How to Clean Your House with Your Kitchen

Instead of divvying up your dough to products at the grocery store, you can use products you already have in your home to spruce up your palace. With some vinegar, essential oils, and some extras like baking soda, you can have your house in tip-top shape without harming natural resources.

Wash Your Windows without Windex

Vinegar has long been known to clean glass surfaces without leaving residue, just ask grandma. But these days, grandma isn't around to give you these words of wisdom, and with all the fancy in-your-face marketing out there, you might wonder if her advice is arcane. But it's true! Just mix ¼ cup of vinegar with an equal part of water and a spritz of lemon juice in a squirt bottle. Use newspapers instead of paper towels to get those windows so clear you'll confuse your outdoor-craving cats.

Make Your Hardwood Floors Glow

Again, vinegar is the trick here. Use the same mixture you would for your windows, and add a few drops (about a teaspoon) of essential oil. Lavender helps stave off nasty critters that like to break into your goodies, and leaves a refreshing smell to boot.

Shine your Kitchen Counters, Sinks, Bathtub, and Toilet

Baking soda has active whitening and brightening ingredients that help stave off mold and mildew. You can tell how useful this product is when visiting your market, as Arm & Hammer has taken over as the "key" ingredient in toothpastes, rinses, household cleaners, detergents, and cat litter. But those products also contain harmful particles that add to the growing problem of our shrinking environment. Instead, opt for an all-out baking soda, lemon and water scrub.

Melt Away Mold

The chemicals used in mold-eliminating cleansers are also bad bets for the planet. To watch mold melt away while being a solid citizen, mix together 20 drops of essential oil with 2 cups of water. The best anti-fungal oil to use is grapefruit seed extract, but tea tree oil and lavender work well too.

Cut Away Age from Your Copper Pots and Pans

As it ages, copper has a terrible tendency to oxidize - causing that unattractive green scum-like residue to appear. To help deoxidize (and de-green), mix together a ¼ cup of vinegar with a heap of salt and apply to your pots and pans. Wait a few minutes, and you will see it start to take effect, then wash off your concoction to reveal shiny kitchen gadgets that look like new!