Our Family's Best Homemade Earth-Friendly Cleaners

This is a re-post of my 2012 list of our family's best homemade Earth-friendly cleaners.  Happy Earth Day!

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1. The Ole' Stand-by: Vinegar and Water. We use roughly half water, half white vinegar for our go-to cleaner for mirrors, window and other surfaces. Yeah, it doesn't smell great, but once it is dry the smell is g-o-n-e, gone.



2. The New Favorite: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent.

Here's the new, easy recipe:

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

1/2 cup Borax (Sold at Target)
1/2 cup Washing Soda (made by Arm and Hammer, I buy it at Meijer)
1/2 cup Citric Acid (Sold at Whole Foods, I bought some through Amazon.com in bulk)
1/4 cup Kosher Salt

Mix in an airtight container. Use 1 tablespoon per load of dishes.

Since our water is hard, this is the best cleaner for our dishes, earth-friendly or not. If you have soft water, you can use 1/4 cup citric acid.


3. My I-can't-believe-it-works-so-well-even-on-delicates: Homemade Laundry Detergent

Click on the link for the recipe, which was enough for our family for five months.


4. Kitchen Hero: Homemade Fruit and Vegetable Produce Wash

I use this seemingly all day long. Click on the link for a great way to remove pesticides, residue and other gunk from your fresh produce.

5. Greener Garden Helper: Homemade Earth-Friendly Weed Preventer

It's spring and weeds are popping up along our patio, driveway and front walk. This weed killer has been a huge help! Bonus: R and G love using it which is a huge help.
There you have it; five ways you can celebrate Earth Day, everyday.

Life is sweet,
SPC