Natural Cleaning

There are days that I'm just in the mood to go above and beyond my normal day to day cleaning. I wake up and say to myself  "today is maid day". I pull out my bucket full of old cleaning rags, dusters, scrub brushes, sponges, and cleaners. Oh, how I love my cleaners! Lysol, Bleach, Mr. Clean, Windex, etc.

Now I want to clarify that I am not a neat freak. The idea of a model home with everything in its place is a lovely idea. But it is not my reality! I believe a home should be lived in. It's okay in my home to make a mess. But it's also important to be responsible for the mess you made and clean it up. That is the rule I try to enforce in my home. There is never a day that goes by and everything is neat and tidy. There is always a room that is a disaster. Toys on the floor, laundry waiting to be folded, etc. It used to drive me crazy!

But when you have kids, there comes a point, where you resolve to the fact, that you are not super woman. It's okay to always strive to do your best as a wife and mother. We should all think that way. But it's not okay to put such high expectations on ourselves. Trust that the "mommy do" list is way longer then the "honey do" list! It's just not realistic to give ourselves more to do in one day, then there are hours in one day. Okay, I have clearly gone off on a tangent. I am going to get back to the point of this post.

On "maid day" I map out my plan of attack, grab my supplies, and get to it. After several hours and a lot of hard work, I stand back, pull off my lovely yellow rubber gloves, and admire my hard work (come on, you do it too!). I think, wow it's so fresh and clean in here!

When my husband comes home from work and opens the door I am always there to greet him (and pass the kids off for a little mommy break). And you know what he says every time!? Not, "oh, it's so  nice and clean in here. Wow, great job darling wife of mine." Nope he says, "wow! It smells like cleaners in here!" With out fail..... EVERY TIME! So what does that tell you folks? It doesn't smell fresh and clean, it smells like chemicals!

So yesterday was one of those "maid days". I was ready to pull out my arsenal of cleaners, but then I stopped myself. I jumped online and did a quick search for homemade cleaners. There I found a great recipe for a gentle non toxic scrub to clean my kitchen. And all it took was peroxide and baking soda.

 Okay, don't judge me

I wipe my stove top down everyday. It's part of my daily choirs. However, this stuff always seems to remain behind, embedded in the stove top. I didn't get the before picture so this has the baking soda already sprinkled over the mess. Once you have that sprinkled on, you add some hydrogen peroxide on top. Not so much that it's really wet. Just enough to get the baking soda moistened. Then you let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Lovely, I know. 

                                

Grab your scrub sponge. In circular motions start cleaning up this stuff. Yes it still takes some elbow grease. It isn't a miracle cleaner that does the work for you. How much can you expect from baking soda and peroxide?

And there you have it. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this work! Like I said, I wipe it down everyday, and I use chemical cleaners. I guess I have always thought that those chemical cleaners are stronger and better equipped, to thoroughly clean any mess, better then the things I could find in my pantry and medical supply kit. Ha, who knew?

A vast improvement! :)

I really recommend that you give this a shot. Use it on your stove, counters, fridge, anything you want. No chemicals, No scratching the surface, No smell (other then a clean smell). Using this makes me feel so much more comfortable about what I'm exposing my kids to. Now you could always go to the store and buy some GreenWorks or other "Natural" cleaner. I think GreenWorks is around $5, or you can use what you already have in your home, and SAVE SOME MONEY! I'm all for that.

Until next time my lovelys!