Green Cleaning Solutions

Since I started green cleaning I've tried a variety of products on every different household disaster you can imagine with 2 kids, 2 cats, a dog and 1 untrainable husband living under the same roof. When our elders say we should listen to them, they are right. The secret, handed down from grandmother to grandmother, the tried and true cleaning duo of vinegar and baking soda ranks pretty high in my book of green cleaners. I wonder if our ancestors knew these were green products. Probably not. They used them because they work. As an added bonus, both vinegar and baking soda are still relatively cheap to purchase. Both go a long way. The only negative thing I have to say about the super duo of green cleaning is this: vinegar stinks! It is definitely a smell you must get used to.
So what kind of green cleaning can we do with vinegar and baking soda- pretty much anything you want. Be warned, mixing the 2 together causes a foamy reaction of some kind- I really don't know what it's called. This foamy reaction- whatever it may be called- can actually be used as a drain opener/cleaner and when your pouring it down your drain should be the only time you mix the two together.
Baking soda has been used for years as a deodorizer- on carpets, in the fridge, in the litter box ect.. Did you know vinegar deodorizes as well? You can put it in a spray bottle and use it like you would any other fabric freshener. Of course, it doesn't smell very well but once the vinegar smell dissipates so does the odor.
My favorite use for vinegar is as a carpet cleaner. I have a room in my house, an addition the original owners added. This room use to be a patio and they closed it in. At some point someone installed a blue-gray indoor/outdoor carpet to this room. The people we bought the house from used this room as a storage area. I don't know what they were storing, but the carpet was really stained. There were dark spots everywhere. Before I started green cleaning I tried everything short of straight bleach to get these stains up. Nothing worked. Even once I started green cleaning, using vinegar on these dark stains was the last thing on my mind. I just figured the stains were there to stay. Then one day I tried it. I chose a fairly large stain that was half covered by the rug I put down back there. I poured straight vinegar on the uncovered part of the stain then rubbed with a rag. I had to wait until it was dry to be able to tell. I pulled back the rug to be able to compare, the part I cleaned was GONE. Yes, completely gone. I was amazed. I have a bissle home steam cleaner I use for carpets, now- no more chemicals. I use vinegar and water to clean the carpet. For tough stains I just pour vinegar straight on and scrub.
Vinegar and baking soda make a powerful pair, but I don't use them alone. They are both great for certain things and when I'm in a hurry. Vinegar will even get the red juice stain off my counter top- not as fast as bleach- but it does remove it.
There are SO many things you can do with vinegar, and so many types of surfaces you can clean with it. Way too many of both to list here.

My new favorite green cleaning solution is steam! That's right Steam. Make sure to check out my post on Green Cleaning with Steam.

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