Clean House, Clean Planet

One of the most used books in our house!

I heard about this book from a friend. When I began reading it, I learned a lot as to what was in a lot of the cleaners we bought from the store. Let me tell you - there's some highly toxic stuff in what you buy. And the other thing that really got my attention is that the packaging and water make up a significant portion of the price.

There are many different ideas of natural inexpensive items that you can use in your household cleaning and most of them are either simple to obtain or create. It isn't hard to do at all.

Did you know that you can use the juice from a squeezed lemon as an alternative to bleach in your laundry? I use it for my whites and it does an excellent job! That's cheap and it doesn't harm the world we live in.

And how about a quick, simple and cheap room air freshner for like the bathroom. I use a little open jar with baking soda and the peppermint essential oil. Works wonders for headaches (sniff the peppermint) as well if you have one but it keeps the bathroom smelling nice. And you just keep adding baking soda or essential oil to it when it needs freshened up! Baking soda is a natural substance so it doesn't harm the environment either.

I try to mix up my cleaners so that I don't have too much on hand but I've got enough that I'm not mixing it every time I clean the house.

Another thing that she talks about in the book is using "GOOD", "HIGH QUALITY" essential oils. Not the ones you buy in some local store that are on sale or are made with essential oils. I'm talking about good ones. Since I'm a Young Living Essential Oil distributor now, I buy all mine through them. You can not beat the quality and part of the quality is in how the essential oils are processed and harvested. If you want to know more, just email me on that. I use several but peppermint and lavender are my favorites along with Pine and Eucalyptus. It only takes a few drops because these things are concentrated.

Note:  I now use Ananda Essential Oils.  Better price, excellent quality and they are much nicer to do business with than Young Living.  Young Living screwed me over pretty good and never reconciled it with me.  Go to http://www.anandaapothecary.com/ and check this place out.  They are very nice people.

Here's another little tip I learned from the book and my own experience. I use Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for my laundry, for general cleaning and for some of the cleaning recipies. It costs around $8 for a 32 oz bottle but it lasts a long time because it is so concentrated. I use less than a 1/4 cup for a load of laundry or when I mop our floors. The best thing about this stuff is that it washes out and doesn't cling to your clothes like regular detergent. It is natural substances so it is good for the environment. But the best part I like about it, is that it seems like our floors don't get as dirty as they once did. It is like the regular pine sol, spic and span cleaners almost attract dirt and this doesn't. I like that! Plus I add essential oil to the mop water and it leaves the house smelling so nice!

I'd tell you what I use to clean glass and windows which will amaze you because it is so cheap and readily available (no, not water and soap either). But I'll just tease you enough so that hopefully you'll read the book. *smile*

The book has so many recipes and ideas and tries to give you the ins and outs about each one. They are not hard to make and everything she has in the book is practical. It came out of what she used in her own house.

So check this book out (link is at the top of the page) and save some money on your cleaning supplies while you are more gentle on mother earth. She'll appreciate it to.

I'm not sure when the last time was we bought a commercial cleaner in the store. We just make our own now.