposal has trouble with large objects) down the disposal and grind it to remove odors from the kitchen sink. Lemon juice adds cleaning power to all-purpose solutions.

Next: More great natural cleaning ingredients

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Jessica Kellner

Jessica Kellner is the editor of Natural Home & Garden magazine, a national sustainable home and lifestyle magazine. She is dedicated to helping readers create more sustainable, delightful homes that are in tune with the natural world. She is also the author of Housing Reclaimed: Sustainable Homes for Next to Nothing, published by New Society Publishers in autumn of 2011. Email her at jkellner@naturalhomeandgarden.com.

also by Jessica Kellner

Iona K.

3:31AM PST on Feb 18, 2012

Thank you. You've inspired me to oil my coffee table. I add lemon essential oil to olive oil, it smells gorgeous and the wood loves it.

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Gita S.

2:43AM PST on Feb 18, 2012

Great tips ,very useful, thanks.

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Eternal G.

7:14PM PST on Jan 31, 2012

Clove oil against mildew... thanks for the list, we all ought to go chemical free!

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Sarah M.

10:56AM PST on Jan 26, 2012

Thanks. Very useful.

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andrew h.

4:10PM PST on Jan 23, 2012

thanks

growing and caring for tulsi (holy basil) in the house or garden purifies the atmosphere spiritually) according to this quote:

"Tulsi is mentioned in the ancient scriptures of India. In the Padmapurana (24.2) Lord Shiva tells the sage Narada about this power:

“Oh Narada, wherever Tulsi grows there is no misery. She is the holiest of the holy. Wherever the breeze blows her fragrance there is purity. Vishnu showers blessing on those who worship and grow Tulsi. Tulsi is sacred because Brahma resides in the roots, Vishnu resides in the stems and leaves and Rudra resides in the flowering tops.”

http://www.holy-basil.com/6865.html

(i dont know if the quote is accurate nor the link content - please use good judgement/intuition on anything in that link) but ive grown tulsi, its a easy to grow plant i think

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Debbie C.

5:25AM PST on Jan 22, 2012

Thanks Jessica for the article. I hope you don't mind, but I made a copy of it so I will remember to pick up some of these things I am out of.

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Jessica K.

6:54PM PST on Jan 18, 2012

Thanks for all the comments! For those who asked, washing soda is similar to baking soda, but more caustic. Arm & Hammer makes washing soda and it comes in a big yellow box. In my town, the only place I could find it was Walmart (and I checked literally about 10 other places first). It's usually in the laundry product aisle. If you can't find it in stores, you can order it online.