Category Archives: Cleaning

Vinegar and Grapefruit Peel Cleaner

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As a follow up to my last post about using vinegar as a cleaner, I thought I’d post some pictures of the grapefruit/vinegar experiment that I mentioned in DIY Vinegar and Baking Soda Cleaner. We’ve been making grapefruit and orange juice lately, and since the juicer doesn’t handle the peels well, we’ve been able to save a good bit of citrus peels this week. I’ve looked up things to do with grapefruit peels in the past but never actually tried anything out—the peels just ended up in the compost. But this time, I saved them and crammed them into a jar with vinegar.

Here’re the peels. I’d guess there are 2-3 grapefruit peels and 3-5 orange peels here.

Then, like I said, I crammed them all into the jar. Turned out to be just the right amount.

Next came the vinegar. We figured that not very much vinegar would fit in the jar with the peels, but there’s more in there than I thought would fit.

So far, it’s only been steeping for a day. I checked the smell, and it’s getting better, but it’s still pretty vinegar-y. I’ll let it sit for a couple more days before checking it again. If it comes out like we hope, it’ll be good to mop in the kitchen and clean bathrooms with.

Anybody have an idea of what’s actually happening with the peels in the vinegar? Is the vinegar pulling oil from the peels maybe?

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DIY Vinegar and Baking Soda Cleaner

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Lately, we’ve tried to cut back on the amount of chemical cleaners we use around the house. Mostly thanks to the Super Natural Home book I posted about a while back, we’ve made it a point to avoid certain chemicals/ingredients in cleaners whose reputations precede them (in a negative way). Today, I’m going to talk a little about vinegar and baking soda.

One of the most popular DIY cleaners, I’ve found, is basically just plain old white vinegar, and I’ve started using it for multiple purposes. Another pretty popular cleaner is baking soda, which I also use a good bit when cleaning. I even sometimes use them together (and not just for the 2nd grade volcano effect).

I like to put the vinegar in a little spray bottle that makes it easy to use the same way I’d use any other kind of spray cleaner. The cleaning power of vinegar is pretty well documented in books and on websites, and since it kills many, if not all, of the types of germs bleach kills, it’s a good natural substitute for the heavier-duty cleaners. I use it to clean toilets, kitchen and bathroom sinks, and kitchen countertops.

But.

The smell. Vinegar’s smell is not the most pleasant, I know. However, I’ve found that when I use it to clean, the smell usually dissipates pretty quickly (like maybe an hour at most). So the smell isn’t something I worry too much about. Just for the fun of it, I’m going to try steeping grapefruit peels in some vinegar for a few days and then using that vinegar to clean. Supposedly, the peels will eliminate the vinegar smell. We’ll see (and I’ll let you know).

The other cleaner I’ve started using is baking soda. I like to keep it in a little jar.

Baking soda works toward a different end than vinegar. (Vinegar=disinfectant; baking soda=cleaner.) Since baking soda is an abrasive, it’s good at getting up sticky spots on counters, soap scum in sinks, and even oils spots on pots and pans. I even use baking soda to wash my face every once in a while (particularly before I shave). It’s a super-versatile little cleaner.

I’ll save the combination vinegar/baking soda explanation for another post. I promise to have pictures of the 2nd grade volcano science project phenomenon.

These DIY cleaners do a good job in their own respective ways, and they’re noticeably cheaper than most cleaners. Even if the kinds of cleaners we’ve given up somehow turned out to be completely safe, I’m a fan of using these cleaners because I know what’s in them and they’re the kinds of homemade cleaners grandmas would swear by.

Do you use any homemade cleaners or natural cleaners that you’re a fan of? Let us know.

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House Purge, Phase 2: Ed’s Desk

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I can be messy (as in not-neat as opposed to not-clean), and I tend sometimes to keep things I don’t need (as opposed to Kristen’s getting rid of things she sometimes still needs). But every once in a while, I’ll decide I’ve had enough of the pile of papers, books, and junk that accumulates in areas of the house that are designated mine. Recently, my desk had become a catch-all of tools, paper, and even bags of screws from some sliding closet doors. So I’ve started on phase 2 of our house purge (we’re distinguishing phases based on the rooms–so phase 2 includes living rooms, one of which is where my desk is) by cleaning off, and out, my desk.

Here’s what I started with:

Not much work (of any kind) was happening on this desk. And even though not much work happens at my desk even when it is clean, people often have to walk by the desk to get out to our back deck. Our guests shouldn’t be subjected to what you see above–no one’s guests should.

I started by taking all the tools down to the basement and putting them back into the big fancy tool box I got for Christmas this year. Then out came the paper shredder.

I still get paper notices in the mail for things like bank statements and retirement account stuff, and since all that stuff is readily available online, there’s not much reason for me to keep it. Into the paper shredder it goes. What few things warranted keeping, I organized in this little file folder that Kristen donated to me after she cleaned out the office from her old job.

From there, all I had left was basically organizing the books that stay on the desk. This was easy. After I repeated this same process with the four drawers, I had a desk ready to be worked on.

Which really means it’ll start catching more stuff that I’ll have to clean off again in a few months. It’s hard work, I know.

Before:

After:

Have you purged anything lately? Getting rid of unnecessary items just makes my heart go pitter pat. What about yours? 

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Home Improvement Book Review: Super Natural Home

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A little while back, I wrote about some home improvement books we picked up from Amazon, and I’d planned to read them and post what I thought about each book. I’ve finally finished one of the three, Super Natural Home by Beth Greer, so I’ll just give you a rundown of what’s in the book, what I thought was interesting, and what I thought wasn’t so interesting.

When I bought the book, I was thinking it’d cover some ways to make home improvements that were environmentally friendly and personally healthy. Which it does and it doesn’t. The book is really more about getting rid of household things (e.g., cleaners, personal hygiene stuff, food, and even furniture) that contain harmful chemicals or ingredients. The book also provides plenty of suggestions and information about how to integrate healthy and non-harmful replacements into the household. So it’s more focused on things like DIY kitchen cleaner than DIY natural lighting. Even though I was expecting something different, the book turned out to be pretty informative on things I hadn’t really thought about.

The book is split into sections, including ‘What Goes in You’ (Food) and ‘What Goes on You’ (hygiene products), and each section discusses products to avoid (e.g., sodium laurel sulfate in toothpaste, MSG in food). It’s at times a little overwhelming how many potentially harmful ingredients there are in so many of the things we use regularly, but the book does point out that you can’t quit using the products in question all at once (or it’d be extremely hard to do so). However, there are some pretty easy starting points, such as not drinking bottled water and getting a non-BPA water container to drink filtered water from. (I recently got us some Klean Kanteen bottles made of stainless steel instead of plastic.)

One slightly questionable aspect of the book is the harmful ingredient issue. The things deemed harmful by the book are largely either unregulated (chemicals in hygiene products) or regarded as safe in certain amounts (pesticides used in farming). The book does reference studies that suggest the harmfulness of the ingredients, but a certain amount of the argument is based on a better-safe-than-sorry mindset. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing–I’m more inclined to believe not ingesting chemicals is safer than doing so. In any case, there are lots of references and suggestions for further reading that I imagine support the book’s claims (although I haven’t checked any of them out yet).

Overall, I think the book includes some helpful advice and information that you can’t get on the back of the shampoo bottle. We’re trying to be more aware of what’s in the things we buy and looking for alternatives to things that could be harmful. (I’ve even started washing dishes with baking soda and cleaning the countertops with vinegar and water.) So even though it wasn’t exactly what I expected, there’s plenty of information in the book that makes it worth having.

picture is linked to source

Things I’ve learned from the book:

*Try to avoid plastics containing BPA. The verdict seems to still be out on this one (here and here), but like I said earlier, I’d rather be safe than sorry. This means avoiding drinks in plastic bottles (water, soda, etc.) and some canned goods (which are lined with an epoxy containing BPA). We’re drinking filtered water at home and staying away from sodas.

*Look out for MSG and its many euphemisms (see here). We’re spending even more time looking through the ingredients at the grocery store and trying to avoid things that contain ingredients we can’t pronounce.

*Some non-organic vegetables are more harmful (potatoes, peanuts) than others (onions) because of the level of pesticides used. We’ve joined our local organic CSA and are eating as many vegetables as we can that are grown locally.

Disclaimer: We weren’t paid or perked for writing about this product. We just wanted to share it with you!

 

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Cleaning Out the Basement: Part 1

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Probably one of the largest projects on our list right now is cleaning out our basement. After living here for 2 years, the basement’s gotten to be the place where things go to be out of the way. Except now pretty much everything in the basement is in the way. Plus, the basement occasionally floods when it rains hard and for long periods of time. The most recent time it flooded, we noticed some mold growing on a small divider wall midway into the basement. Now, we are not fans of the mold, so the mold had to go. So the first step in cleaning out the basement quickly became getting rid of the mold.

Before I got in there and just started tearing things down, I did a little preparation. First, I called the professionals who get rid of mold in homes to see what they would do, how much it would cost, and if I could get rid of it myself. After talking with one of the owners of the business, I felt pretty good about taking care of the problem myself as long as I did step two. Step two: I had to make sure I took all sorts of safety precautions. Since I’m not currently in possession of a hazmat suit (not that the pros suggested I use one or anything), I used a facemask to keep me from breathing in any mold, rubber gloves that kept me from touching it, and clothes that I washed as soon as I was done. I also sprayed the parts of the wall I planned to knock down and get rid of with water (so less particulate moldy stuff would be flying around in the air).

Here’s what I started with:

That’s just the bottom half of the divider wall where the mold was. I took off the board with the holes in it for hanging tools, and then basically slowly pushed the sheetrock off of the wall. The bottom half of the wall came off much easier than the top half, but none of it took too much convincing to let go of its nails.

Also, on the other side of the wall you see above was a work table that we’d put some saloon swinging doors (longish non-related story), windows, and yard equipment on. I had to move this table before I could knock the mold wall down, and when I did (move the table) it pretty much fell apart. I was freeing up space left and right.

The trash pile at the side of the road included: mold wall, saloon doors, two old non-working PA speakers (which I’d already taken apart (another longish non-related story)), and leftover linoleum rolls.

There’s still quite a bit left to do in the basement, including sweeping (which will happen this week, I promise), but at least the mold wall is gone:

You can kind of see the the end of the table that fell apart. It’s hitting the road this week too. Next up for cleaning out the basement is getting rid of things we don’t need/use/are broken. Kristen (whose favorite thing to do is get rid of things) will be a big fan.

So getting rid of nasty stuff (mold) in your basement doesn’t have to be hard, but you do want to make sure that you talk to the professionals first, and, if you’re able to get rid of it yourself, make sure you’re using the appropriate safety attire.

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