cleaning my home...better

photo via

Recently, I started paying attention to statistics and facts about household cleaning products, home goods, and foods.  Things started showing up all over blogs, I saw books on living healthier, and I have to admit, I was curious. Apparently, women who stay at home and are around household cleaning products have a significantly higher risk of cancer.  And not eating healthy foods affects your daily health even more significantly.  I don't mean just eating green beans, I mean eating fresh, non-canned, still crunchy from the farm green beans.

I'm trying to change some of the foods we eat, and I also decided to change the way we clean and, I must admit, it has worked out for the better so far.

I did tons of internet research on products to use, ratios for mixing your own, and all the different ways to make cleaning products.

I landed on a fairly good resource here.  Just about everything can be cleaned with vinegar and baking soda, oddly enough.

I tried the all purpose cleaner to begin with.  It turned out well! It cleans well, and with the oil, it smells good, too!

My recipe:

At least half a cup of vinegar.  The amount depends on the purpose: more for all-purpose, less if you also want to clean glass. Max amount should be 1 part vinegar to 1 part water.
Water -- to fill up the rest of your spray bottle
Good smelling essential oil.  My current favorite is lemongrass because it smells clean.

Steps:
1.  Put vinegar into spray bottle.  Fill up the rest of the bottle with water. Put in two or three drops of essential oil.
2. Shake.
3. Use!

The only comment I would add, is that if you're not using the cleaner for glass, I would add a bit more vinegar -- just for good measure.  Because that's how I clean: if I'm going to put in the effort to clean it, it better be REALLY clean.