These tips and tricks will help you to discover some pretty simple, easy and effective natural homemade cleaning methods and products that will often outperform the nasty chemical variety or at the very least provide a similar outcome, but be better for your health.
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Whitening Yellowed Pillows
Isn’t it annoying when your beautiful pillow covers that used to be white have become a pale yellowish shade?
The good news is you can easily deal with that by mixing up the following ingredients: 1 cup of laundry detergent, 1 cup of powdered dishwasher detergent, 1 cup of bleach, ½ cup of borax and very hot water.
Cleaning The Iron
Making your iron clean again can be simple if you follow this advice.
Sprinkle a little table salt onto your ironing board and then turn your iron on to the highest heat setting, turning off the steam option.
Proceed to iron over the salt and you’ll find the dirt sticks to the salt leaving the iron clean and shiny again.
Homemade Grime Remover
We all know that our kitchen cabinets over time can gather grime and embedded dirt and gunk.
Not a pretty sight over time but there is a way to fix the problem using this home recipe grime gunk remover.
All you do is mix one part vegetable oil with two parts baking soda and then using a sponge or a gentle (soft bristled) scrubbing brush get to work on the cabinets until the dirt magically removes itself, leaving nice clean cabinets.
Removing Pet Hair From Furniture
So your pet cat or dog leaves fur or pet hair everywhere around the house?
Did you know its relatively simple to remove this unwanted fur?
Grab a pair of rubber gloves, put them on and then just rub your hand over the unwanted hair.
Your clothes, upholstery, and furniture will be instantly free of the unwanted hair/fur.
Cleaning Up Dirty Lego Blocks
Ever been concerned about the cleanliness of the Lego toys your toddlers play with?
Its true these items can become quite filthy and dirty and it would take forever to clean them individually, so why not place them all in a laundry bag and then pop them into a washing machine.
With a little washing powder, you’ll have a spick and span lego blocks afterward that you just need to let dry and you’re done.
Removing Labels
Have you ever been frustrated at removing labels from bottles or jars?
It’s not often as easy as you’d think.
This task can be simplified however when you use OxiClean. (If you aren’t familiar with OxiClean, it’s simply a product that is a mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide)
Fill your sink with warm water and add a scoop of OxiClean.
Let the bottles soak for around 30 minutes and the labels will just come off easily.
Scratches In Wooden Furniture
If you own an old wooden table that is all scratched and unattractive and has frankly seen better days, don’t dispose of it, or throw it away, because, believe it or not, it can still be saved.
Mix ½ cup of vinegar with ½ cup of olive oil, dip a soft cloth in the mixture and rub it onto the wood.
The scratches will completely disappear leaving the wood looking almost like new.
Removing Driveway Oil Stains
Oil stains on your driveway can be frustrating and very unsightly and removing them isn’t very easy either.
Using the product Pour-N-Restore which is an eco-friendly product made up of a powerful citrus degreaser with a non-leaching absorbent, it’s a solution that dries into a powder and absorbs all the oil and pulls up embedded stains.
Removing Heat Marks On Wooden Furniture
If you have white heat marks left behind on your furniture, to remove them, you’ll have to use more heat and moisture.
Using several cloth layers and spraying them with water, place them over the stain and then iron over it for about 15 seconds and hey presto!
Make Your BBQ Grill Non Stick
Getting ready for a summer barbeque?
Don’t you hate how food sticks to the grill?
Well, with this little tip, it won’t anymore.
Grab a decent sized onion, cut it in half, and rub the cut side on the heated grill grate like in the photo.
Cleanup That Microfibre Couch
You probably know that microfiber furniture can get pretty grubby, especially if you have pets or young kids.
But don’t despair, it is possible to clean a microfiber fabric couch or sofa and have it looking a lot better than before.
All you need is a white sponge (so you don’t accidentally pass on the color of the sponge to the sofa) and some rubbing alcohol.
Spray the alcohol onto the stained area of the furniture and scrub with the sponge, then let the area dry.
Then, just take a bristle brush and give the area a bit of a re-fluff up.
Unsightly Or Clogged Shower Head
Make your showerhead look like new again using distilled white vinegar and a plastic bag.
Pour some vinegar into a plastic bag, tie it around the shower head.
Let it soak for about an hour, remove and wipe clean with a wet towel, problem solved- naturally!
Shiny Up Your Bathroom or Kitchen Faucets
Unfortunately, these days, there are cleaning chemicals for just about everything.
The thing is, many of these cleaners aren’t exactly good for our home’s surfaces, our environment, or even us for that matter.
Which is why people are often looking high and low for simple, non-toxic cleaning alternatives.
Here’s a really natural cleaning approach for cleaning up the stainless steel faucets in your bathroom and kitchen.
Just cut a lemon in half and scrub the hard water stains away leaving the surface looking nice and shiny again.
Clean Your Windows Properly & Naturally For a Streak Free Finish
Achieving streak-free clean windows can be the bane of many home owners.
However, the solution is simple, all you have to do to ensure your windows come up clean with no streaks is use a combination of water, vinegar and dish soap.
Mix these three ingredients together, and then spray on your windows, clean the surface with white towelette, or lint free cloth and then finish off by wiping over the window with scrunched up newspaper.
Cleaning Up The Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink
Make your own cleaner for the kitchen sink using the following ingredients: liquid dishwashing soap, white vinegar, baking soda, rock salt, lemon or lime, and ice and an old rag, a toothbrush and a soft sponge.
Rinse off the sink and sprinkle the baking soda onto the surface.
Make a paste and scrub the rim with the toothbrush soaked in the baking soda paste or soap.
Then line the entire sink with paper towels soaked in white vinegar and let these sit for about 20 minutes.
Saturate the sponge with soapy water and clean around the sink.
To clean the drainpipes, fill the drain hole with 2 cups of ice pouring a cup of rock salt over the cubes.
Run the cold water and turn the garbage disposal on until the ice is all gone.
Then cut a lemon in half and add this to the disposal.
A good clean natural way to clean up your kitchen sink and drain.
Cleaning The Bathtub
If you’re a person that prefers the natural cleaning products over the harsh and nasty chemical types, then try using this natural homemade cleaner on your bathtub.
All you need is a grapefruit and ¼ cup of table salt.
Cut the grapefruit in half, and then sprinkle some of the salt onto the cut grapefruit half, wet the tub and then sprinkle the remaining salt around the bottom of the bathtub.
Proceed to then scrub the grapefruit around the sides and base of the bathtub or shower base.
Rinse with water and you’ll be amazed at the end result.
Simple, Natural & Effective Oven Cleaner
No one enjoys cleaning an oven. And when you buy those harsh corrosive chemicals and spray it around your oven, its hard to avoid breathing in the fumes and wonder what they are doing to your lungs.
A better, healthier more natural method of cleaning your oven without having to resort to those corrosive chemical cleaners is to mix up a mixture of baking soda and vinegar.
You’ll also need a bowl and a spatula.
Scrape the large debris pieces off the oven with the spatula, then sprinkle baking soda all over the floor of the oven.
Then spray vinegar over the baking soda and spread the paste around the walls and hard to reach places with the spatula. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes.
Scrub in a circular motion to remove the residue and note the difference.
Cleaning Venetian Blinds
Cleaning the blinds doesn’t have to be painful because there really is quite a simple method to clean them.
Mixing equal parts of white vinegar and warm water in a bowl and slipping an old sock over your hand, simply dip and wipe. You’ll be amazed at the dirt that comes off the blinds.
Removing Permanent Marker
If you have young children who have just discovered the joyfulness of artistic creativity using permanent markers on your furniture, then you’ll most likely be thankful for this little tip.
You can remove the marks by first putting a dab of white toothpaste on the mark and then rubbing gently with a damp cloth or paper towel.
Removing Carpet Stains
Some stains on the carpet just won’t come off, regardless of what type of cleaner you use.
One simple solution that has been proven to be effective is to spray window cleaner over the stain, put a cloth or towel over it and then iron. Repeat the process until the stain comes off.
Cleaning Silver
When it comes to natural homemade cleaning products, both salt and baking soda are commonly used, so why not mix them?
If you do that you get a very nice cleaner which you can use on silver by combining equal amounts of salt and baking soda.
Disinfecting A Kitchen Sponge
Kitchen sponges accumulate germs and bacteria and its easy to assume that with a good rinse and squeeze they’re clean, but they aren’t and when you use them to wipe things and benches clean, you’re probably spreading bugs everywhere.
To solve this problem, simply and easily without having to replace the sponge every 5 minutes is to just pop it into the microwave for about 4-5 minutes.
A microwave boils water in 2 minutes and so having the water in the sponge effectively boiled for 2-3 minutes should be sufficient to kill off most of the bugs.
Citrus Vinegar Natural Household Cleaner
To make a natural cleaner that smells wonderful and cleans well, you can use citrus peels and white vinegar.
Take the citrus peels and put them into a jar. Then just pour some white vinegar over them till they are covered and then let it sit for 2 weeks.
Then, remove the peels and dilute the vinegar solution equally with water (1:1).
Pour into a spray bottle and use around the house for most cleaning jobs.
Images Sourced from StumbleUpon and Pinterest.
The basis for this was article was inspired by;
Rosina Ayling http://www.easyshed.co.uk/blog/author/rosinaeasyshed