Green Cleaning Products

Hi My Lovely Ladies (and Gents of course)

Today I am coming at you with some ideas on how to start your green cleaning routine, hopefully you will get inspired to switch your cleaning products too :)
I posted this photo on Instagram, and instantly got asked for a blog post about my cleaning routine, so here I am doing this for you guys!
Btw, do you follow me on instagram? if not, please feel free to do so:
https://instagram.com/green_life_in_dublin/
Back to cleaning :) If you didn't start to greenify (is that a word? well, it is now, lol) your cleaning routine, don't worry, you do not need anything fancy or expensive, the basic products you need, you probably have in your kitchen cupboards already. I am talking about a simple lemon, white vinegar and sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda in other words. Simple, I told you so :)
So why switch? Not only the regular cleaning products are chock full of chemicals, they are off-gassing for long time after you finished scrubbing surfaces with them. Not only that, they react with each other, creating toxic fumes in your house, and who wants that? and that "fresh" scent? another truckload of chemicals - fragrance - to mask the real smell of these horrible products. I used to get itchy eyes and skin after my cleaning days, not only that, but my skin was reacting in red rashes that took days and even weeks to subside, and yet l never put two and two together for years! As for many moms, road to all things natural starts with having your own baby, suddenly you realise you don't want any chemicals near your precious bundle of joy, so the ban of all ajaxdomestosfairyariel things started there. 
so there are things that I use for cleaning:

Vinegar - buy cheapest white vinegar, don't waste your good apple cider vinegar for this! Pour into spray bottle 50/50 with water, add your favourite essential oil for nice smell (I use lemon or orange essential oils, these are particularly good for cleaning). Good for any kind of surface, esp for glass and windows. If cleaning windows or mirrors with this finish by scrubbing them with scrunched up newspaper. Seriously. You will see shine like no other. Vinegar disinfects as well as cleans. For washing floors, take a bucket of water and a half a cup of vinegar, plus some essential oil (lemon or tea tree) and that is all you need.

Sodium Bicarbonate (or baking soda in other words) - just sprinkle and scrub away :) i use it mainly in the kitchen an the bathroom, it lifts any kind of dirt, esp good when cleaning bathtub, l use nothing else in the bathtub, and my hubby commented it works better than any shop bought stuff we used before! that is big coming from him :) For toilet bowl and greasy oven l sprinkle soda all around, and after a min or two spray my trusty vinegar mixture, it creates foamy reaction and cleans beautifully! This mixture will clean ANYTHING, trust me! Just let it foam up and sit there for a few mins and do the hard work for you. You don't need those toxic oven cleaners that cost a fortune. Speaking of oven cleaners, l have a friend who owns a professional cleaning company, he told me he wouldn't use that stuff in his own owen at any cost, and that speaks volumes to me. Clogged sink? pour a cup of baking soda and a cup of white vinegar, followed by kettle (or two) of boiling water. Repeat if necessary, but 9 times out of 10 you will have unclogged sink! all natural, and you will save yourself big bucks by not calling a professional in.

Lemon - don't overlook simple lemon for cleaning, it is brilliant for that! Nobody throws a lemon away in my house, even after squeezing the juices for your lemonade etc, you can use leftovers to clean! Brilliant for disinfecting wooden chopping boards, etc. Just take a lemon, cut it in half and start rubbing things, simple as that.. You can sprinkle some baking soda for double whammy, but lemon on it's own is good too. I chuckled to other day when my toddler shouted - "Hey, this kitchen counter is not clean, give me a lemon!"

Salt - if some scrubbing action is needed (tiles in the kitchen or bathroom, you can add some salt for more scrubbing power.

I encourage you to browse Pinterest for more DIY recipes if you wan to, there's plenty in there, I use very simple products, because it works for me. I fully understand that not everyone is inclined or has time to make DIYs, but these are very simple things I am recommending you, try it once and you will be happy with the results, you will see! If you still want to buy ready made products, keep your eyes peeled, I got the green glass cleaner (the bottle on the right in this photo) in 2euro shop for all the places, plus I've seen very good ones in TKMaxx, as well as in health food shops. So check around. 
Phew, that was a mouthful :) If you are still with me, comment "LEMON" in the comments below :) And of course please feel free to ask any questions!


Thanks for stopping by!
Lots of love,
Renee.