A Safer, Healthier Way to Clean Your Dishes

Food is the center of many of life’s celebrations, but at the end of the celebrating, when all the guests are heading home, the clean up has to begin. Doing the dishes, whether you put them in a dishwasher or wash them by hand, takes up a lot of time. And depending on what you use to aid in the cleaning up, the products you use may be environmentally unfriendly and unsafe for your skin.

Natural and organic cleaners are safe and effective for every task you need to do - so that means you don’t have to skip using natural substances to clean your dishes, regardless of whether you choose to wash them by hand or load them in a dishwasher.

There are a lot of natural dish cleaners that can give your dishes sparkle and get them shiny clean. If you use a dishwasher, you can buy natural cleaning pods that come with delightful fragrances like lemon or thyme. This scent can give your entire kitchen a fresh smell - while still being safe for everyone.

A dishwasher load of clean dishes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Because natural ingredients are often better at cleaning than chemicals, you might not need to use as much of the product when you do your dishes. Look for organic dishwashing detergents that don’t have any chlorine or phosphate in them.

Organic and naturally based cleaners can make a greasy clean up job a lot easier by cutting through the grease. And if you get the pre-measured dishwasher pods, this even cuts back on time spent in the kitchen, too. All you have to do is stick one into the dishwasher - no time needed to measure and no chance of accidentally overfilling the soap dish.

If you want to hand wash the dishes, then using natural soap won’t just clean your dishes without unsightly spots, but the soap is often better for your hands, too. Find one that contains aloe vera or chamomile to soothe your skin.

Instead of using dishwasher detergent that has synthetic scents and colors, use ones that have citrus extracts like lemon so that your kitchen is instantly refreshed after you cook a meal with strong odors.

You can even make an effective cleaner yourself just by using a mix of borax and baking soda with an essential oil scent of your choice. This may not have the beautiful color and suds that you had when you used store-bought dishwasher detergent, but you also won’t be putting anything harmful down your drain.

Make sure you play around with the do-it-yourself recipes for organic cleaners to find a formulation that works, because we all have different levels of hardness to our water. And watch how your skin reacts to the ingredients, too. Just because it's all-natural doesn't mean you can't have an allergic reaction. Depending on the ingredients, and your personal sensitivities, you still might need to wear gloves while cleaning.

Natural Dishwashing Soaps:
   

Environmentally Friendly Floor Cleaning Solutions

The floors in your home handle a lot of foot traffic, and if you have pets, you can also add paw traffic. It’s no wonder that floors can be tough to keep clean.

Besides foot traffic, there’s human hair, pet hair, dust and anything tracked in from the outside that can build up. Plus, you also have to take care of any accidental spills, and make sure you get up liquids that stain the floor. Some stains get ground in and can be tougher to get out if you didn’t know they had occurred.

Bamboo flooring.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s easy to buy into the belief that using a steam cleaner is the only way to truly clean carpets. And you might also think that chemical cleaners are the best product to use on wood or tile flooring, but you would be wrong.

Many commercial floor cleaners have too many dangerous chemicals to use in your home, and the water used after a chemical steam cleaning ends up in the sewer system, while the non-biodegradable containers end up in the landfill. Not only are these chemicals bad for you and the earth, they don’t do the best job at cleaning, either.

You want floors that are safe and clean enough to walk on barefoot, and you also want floors clean enough for your children to be able to sit on or crawl on - especially if you have little infants learning how to navigate the world.

Luckily, there are a number of natural floor cleaning products available that are much safer for you and your family.

Starting with carpets, you’ll first want to use a natural stain remover. You can find organic stain removers that don’t have any fumes, so there’s no chemical odors, and they don’t contain toxins so they’re great for the environment, too.

Once you’ve gone over any stains on the carpet, you can apply the carpet cleaner. Most organic cleaners are concentrated so a little bit can keep your carpets looking new all year long.

Even if you use a carpet-cleaning machine that doesn’t use heat, organic carpet cleaners will still work for you. Some of the carpet cleaners can be specially mixed in a small dish and used as a stain remover, so you can even skip the pretreatment of stains depending on the brand you get. Look for cleaners that have soap bark and great smelling natural scents like sage.

For tile floors, get a cleaner that’s multi-purpose and contains linseed oil. This is safe to use on marble flooring as well. If you have hardwood flooring, make sure the organic cleaner you buy specifically lists hardwood flooring, because not all organic ingredients are suitable for hardwood.

Some organic cleaners will contain vinegar and an essential oil, which are good for cleaning and shining wood floors. For any floor polishes that you use, make sure they’re vegetable based. 

Some Healthy & Safe Natural Floor Cleaners:
   

Clean Your Countertops With Natural & Organic Cleaners

Your countertops handle a lot of different activity. In the kitchen, your countertops hold appliances, cutting boards for food preparation, dishware in preparation for serving food, and in many cases, it’s where we put the groceries we bring in from the car until we put the food away.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bacteria from food preparation lands on your countertops. Food from meals ends up on your countertops, and dirt from the groceries also sticks to the countertop. Kids put all kinds of things on them - from a flower plucked out of the yard, to rocks, to sticky, dirty hands - and your countertops begin to collect dirt and start to look grimy.

Bacteria and grime in the kitchen is the number one cause of the spread of germs that can make your family sick. You want to keep your countertops free from anything that can harm your family - but that also includes cleaning supplies.

When you wipe the counters and surrounding areas with a cleaning solution or a cleaning wipe that’s soaked in solution, whatever chemicals are in that product are now on your countertops mixing with your food, and also getting onto your kids’ hands and maybe in their mouths!

This is why it's a good idea to use an organic and natural countertop cleaning solution. You can easily find these products in a variety of sizes and natural ingredients designed to clean your countertops, deodorize them and give your kitchen a pleasant scent, too - without harmful perfumes and chemicals.

Ava Anderson Non-Toxic Countertop Spray 
Party Code: 42532

You also want a cleaner that’s gentle on your surfaces. Natural all-purpose countertop sprays often come in a variety of scents such as basil, lavender, and more. The vegetable protein in these cleaners helps keep kitchen odors down, too.

Of course, you don’t want to have to buy one cleaner for your kitchen countertops and a separate kind for your bathroom counters - you want one that can do both jobs. An organic all-purpose cleaner is intended for both bathroom and kitchen counters.

Sometimes there are quick spills that you want to wipe up, or you might have dropped a piece of uncooked meat onto the counter and you quickly want to clean and disinfect that area without bringing out the spray. You’ll want something handy nearby. For that purpose, you can use disinfecting wipes that contain natural and organic ingredients.

When you have tougher dirt or stains such as a scuffmark from a can or other kitchen gadget, you can clean this by using an organic cleaner that has cornstarch in the ingredients. These types of cleaners can also take ink stains off counters; so if you were writing out a grocery list and accidentally marked on the counter, an organic cleaner with coconut oil plus cornstarch can take that right out.

Try Amazon.com to find some natural and organic countertop cleaners, or you can also shop at natural online retailers such as Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, who has a full line of all-natural cleaning products, beauty products, and more. (Use Party Code 42532 when checking out.)

 

The Benefits of Organic Cleaning Products

Everyone wants a clean living or work environment, but cleaning can be hazardous to your health if you use cleaners with harmful toxins. Exposure to the harmful toxins found in cleaning products can worsen asthma and cause allergic reactions.

You may not even be aware that you're polluting your home when you clean. But if you'll check the ingredients posted on the side or back of regular cleaners, you'll see many allergy and cancer-causing ingredients listed. You can research these chemicals and see the harmful health effects they've been linked to.

Earth-Friendly All-Purpose Cleaner

Using organic cleaning products offers many benefits that chemical based ones do not. By using organic cleaners, you can rid your home of chemical cleaner toxins. Organic cleaning products don't contain harsh chemicals that will not only damage your skin but can affect your lungs if you breathe in the vapors.

Cleaning products are used in every room in the house, including on counters, on floors, and on furniture - and everyone in the home is exposed to whatever active ingredients make up the compound of the cleaning product. What do you want your family to come in contact with?

The number of children diagnosed with asthma continues to rise and concerns have been raised by study groups that exposure to the toxins found in household chemicals may be to blame.

One form of asthma, called extrinsic asthma, is caused by environmental contaminants. By using organic products, you'll create a safer home environment for everyone around you. Because they're non-toxic, organic cleaners are safer to use around kids and they're also safer to use around your beloved pets, too.

Organic is better for allergy suffers as well as asthma sufferers. Going organic cuts down on (and in many cases eliminates) illness brought on by being around chemical cleaners. Not only are organic products better to use in your home for health reasons, but they're also better for the environment.

Chemical cleaners can contain harsh abrasives that damage the surfaces of counters - even granite - and bathroom fixtures too, whereas most organic products are gentle and won't hurt the surfaces. Even when you're finished using a chemical cleaner, the chemical toxicity can stay on your counters, tubs and toilet for several hours if not longer before evaporating.

Organic cleaners can clean as well as (and in most cases, better than) chemical cleaners. Plus, there's the cost involved. Chemical cleaners seem a lot less expensive, but they're not in the long run. Many organic and natural cleaning products are highly concentrated, so you don't have to use as much of them. And when you factor in the long-term impacts on your health, organic cleaners come out way ahead.

Ten “Green” Cleaning Uses for Flat Beer

Ever wonder what to do with a half empty bottle of beer?  Drinking it isn’t an option; there’s not much worse than flat beer.  So what’s a person who doesn’t like to waste anything to do with a bunch of flat beer?  Here are ten “green” cleaning uses for flat beer - just in case you have some extra left over from the holiday weekend!

Beer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#1.  Coffee and tea stain remover.  Though you don’t really want your clothes to smell like beer, it is actually a great stain remover.  Pour the beer on the stain and let it sit for a minute.  Blot the stain and examine.  If it’s still lingering, repeat as needed. Then launder as usual.

#2.  Polish your jewelry.  Pour that leftover beer into a small glass bowl and place your gem-free jewelry into the bowl.  Let sit for a couple of minutes, remove and dry thoroughly.

#3.  Furniture cleaner.  Use your flat beer to clean your wooden tables and other wooden furniture.  Place flat beer on a clean, soft cloth and apply.  Dry with another clean, soft cloth.

#4.  Clean your garden of slugs and snails.  It’s a long-standing gardening practice to use beer to attract snails and slugs to remove them from your garden.  Pour beer into a shallow dish and place in your garden overnight.  In the morning, you’ll find it full of slugs and snails that have imbibed and drowned.  Toss and repeat as needed to rid your garden of these destructive pests.

#5.  Remove stains from carpeting.  It’s always good to test this in a low-visibility area for colorfastness first.  Then, if you have a carpet stain, pour a little beer on the stain, wait a few minutes, blot and repeat until stain is gone.  This works better on fresh stains rather than stains that have become set in the carpet.

#6.  Cleaning doesn’t just mean cleaning your home.  Flat beer makes a great hair conditioner.  Wash your hair as normal and rinse, then pour that bottle of flat beer over your head, let set for a minute and rinse out.  (Don’t take glass into the shower, but rather pour into a plastic cup to avoid potential breakage and injury.)

Ick! Fruit flies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#7.  Trap fruit flies.  Flat beer is a good way to eliminate pesky fruit flies.  Pour the beer into a small plastic sandwich bag, filling it halfway.  Place the bag into a cup and snip the corner of the bag, not too big but large enough for fruit flies to be able to fly in.  They’ll be drawn to the beer and not be able to find their way out of the bag.

#8.  Bee bait.  Place a few dishes of flat beer on the perimeter of your home to attract them to those areas rather than where you and your family enjoy playing and hanging out. 

#9.  Copper cleaner.  Beer is great for polishing copper.  Try placing a little on a clean cloth and applying to the bottom of your copper pans to remove tarnish and add shine.

#10.  Plant food.  When watering your plants or garden, mix a few tablespoons of flat beer into the water and add to your plants. They will love the extra nutrients and vitamins. 

Flat beer may be unpleasant to drink but it has a number of valuable green cleaning uses.  In a time where we’re learning to make the most of our resources, there’s no reason to let a little flat beer go to waste. Try some of these tips whenever you have flat beer left over!

A Quick Look At Natural & Organic Cleaning Ingredients

You can scrub your home in every room, but that doesn’t mean your home is clean in a way that’s good for your health. If you’ve used chemical cleaners, these chemicals do get absorbed into your body through your skin.

That’s why you want to use only organic and natural cleaning supplies. Products that contain only organic ingredients are not just part of helping the world be a safer place to live environmentally - they’re better for you, too.

Using vinegar for a natural clean (Photo credit: elycefeliz)

When you’re looking for cleaning products, you need to know what the contents should be in order to be considered natural - because some products say that they’re natural, even when they’re not. Avoid products that contain preservatives or synthetic materials.

Organic and natural cleaning supplies will often have plant extracts and natural minerals on the ingredient lists. Some will have flower essences (such as lavender) to give your home a soothing scent.

Look for products that contain essential oils, which are oils from natural items such as lemon or pine. Cleaning ingredients that are natural in nature will also often have the word 'biodegradable' on the label.

Baking soda is a natural cleaner and is often used to scrub and whiten stains. White vinegar can be used to clean through grease, to get rid of stains and even as pest control. Ants will avoid white vinegar, so if you clean around your window frames and any crevices with white vinegar, this will take care of any ant problems.

Vinegar can also be used to kill mold, clean a garbage disposal and even to take out stains left by tea and coffee in your cups. It’s also great for getting rid of lime deposits.

Salt. (Photo credit: SoraZG)

Some other natural and organic cleaning ingredients found in green cleaners are coconut, minerals and salt. You might not think of salt as a natural cleaner, but it is. Salt can be used as an abrasive and it can also be used to dry up liquids spilled on carpets - and like vinegar, it's much cheaper than most commercial cleaning products on the market!

Look for cleaners that contain castile soap. This soap is made of natural olive oil and can be used for cleaning counter tops. It can also be used to clean clothes and it’s great on the hands. People with allergies often find it easier to use castile soap than any other type of soap.

When you’re buying organic or natural cleaners, just remember that the labels should have ingredients that you would recognize from nature. Also look for keywords like non-abrasive and non-flammable, because this is sometimes indicative of it being chemical-free.

Skip Artificial Chemicals, and Use Natural Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy oils are oils that are created from natural elements. They’re also called essential oils. They range from lavender to grapefruit and everything in between. They offer a number of therapeutic benefits, cleaning help and even health benefits, and they are MUCH healthier to use around your home than the toxic "air fresheners" that are so popular these days. (I call them "air poisoners," as they smell so noxious to me, and I can't stand breathing them in.)

Here Are Nine Smart Ways of Using Aromatherapy Oils in Your Home

Image via Wikipedia#1 Water Diffuser and Room Freshener.
Add six to eight drops of your favorite scent to a bowl of water. If the water is warm, it will help spread the scent more quickly. You could place the bowl on a table or counter. If you’re really in need of a quick freshening, simply add the drops to a pan of boiling water. Choose your essential oils based on your mood or need. For example, if you want to freshen up your home lemon, verbena, orange or other light scents are ideal. If you’re looking to relax, try lavender or sandalwood.

#2 Room and Linen Deodorizer.
Add a few drops of essential oil to water in a spray bottle. Keep a bottle in your bathroom. Spray near pet areas. Or use the spray to freshen linens. Lavender spray in your bedroom is a great way to add a relaxing scent. A MUCH better choice than the chemical-filled Febreze-type fabric sprays.

#4 Sachet and Closet Freshener.
Add a few drops of essential oils to cotton balls and place in drawers or your closet. Lavender, cedar or sandalwood are nice choices.

#5 Heat Diffuser.
Place a few drops of essential oils on a cotton ball or wool ball and place inside a heating vent. When your furnace kicks on the blower will help spread the scent throughout your home. (Caution: Don't try this with a hot radiator!)

#6 Sinus Remedy.
If you’re ill or struggling with congestion, put a few drops of eucalyptus oil in hot water and place it near your face for a few minutes so you can breathe in the steam. You may consider placing some oil in a hot water vaporizer at bedtime as well.

#7 Refrigerator Deodorizer.
Place several drops of orange, mint or lemon oil in a bucket of warm water. With a clean sponge, use the water to clean out your refrigerator.

#7 Counter Cleaner.
Add lemon, thyme, basil or even geranium oil to equal parts distilled white vinegar and water. Use to clean countertops in your kitchen and bathroom. Cleans just as well as chemical cleaners, and leaves a fresh scent!

Image via Wikipedia#8 Light bulb room freshener.
Here is a nifty and cheap way to freshen a room. Place a drop of your favorite oil on your light bulbs. Make sure to add the oil when the bulbs are cold. When the light is on and the bulb heats up it will heat the oil and fill the room with scent. Consider placing lavender oil on bedroom light bulbs to relax, and invigorating grapefruit or other citrus scent in your home office. All it takes is a drop!

#9 Furniture polish.
Add four to six drops of lemon essential oil to half a cup of olive oil. With a clean dry rag, use the oil to polish wood furniture. Not only will your furniture look beautiful, but your wood will not be releasing toxic chemicals back into the air over time.

Essential oils fill your home with fresh and natural scents. You can be sure you’re providing your loved ones with a safe environment free from harmful chemicals when you use aromatherapy oils to clean and deodorize your home.