How to Make Earth-Friendly Cleaners

It's simple to make your own earth friendly household cleaners. Why use products loaded with chemicals that can potentially cause cancer and pollute our water supply? Using a few key ingredients you can make your own for pennies per use. The best part is the ingredients don't contain harmful chemicals and most of what you need you can find in your local food market.

What you will need to get started;

Vinegar

Water

Spray bottles

Essential oils (tea tree, peppermint, lemon, orange, lavender-you can find these at the health food store)

Baking soda

Borax

To make an easy multi-purpose spray cleaner just fill half a spray bottle with vinegar. Add water until it's almost full (about an inch from the top). Add in 1 tbsp of liquid soap and 30 drops of essential oils. Shake and voila! This spray is useful from the kitchen to the bathroom. It is a great cleaner and cheap and easy to make. You can combine essential oils or use them singly.

Essential oils have antifungal, antiseptic and antibacterial properties so it's important to get quality oils. It may be a bit of an investment but once you have them they will last a very long time.

For harder jobs you can mix the baking soda with a bit of water (equal parts) to make a good scouring scrub. This is good for gunky counters and the bathtub. If you have something especially gross to clean you can add a bit of borax to the mixture. (like the toilets)

You can use straight vinegar for disinfecting. Washing floors and basically any surface in your home. Vinegar neutralizes odors and kills germs.

For an easy carpet powder use 1 cup of baking soda and add in about 25 drops of an essential oil of your choice. Mix well with a fork and let sit overnight. Sprinkle on your carpet and enjoy!

For windows use straight vinegar. Be sure and recycle your newspapers for a streak free windows and mirrors.

To make an easy room spray you can use water in a spray bottle with a little essential oils mixed in. You also might want to burn a teaspoon of essential oil over low heat on your stove in a quart of water. Orange in lovely for this!

Making your own cleaners makes cleaning a bit less of a chore. Especially when you know you are keeping your family and the planet safe from harmful chemicals.

Be sure to tell your friends! Or better yet surprise someone with a bottle of your own homemade cleaner and the directions on how to make and use their own.

Be sure to label your creations and keep out of reach of children and pets. Just because it's natural dozen't make it edible!