Green Living: Make Your Own {Green} Dishwasher Powder

I'm usually skeptical of "green" dishwashing powders or tablets sold in the supermarket, as they seem very expensive, less effective and only marginally better than their commercial counterparts when it comes to their ingredients list. And my only other foray into making dishwashing liquid was very, very stinky. And messy.

Recently I came across a recipe on Re-Nest (and cannot for the life of me find it, but I will!) that called for just two (and an optional third and/or fourth) ingredients. Brilliant!

You need: 

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda (or bicarb soda, but I used washing soda)
a few drops of essential oil* (teatree oil is perfect as it's naturally antibacterial)
white vinegar*


(*optional)

Just mix the borax and washing soda together in a jar or container. Take 1-2 tablespoons and put in your detergent dispenser in the dishwasher.

Put some vinegar in the rinse dispenser, as well as a couple of drops of your essential oil.

I've tried this a couple of times and have been generally really pleased with the results. It costs next to nothing to make, leaves the dishes nice and clean, plus it smells so so so much better than those faux citrusy dishwasher tablets.

Confession: I didn't have any vinegar so I haven't tried the rinse thing yet. So I just put a couple of drops of oil in with the dry ingredients. It all seemed to work fine, but the oil did cause some of the powder to set hard like concrete and I had to dig it out with a fork (!!)

Green Cleaning Toolkit: The Whole Shebang

I've gone through the major elements in a good green cleaning toolkit over the past few weeks:

• bicarb soda
• castile soap
• white vinegar
• borax

and figured I'd add the remainder to this post, because they're not used as often as the four major ones above.

Washing Soda

Find it in the laundry aisle at the supermarket.

Laundry: Use it in your homemade laundry detergent.
Laundry Brightener: When washing with castile soap, I add a couple of tablespoons of washing soda for all loads except darks. It helps brighten and soften the clothes and I think they smell fresher.

Salt

Regular, household salt.

Laundry: Add 1/3 cup to your dark laundry loads to preserve the black in your garments.

General Cleaning: Combined with castile soap, water or lemon juice, salt makes a really effective soft scrub for sinks, basins and benchtops that need a good, deep clean. (I generally tend to use bicarb and vinegar for this though, but it's a good alternative.)

Various Essential Oils

Make sure to purchase essential oils, rather than scented oils, as the latter can be almost as harmful to your health as the chemical cleaners you're trying to avoid. It's also worth checking that you don't have an adverse reaction to any particular oil before using it all over the house. Additionally, pregnant ladies need to be cautious around essential oils as some can stimulate labour.

Laundry: Add 10 drops to your rinse cycle for beautiful smelling clothes. Plus some oils, like tea-tree and lavender, have antibacterial qualities, making them great to wash things like fabric nappies.
General Cleaning: Add a few drops to your homemade cleaners for a nice change.
General Cleaning: Add 20 drops to a spray bottle and use as a room freshener.
Dusting: A damp microfibre cloth sprinkled with a few drops of lavender oil makes the whole room smell lovely. Lame, but true.

Equipment

Cloths

Washable Chux cloths: Generally once they're done in the kitchen, I wash them and add them to the cleaning cupboard. They're reusable and do a good job of tackling most tasks.

Microfibre Cloths: $3 for a pack of four at the Reject Shop. Get some. I use a damp cloth to do all my dusting, plus they clean glass and make rinsing and wiping out basins, vanities, baths and showers super easy. They are brilliant. Plus you just throw them in the wash and use them time and time again.

Spray Bottles

Spend a little bit extra and get the good spray bottles from Bunnings or somewhere similar. The cheapies are fine for mild cleaners, but I found that when I put vinegar in them, the spray mechanism would stop working after a week or two. I bought some Oates ones about a year ago and haven't had any issues since.

There really isn't much involved in getting your green cleaning toolkit together, and it becomes second nature really very quickly.

Let me know if you have any specific questions or things you use in your green cleaning. I'd love to get some more ideas!

Green Cleaning Toolkit: Vinegar

image by Mattia Valerio

The next installment in my Green Cleaning Toolkit is: V for vinegar. (You can see previous posts here.)

I have already posted about some of the top uses for vinegar around the house, but as it is the one ingredient I use multiple times every single day, I think it definitely requires its own Toolkit post.

I buy my white vinegar in 4L bottles from the supermarket for about $1.50. This usually lasts me between one and two weeks, so it's pretty good value. I'm on the lookout for somewhere I can buy it in bulk, to save on packaging, but so far I can only find it by the huuuge drumload.

Cleaning Uses:

General Purpose Cleaner - Dilute 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water and keep it in a spray bottle. You can use this and a damp cloth to clean just about everything. I use it to clean the bathroom vanity, the bath, the tiles (unless they need a heavy clean), the kitchen benchtops, the cupboard doors, the sink (unless it needs a scrub, then I use lemon and bi-carb).

High-Strength Cleaner - Keep straight white vinegar in another spray bottle and use it as a cleaner on stubborn marks like the bath ring or soap scum on tiles. Just spray thoroughly, leave for 15 minutes, wipe over the dirt with a damp cloth, rinse and dry. This is also really good to clean that greasy, dusty layer you get in the kitchen sometimes - particularly on the rangehood or the oven door.

Disinfectant/Cleaner - Spray all over your toilet with vinegar when you spray the bowl (remember the borax and vinegar toilet cleaner?) and leave it till you clean the bowl. This acts both as a disinfectant and cleaner for the loo. You can also spray your wooden and plastic chopping boards with straight vinegar, leaving it for a few minutes, then rinse and dry. This disinfects and gets rid of oniony smells.

Floor Cleaner - When we had our oiled floors laid during the reno, the floor guy told us to clean the floors using a bucket of warm water, half a cup of methylated spirits and half a cup of vinegar. That works a treat with the oil finish, but before the reno when we had floors sealed with polyurethane, I used a squirt of Morning Fresh liquid and a cup or so of vinegar in the bucket and that was really effective too. I think the vinegar cuts down on any soapy build-up and makes the floor lovely and shiny.

Laundry Uses:

Softener/Freshener - I add about a quarter of a cup of vinegar to every wash I do, with the exception of the fabric nappies (the vinegar can effect their absorbency), and it softens and freshens the laundry so much. I can tell if I don't use it, particularly with the linen as it feels all scratchy and rough. And despite the smell of vinegar when you first put it in the washing machine, you really can't smell it much once it's been washed, and not at all once the laundry is dry. Apparently, adding some vinegar to the wash can help alleviate eczema in those who have skin reaction to laundry powder too. I used to wash Isla's clothes in Lux flakes and vinegar before I discovered castile soap.

Other Uses:

Toy Cleaner - Spray the kids toys and board books with the 1:4 vinegar dilution and wipe over with a clean cloth. It lifts off stickiness and is a mild disinfectant too.

It really is just as easy as making one or two changes every couple of weeks, and before you even realise it, you'll be cleaning greener and simpler. I can't promise it will be any more fun though. Sorry.

Awesome Uses for Bicarb Soda

I know I've mentioned the lemon + bicarb miracle combination before, but there are about a bajillion other uses for bicarb in your house, kitchen, laundry and bathroom. Some of these are pretty cool:

• Make your own self-raising flour if you're ever caught without, by adding one teaspoon of cream of tartar and half a teaspoon bicarb soda to one cup of plain flour
• Effective as a fire extinguisher (particularly grease and electrical fires)
• Make a paste of bicarb and water and apply to ant and mosquito bites, as well as beestings - it should take the itch out. (Duly noted here because I am super allergic to ants and bees).
• Have a cool bath with a cup of bicarb to take the burn out of sunburn
• Brush your teeth with a paste of bicarb and water - it's antibacterial and makes your teeth shiny
• Wash your fruit and veges in a sink filled with water and 1/4 cup bicarb - this removes traces of insecticides that remain on the skin
• Sprinkle bicarb on your pets between washes if they're getting a little stinky. Just sprinkle, massage and brush it out
• Leave a little container of bicarb in the fridge to get rid of that mysterious fridge stink we sometimes get (hello, old watermelon!)

These are all in addition to the usual suspects, such as making a paste with water and cleaning pretty much any surface in the house, or sprinkling it in the nappy bucket, or adding it to your washing to freshen and soften your clothes.

Maybe I'm a dorky dork, but I found that kind of interesting!

Green Cleaning: Lemon + Baking Soda = Sparkly McGee!

Lemons are nature's zesty cleaning power-bombs and this green cleaning recipe uses that to its fullest advantage.

All you need is one dirty sink (or any metal surface in your kitchen, or porcelain, enamel or fibreglass in your bathroom), half a lemon, some bicarb soda and about five minutes.

Before. Ugh.

Sprinkle the lemon half with some bicarb, and also sprinkle the sink with a little of the powder too - this works best if the sink is pretty dry before cleaning. Use the flesh side of the lemon to scrub the sink. It takes a couple of minutes for the sherberty fizz to take all the grime away, but it absolutely works and smells citrus fresh too!

If you have some tougher grime or stains then use the skin side as a scrubbing brush. I was surprised by how well this actually works, but the skin really does pick up the stains.

After. The plug hole needs a vinegar soak to bring out the stains but its totally clean. Honest!

I actually used the skin and some extra bicarb to scrub some rust spots on the knife I used and they came out straight away. Lovely!

Ol' Rusty Before.

'Ol Rusty no more.

Super easy and super useful. I like this recipe because it gives me a way of using up the shrivelly lemon halves I sometimes collect in the fruit bowl. Plus it smells so good!

As for the rest of the week, we're busy preparing for Isy's second birthday on the weekend. It's a bubble party so should be awesome!

Hope you're having a good week! X

Green Cleaning Tip: Eucalyptus Essential Oil

Pom pom progress!

In between garage sale preparation, trips to the doctors, crumb duty (seriously! where do they all come from??!) laundry, ironing and cooking it's been craft mayhem here. The weather's been a bit sucky so Isy and I are getting messy. It's fun. And I'm pretty sure Isla likes it too.


GREEN CLEANING TIP:

Love me some fresh-smelling eucalyptus oil, I really do. It's also a pretty handy addition to your green cleaning stash as it's a super-duper oil. It's antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and good for your immune system. It can be mixed with water in a spray bottle (try around 20 drops to one cup of water) and applied to any areas that need disinfecting, such as table tops, door knobs, bathrooms etc. It gives such a beautiful, fresh scent too. Bonus!

You can buy it at most supermarkets (just make sure it's pure eucalyptus oil) or health food stores.

Handy tip: Lavender oil has very similar disinfecting qualities, so you could try the above spray using essential lavender oil instead.

Meanwhile, it's back to sorting through books and CDs here. The countdown to G Day is on!

Top Ten Vinegar Uses - Cleaning

Vinegar Street by Mykal Shaw

Vinegar (white distilled vinegar - available by the bottle at the supermarket) is pretty cool. I use it in all my green cleaning recipes and clean my bathroom most weeks with nothing more than vinegar, water and elbow grease.

There's about 50,000 recipes that use vinegar, but it can be used on its own for so many different things. Try one of these next time the need arises:

1. Clean the microwave by mixing 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl. Bring it to a rolling boil inside the microwave and let it sit for a few minutes. The steam will soften any baked-on food and the vinegar gets rid of smells. Wipe clean with a damp cloth.

2. For stained/smelly plastic food containers, wipe them with a cloth dampened with white distilled vinegar.

3. Discourage ants by spraying straight vinegar outside doorways and windows.

4. To remove a sticky label or price tag, cover with a cloth soaked in vinegar. Leave overnight and the label should easily come away.

5. Clean grout by letting full-strength vinegar sit on it for a few minutes and scrubbing with an old toothbrush.

6. Kill germs around the bathroom with a spray of full-strength vinegar. Rinse and wipe clean with a damp cloth.

7. Remove wallpaper by using a paint roller to wet the surface very thoroughly with a solution of one part vinegar to one part hot water. Or spray on until saturated.

8. Clean hardened paint brushes by simmering them in a saucepan of vinegar. Soak first for an hour or so before bringing it to a simmer. Drain and rinse clean.

9. Clean vinyl baby books or board books by wiping with vinegar. Wipe clean with a damp cloth.

10. Clean scissors that have become sticky (eg. after cutting tape) with a cloth dipped in undiluted vinegar.


There's obviously many more uses in the laundry, garden and medicine cabinet, and I'll get around to those another time. But truly, vinegar, castile soap, borax and baking soda make up the vast, vast majority of all my cleaning solutions. Sparkly McGee!

Green Cleaning - Getting Started

Green Bubbles from brhefele

I've recently become pretty enamoured with the whole green-cleaning movement, and have thrown myself headlong into learning all there is about cleaning sans chemicals.

It's been really interesting, and aside from an unfortunate smelling homemade laundry powder (which I will use up, begrudgingly) I've been stoked with the results.

I'm keen to share a few of my favourite recipes today, and can keep adding them if folks are interested.

Getting Started

 
Before you start, there are a few items and products that are pretty important to have at home, otherwise you'll feel like it's a huge chore to go out and buy them as you come across the need. The key things you'll need to begin:

• A collection of spray/spritz/squirt bottles (I bought half a dozen from the Reject Shop for $2 each and that's been plenty for me. I have some recipes made up all the time while others are just a one-off use).
• Old tea-towels or cloth nappies for wiping down surfaces
• Various sponges, Chux wipes etc
• Empty jars or takeaway containers to store made-up formulas

• Baking soda (known as bi-carb soda here in Australia)
• A good quality, genuine castile soap. You can either get a hard bar and grate it up where needed or a liquid version. I use Dr Bronners Liquid Castile in Lavender (naturally) and Orange Citrus. Castile soap is supremely gentle on your skin but still quite concentrated and a really effective cleaner. I'll put together a post on how much I love the stuff shortly.
• Borax - a natural mineral found in powdered form in your laundry aisle
• Washing soda - also in your laundry aisle
• Vinegar (white vinegar is fine, or cleaning vinegar)
• Tea tree oil

To get through a typical cleaning week, these are the formula I need, and for a less frequent clean (the oven for example) I just make the relevant formula up when I need it:

         All purpose spray cleaner
         Tea tree oil spray (Water and 10 drops tea tree oil)
         Vinegar/Water Spray (1:4)
         Straight Vinegar

ALL-PURPOSE SPRAY CLEANER

I use this recipe to clean kitchen and bathroom benchtops and cupboards, the outside of the microwave, fridge and oven and the wall tiles when they only need a light clean. It's fairly mild, but I find that because I wipe down the kitchen bench after use that there's never a huge scungy later of grease to remove. If you're after something to remove that, then vinegar and water (one part vinegar to three parts water) in a spray bottle will help, or the Kitchen Scouring Paste (2 tbsp vinegar, 3 tbsp baking soda combined).

     1/2 tsp washing soda
     1 tsp borax
     1/2 tsp castile soap
     2 tbsp vinegar
     2 cups hot water

Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well until solid bits have dissolved. Spray surfaces and wipe clean with a damp cloth or sponge.

TOILET CLEANER - easy as!

     1/2cup borax
     Vinegar

Sprinkle inside toilet bowl liberally with borax and spray with straight vinegar until thoroughly wet. Leave on for 30 minutes. Use a scrubbing brush as normal and flush.

I usually then clean the toilet suite with the All Purpose Spray Cleaner. Comes up a treat, every time.

There are recipes for more stubborn stains, but I can't recommend them as I've never had to try. If I do I'll be sure to tell you about it.

OTHER TIPS:

To clean mirrors, windows and shower screens I use the vinegar/water spray. Spray the glass and wipe well with newspaper. Sparkly McGee!

I also use the same vinegar/water spray on tiles in the bathroom and kitchen if they need a good clean. Spray, leave, rinse and wipe dry.

Straight vinegar sprayed into the bath or shower and left for 10 minutes is the best way to get rid of soap build-up or a bath ring. Just spray, leave for 10, wipe/scrub with a sponge, rinse and wipe down.

Tea tree oil spray is used on high rotation in our house. It's an awesome bactericide, smells lovely and is gentle enough to use on almost everything. I use it for:

• A super excellent nappy spray. (I spray Isy's used nappies and pop them in a dry bucket until washing time)
• Spray down bathroom tiles after cleaning, leave for 10 minutes, then wipe dry. This stops mould/mildew build-up. Keeps the tiles cleaner too.
• Spray on washed shower curtains to stop mould/mildew.
• Fabulous deoderiser

I also use green cleaners in the laundry, the rest of the kitchen and around the house, but I'll save them for another post (or seven.)

Brooke, the cleaning nerd.
xx