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Today’s post is by senior copy editor Austen Gilliland.
I’ll be honest: it wasn’t until a few months ago, shortly after I set my oven on fire, that I actually harnessed the cleaning power of baking soda.
Of course, baking soda is also a pretty good fire extinguisher (thank you, Girl Guides, for teaching me that), and it was because of its fire-extinguishing properties that I grabbed the box and upended it onto the bottom of the oven.
But then – oh, the mess! Half a box of baking soda, plus the charred remains of the overflow from a particularly juicy pineapple upside-down cake that I’d forgotten about entirely, until, two days post-baking, I turned to see bright orange flames licking the racks of the oven I’d innocently set to pre-heat and then walked away from.
Once the smoke cleared, I set about cleaning up, thinking dark, I-have-a-million-other-things-I’d-rather-be-doing thoughts. But it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected: A damp cloth, the baking soda, and some elbow grease were all I needed to clear away even the worst of the burned-on sugar. I ended up cleaning the whole oven that way. By the time I was finished, it looked great, and I’d done it without the eye- and nose-stinging fumes of commercial oven cleaner.
Not long after, I moved, and rather than go to the expense of stocking my new home with all the latest fancy bottles of cleaning products, I decided to build on my oven-cleaning success. It turns out that baking soda also works for scouring pots and pans, cleaning my sink and tap, and polishing up tea-stained spoons.
Of course, cleaning spoons isn’t at the top of your list when you’ve just moved, and as great as it is, I didn’t think baking soda would help with the muddy footprints we’d tracked across the living room floor as we ferried my boxes inside.
A quick Google search suggested a likely contender: vinegar. In the kitchen (countertops, cutting boards, stovetop), a spray bottle filled with straight vinegar does the trick. For windows, I use a 1:1 vinegar-water mix, and for floors, 1 cup (250 mL) to every gallon (4 litres) of water. I’m not keen on the smell of vinegar (unless it’s accompanied by French fries), but it doesn’t linger – and unlike many commercial household cleaners, it’s not toxic. (It’s also cheap!)
Now, if only I could do something about my prodigious paper towel use…
What are your favourite homemade cleaners?
Today’s code word: cleaning
Read more:
• 44 things to do with vinegar
• Natural (and cheap!) household cleaning products
• 45 things to do with salt
• Natural stain removers
Two other products most people have in their kitchens that can be used to clean are lemons and olive oil. In fact, add lemon juice to either of the two you mentioned. It will cut the smell of the vinegar. Add lemon juice to baking soda to make a paste that you can use throughout the kitchen when you need a bit of scrubbing action.
Olive oil and lemon juice mixed together to create a furniture polish.
These two aren’t natural products, but they work with products you might have around:
- Coca-Cola - cleans stainless steel. So, if there is some left in the bottom of the can, use it on your sink.
- Cigarette ashes mixed into a paste with water - takes water mark rings off your wood tables (my mother-in-law successfully tried this one, since I don’t smoke.)
Comment by Angela — April 4, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Most of my knowledge about cleaning in general comes from my grandmothers. Since I cannot walk down the laundry and cleaning isles of the grocery store without getting a headache, I have relied for many years upon “old “ recipes and techniques for cleaning. There are also some very good books, and websites out there. Two books I really like are Ellen Sandbeck’s “Organic Housekeeping – The Non-toxic Avenger” which a clear, practical and easy-to follow guide to every household chore, and Adria Vasil’s “Ecoholic”, which although not so specific on practicalities, has the great advantage of being an inspirational guide to Canadian (as opposed to American, or other )materials, sources, and services. The following practices are the evolution of reading, practice over many years and constant worry about the environment.
I wish I could credit Ms. Sandbeck and Ms. Vasil for specific ideas, but I’m not sure I can. Perhaps we can just be content with saying that both these books are influential, great, and should be in every public library in the country.
Essential Cleaning Supplies (ALL very cheap and easy to get hold of)
Big jugs of white vinegar
Baking Soda, bought in those little boxes or in bulk
Borax , from the laundry aisle (can I give names here? “Twenty Mule Team” is pretty universal where I live) Note safety instructions on box.
Non-shedding cotton rags (hole-y white sports socks, cut-up old tea shirts, old sweatshirts that are mainly cotton- cut up, old facecloths and very old towels, cotton sheets - not polyester ones- old cloth diapers, or those hand-knitted crafty dish cloths. Wash first, no fabric softener.
Hydrogen Peroxide (don’t use the hair stuff, get it neat from the drug store, or from the natural laundry section)
Old toothbrushes, scrubbing brushes.
Buckets , a mop and a broom.
Spray and squeezy bottles, either from the dollar store or recycled.
Less Essential but Sometimes Useful
Washing Soda (a.k.a “Calgon”)
Lavender essential oil, or lavender-scented liquid soap (mainly to nix the power of that vinegar smell)
Lemon juice
A Bathroom /window squeegee.
BASIC BATHROOM CLEANING
Window/counter/sink/mirror/tiles/ bath
Spay bottle with one third vinegar, two thirds water. Spray, count to ten, and wipe with old rag. The first time you do this with mirrors, you may end up with a smeary deposit, because the Windex or other glass cleaner you were using contained a petroleum-based wax. Just keep spraying and wiping until the wax is gone.
Scum & toothpaste residue spots:
Scrub off with a bit of borax on a toothbrush, then rinse.
Mildew:
Soak in neat vinegar for several hours, then scrub off. If it leaves a stain, spray on neat peroxide and leave as long as poss. Then wipe off.
Ceramic Tile:
Mop with a bucket of warm water with several glugs of vinegar in it, and some drops of lavender oil or lavender liquid soap, if you like. Probably okay for vinyl, too, but I’ve not tried it.
Toilet:
Then go and clean your bath with another clean rag.
Sprinkle borax into the pan, leave for more than ten minutes if possible. While you are waiting, spray every other part with vinegar& water spray. Wipe off with a rag, or an old sock worn on your hand. (Yes, I will let you use vinyl or latex gloves, too, if you are squeamish.) Borax is a disinfectant, but still…
Scrub the bowl thoroughly with a toilet brush, then flush. Or, if you are saving water, and the bowl isn’t horrendous, just leave it until the next user comes along and flushes for you. Borax is totally harmless, but concentrated into crystals, it can irritate your eyes and face, so be careful with it.
If the toilet is very scuzzy, you can try softening stains with straight vinegar or lemon juice (waste of lemon, really) and scraping with an old credit card or one of those nylon scrapers that Pampered Chef sells for their stoneware. Keep it in the bathroom afterwards, though!
Air that needs “freshening”:
If you don’t have a fan or a window, and it really is awful, then light a match over the toilet, and blow it out just before it burns your fingers. I have no idea why and how this works, but it does.
KITCHEN CLEANING:
I have a self-cleaning oven, thirteen years old, and a godsend. So no other wisdom for that.
Sinks and countertops as for bathroom. Use neat vinegar if you are worried about germs. Or look up something called “Thieves’ vinegar” on-line- a powerful, herbal disinfectant.
For stained or rusty steel sinks, try scrubbing with half a potato dipped in borax, then rinsing. Also good on old, not teflon-ised tinware.
For slow or smelly drains, first run with hot water. Then put half a cup or so of baking soda down the drain and leave, for up to twenty minutes. Then pour on a cup of neat vinegar. Watch the volcano erupt, and smell the lovely fresh oxygen. Do this on a regular basis, and you won’t get slow or smelly sink drains.
For a stained/smelly dishwasher, put vinegar in the powder compartment and run through the cycle. Yes, it “wastes” hot water. But if you were better about scraping plates, you’d have a cleaner-smelling dishwasher to start with.
CLEANING WOOD- CABINETS, FURNITURE, ORNAMENTS, ETC.
Put half a cup of lemon juice and a few drops of olive oil in a small dish. Put an old sock on your hand , dip the sock in the juice and rub the wood in the direction of the grain. You won’t need to use a lot of liquid, and you won’t need to wipe off, either, unless you really want to.
STAINED, SMELLY CARPET OR SOFAS:
Go to the pet store and ask for some natural enzyme stain remover, designed to clean up puppy and kitten messes. Follow the instructions. Works on pet and human poop, urine, wine, grass, dried spaghetti sauce, indeterminate things brought in by the dog, baby sick, you name it. It’s magic, and harmless to most pets and babies. Maybe not goldfish.
RECOMMENDATIONS THAT I HAVE NEVER PERSONALLY TRIED:
Cleaning faucets, steel appliances and metal ornaments with cheap vodka. I don’t have any vodka, and if I did, it wouldn’t be cheap. But I’m told it works.
Murphy’s oil soap. Just never got to it yet.
Boiling stove rings with baking soda (half a cup per gallon of water). Just never got to it.
RECOMMENDATIONS THAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:
“Rainwashing” and “snow-cleaning” rugs, as per Ellen Sanbeck’s book. I tried, but the dog wouldn’t leave the rugs alone, and took them off to the mud.;-) You may have better luck.
Okay, I think I have had more than my share of the conversation now. Time for other young ladies to exhibit, no? Thanks for reading this far.
Comment by Caroline — April 4, 2008 @ 8:31 pm
Should a rinse be done after using vinegar to clean?
Comment by Megan — April 19, 2008 @ 4:21 pm