Baby friendly way to clean house

Since it's Earth Day I wanted to take a minute to talk about natural cleaning for your home. I converted almost two years ago.  It's so easy and cheap.  I have the following things in my cleaning cabnet and nothing else:

• baking soda (5 pound bag from Costco)
• distilled white vinegar (gallon jug, i get it at Ace Hardware)
• hydrogen peroxide (used as an oxygen bleach)
• 20 mule team borax
• old dish rags 
• micro fiber cloths
• Original Spaghetti Scrub

Most of the time I use only vinegar and baking soda. If I really need help I will use some Borax but not often. More often then not though the combo of baking soda and vinegar works wonders. Baking soda is something of a magical chemical compound. Because it is a mild abrasive you can use it for almost any cleaning need from scrubbing toilets to brushing your teeth.

On occasion I will also use lemons to clean sink and toilet stains. Lemon does and amazing job of freshening up smells.

Vinegar I use daily. I put it into a spray bottle and use it to clean sinks counters toilets, carpet stains, crayon markings on walls, mirrors you name it. At first vinegar seems a bit harsh if you've never cleaned with it as the smell is strong but within minutes it disappears and you have no sent left at all. I've become very fond of the no scent fresh smell. Even natural plant based cleaners have to much smell for me.

One note about cleaning mirrors. If you have been using Windex or some other mirror cleaner you will find that the first time you clean it with vinegar you will see a lot of streaking. This is because those commercial cleaners leave a waxy coating. You'll need to clean it at least 4 times before it goes back away. Once it does though plain old vinegar and a dish towel or microfiber cloth does the trick.

I exclude my Country Save laundry soap and Ecover dishwasher tablets as I have yet to find a good alternative for them.  I'm considering soap nuts for laundry. I'll let you know if I actually do it.

Best part about baking soda and vinegar is that if the kids get into them no harm done. Try it out you'll probably never go back. :) Happy Earth Day!