Instead of keeping your home from being a breeding place of bacteria and germs, chemically produced cleaning products, in a way makes it work in reverse. Its toxic ingredients are making your home a source of illnesses. Its effects extends far beyond your home, posing as a threat to the environment.



To prevent this from happening, it's time for you to switch on green cleaning products. You can choose to buy or produce your own. Either of these ways will prove to be more cost-effective than toxic-based solutions.

Since buying green cleaning products involves no hard work except from making sure that it is indeed safe and effective, this article focuses more on producing your own natural cleaning solutions.

Most of the ingredients needed for the production of your own natural cleaning products are cheaply and easily acquired. They can always be found on kitchen cupboards. If not, they can sure be bought on your local grocery store.

For a less expensive but still effective cleaning alternatives, here are some of the household ingredients that you can mix and match with some of their corresponding uses.

Baking soda

When combined with water, this powder can be used as an excellent paste for polishing and cleaning. You can best used it on ceramics and it had also been proven to be useful on removing rust stains. Aside from that, you can also use baking soda as a deodorizer.

- Wipe tiles and ceramics with the use of sponge dipped in baking soda.

- Before vacuuming, sprinkle a small amount of baking soda on carpet then let it sit fo 10 minutes to absorb odors.

- Put a box of baking soda on refrigerator once every 3 months to deodorize.

- In a rust-affected surface, make a paste of baking soda with water then spread it on the affected area. Let it sit and then scrub it off.

Vinegar

Vinegar is an all purpose cleaner. The acid can be used to remove tile grout and toilet rings and it can be used to clean stoves, counter tops and furniture too. In some cases, you may need to mix it with water.

- On clogged drains and pipes, boil vinegar and pour it down.

- To remove coffee stains, simply wipe white vinegar on mugs and pots then rinse it clean.

- For toilet rings and stains, pour vinegar on toilet, wait for 10 minutes before flushing it.

Lemon juice

Same with vinegar, lemon juice is an acid too so it can be used in many similar ways. It can be used as an alternative to remove coffee stains and hard water deposits. It is also of great use in cleaning and polishing brass and copper as well as scrubbing off stains. Apart from, it can be also used as a freshener.

- Mix it with vinegar or baking soda to form paste good for cleaning dishes, surfaces and others.

- As a freshener, put lemon peels on garbage disposal.

- For polishing hardwood furniture, mix ½ lemon juice with 1 cup of olive oil.