Real Simple Solutions
When one of our readers (thanks Alysia!) passed along a link to an interesting article over on realsimple.com, we just had to share the wealth of info that they tossed together. The article, entitled “Ten Unexpected Natural Cleaners” includes everything from ketchup and oatmeal to tea and rice that can be used to make your casa gleam. We always love the idea of dodging dodgy chemicals (and working with what you already have to save some moolah). So without further ado, here are those amazing unexpected ingredients that they recommended for everything from removing tarnish to cleaning the inside of a bottle:
Use ketchup to: Remove the tarnish from your brass and copper cookware. Just squeeze some ketchup onto a rag and rub it on your pots and pans. They should revert back to their original coppery color within minutes. Then rinse them with lukewarm water and dry them with a towel.
Use white bread to: Remove dust and dirt from an old oil painting. Using a slice of white bread to dab the surface of any oil painting will help to absorb grime and dirt.
Use oatmeal to: Thoroughly scrub super dirty hands. Just make a nice thick paste with water and oatmeal, rub your hands together, and rinse well.
Use rice to: Clean out a dingy thin-necked bottle or vase. First, fill the vase or bottle about three quarters of the way up with warm water and drop in a tablespoon of uncooked rice. Then cover the opening with you hand and shake things up for a while (letting the rice rub any interior stains away). Rinse things out and you’re good to go.
Use tea to: Scour your rusted garden tools. Start by brewing a few pots of strong black tea. Wait for it to cool and then pour it into a bucket or bowl. Soak the tools in the cooled tea for a few hours. Wipe each one with a rag to reveal their “new” look. Note: wearing rubber gloves will keep your hands from getting stained.
Use glycerin to: Get rid of dried wax drippings on candlesticks. Begin by peeling off as much of the wax as you can. Then dab some glycerin on a cotton ball and rub until the remaining wax is gone. YHL Note: another great way to get candle wax out of glass or ceramic holders is to stick them in the freezer for a few minutes so the wax shrinks up and pops right out. And olive oil makes great all-natural Goo Gone if you have sticky spots on ceramic or glass containers.
Use club soda to: Shine up any scuffed and grubby stainless-steel sink. First buff the sink with a club-soda dipped cloth and then wipe it dry with a clean cloth.
Use hydrogen peroxide to: Disinfect your germy keyboard. Just dip a cotton ball or q-tip in hydrogen peroxide (just a dab- not too much) and be sure to get into every nook and cranny that you can.
Use cornstarch to: Clean a daunting grease spill on the carpet. Just pour cornstarch onto the spot, let it sit there and be absorbed for fifteen to thirty minutes and then vacuum everything up. The grease should be absorbed by the powder and disappear once you vacuum.
Use rubbing alcohol to: Remove permanent marker stains from both solid-surface countertops and hardwood floors. It’s as easy as pouring rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball and applying it to the stain.
We also noticed a link to a similar article (66 All Natural Cleaning Solutions), so be sure to check that out for even more easy and economical cleaning ideas. But because you know we love a bulleted list, here are a few of our favorite tips from that second article right here:
- Use half of a lemon to remove tough food stains on light wood cutting boards.
- Add a half a cup of lemon juice to your laundry’s rinse cycle to brighten whites.
- Mop almost any kind of floor with a mixture of ¼ cup liquid castile soap (like Dr. Bronner’s) and two gallons of warm water. If the floors are greasy, just add ¼ cup of distilled white vinegar.
- Add a few squirts of liquid castile soap to two cups of hot water. Use this mixture to scrub the stovetop and your stove’s vent hood to cut through all that gross accumulated grease.
- Pour equal parts of vinegar and water into the your coffee machine’s water chamber and switch on the brewing cycle. Halfway through the cycle turn off the coffeemaker and let the solution sit for around an hour. Then turn it on again to complete the cycle and run several cycles with clean water to flush everything out.
- Clean drains and the pipes that they’re attached to by pouring vinegar down them. Then after thirty minutes flush them with cold water.
- Spray vinegar on moldy walls and rinse them and let them thoroughly dry fifteen minutes later.
- Pour vinegar into a plastic grocery bag and knot the handles over the neck of a showerhead, securing with rubber bands to combat mineral deposits. Let it soak overnight and rinse everything with water in the morning.
- Fill stained teacups and coffee mugs with with one part baking soda and two parts water and let them soak overnight. In the morning just rub them with a sponge to rinse ‘em out.
- To remove odors from upholstered furniture just sprinkle baking soda onto the fabric and vacuum it up.
- Erase crayon marks on scuffed walls by applying a baking- soda paste (equal parts baking soda & water) to white painted walls. Let it dry before brushing the mixture off with a clean dry cloth. Note: this formula may dull colored walls.
- Rub piano keys carefully with a damp cotton swab and a dollop of toothpaste to remove discoloration. Wipe dry and buff with a clean cloth.
- Place fake flowers inside a paper bag and pour in salt. Close the bag and shake it vigorously. The salt will dislodge accumulated dust & dirt.
- If your dinner bubbles over in the oven pour salt on the spill to soak it up. Then once the oven is cool wipe it up with a damp sponge.
So there you have most of the tips and tricks that we took away from those two Real Simple articles (peruse the rest of the suggestions from the second article here). What do you think? Do any of them sound especially appealing to you? Do you have any all natural cleaning ideas to toss out there into the mix? Oh and don’t forget that we compiled a super thorough list of easy all-natural homemade cleaning potions that you can whip up on the cheap right here so be sure to check those out as well. Your sparkling (and totally fume free) house will thank you- along with your wallet!
All images courtesy of realsimple.com
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Lindsay: We got candle wax on our tile floor last year, and a lady I work with suggested I try covering it with wax paper and press a hot iron to it… theoretically the wax would stick to the paper and come up… it didn’t work that great, but I tried it with a towel, and a little scrubbing, and that did the trick! Maybe on a wall, with paint, the wax paper would work!!
I had some Dr. Bronner’s here, so I tried the tip for cleaning stovetops–and it worked wonders! You have no idea how many things I’ve tried with no luck. Seriously, I am sure that none of your other wonderful readers would ever let their stovetops get as cruddy as ours was :) But that REALLY worked to cut through the grease.
Sarah- You might want to check if your library has the book Better Basics for the Home (I think it’s by Annie B. Bond). She has lots of great body care recipes for all natural shampoo, conditioner, lotion, you name it!
My favorite natural thing to make is a foaming hand soap to refill my foaming soap pumps (I have dial but I think this works in any pump made for foaming soap.) Just mix 3Tb. Dr. Bronner’s unscented castile soap with 16 oz. water and 20-30 drops essential oil (lavender smells wonderful and is not too “girly” for my husband), and you’re good to go!
Clean House Clean Planet is another great book with TONS of great green cleaning recipes for anyone interested!
I have to thank Real Simple for the best natural cleaning solution ever!
My bf and I moved into a suite with a beautiful shower. Beautiful in that it was large, had great water pressure and massage outlets. The downside was that the grout was terribly stained.
I tried all sorts of different methods to clean the grout, from the highly toxic to the more natural, and nothing worked.
I read in a Real Simple article that mixing lemon juice and cream of tartar (found in the spice aisle) into a paste and then scrubbing the grout with the paste and a touthbrush should help clean grubby grout. I was a bit sceptical since I’d tried all sorts of methods, but since each ingredient is pretty cheap, I thought I’d give it a go.
And sure enough! It worked! Like a charm. My grout is nice and white now and the shower looks beautiful.
Very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing these. I’ll have to star this and keep it for later. :)
~ Sarah @ http://www.queenofdiy.com
Very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing these. I’ll have to star this and keep it for later. :)
I have a few silver necklaces that need freshening up. Does anyone have a silver polish alternative to make silver jewelry sparkle again?
I’m sure you guys have answered this question a bazillion times, but what all-in-one cleaning solution do you use? I remember you mentioning it here and there, but can’t find the answer while doing a quick search :). Would love to find a new, eco-friendly product!
We like Mrs. Meyer’s and Dr. Bronners along with a few DIY recipes included in this very post (and the big homemade recipe post that we linked to at the end of this post). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Well, this is kind of a cleaning tip. I use baking soda as a natural way to exfoliate my skin. I just rub on my facial cleanser and then sprinkle some baking soda in my hands and scrub away. It’s more gentle than using some of those sugar scrubs or apricot scrubs. I do it every night – I just have a spice jar from the dollar store with holes in the top I keep it in on my bathroom counter!
I used to work in a restaurant that had copper tabletops and a copper bar. We found ketchup would give the copper an orangy low luster glow and kinda made it smell fishy (customers would complain). Try Lemon Juice and Kosher salt. We would literally put the lemon juice in a spray bottle and spray the bar down then sprinkle the kosher salt on and then wipe it off with a cloth. SHINE!
Any suggestions for getting rid of spit up stains (maybe you will soon?) My son is a spit up champ and I can’t seem to get the stains out of dark clothes.
My oven is, unfortunately, not self-cleaning. After procrastinating for ages (and starting to deal with a little smoking), I decided it was time to clean it. However, when I looked at oven cleaners, there is all sorts of warnings all over them about how toxic they are. I have two little girls and that didn’t seem like a good idea. I found a tip on Martha Stewart’s website for making your own oven cleaner: Mix one-quarter cup salt, three-quarters cup baking soda, and one-quarter cup water into a paste. Brush on, avoiding bare parts — salt corrodes metal. Let it sit overnight; remove mixture using a slotless spatula or a putty knife. Wipe with paper towels. Use a plastic scrubber or sponge to remove remaining spots.
It worked like a dream! No scrubbing required. It got all the blackened gunk off my oven and its totally safe for my oven. Love the list!
Katie
I LOVE Real Simple magazine. It is the one magazine I swear I will never stop reading (I said that about Domino, too, but it wasn’t my fault it had to go :( ) – best of all, I have always gotten my subscriptions as gifts or for only $5 on amazon.com’s magazine page!!!
I “polish” my silver by lining a baking dish with aluminum foil and laying the silver pieces in it. Then I sprinkle with lots of baking soda and pour boiling water over them. Lift out when cool and rub dry. Works like a charm. You can also use an aluminum baking pan, but I don’t have one.
Old stale French bread also works great to clean out the coffee grinder. Just chunk it up and run it through the grinder like you would coffee beans. The bread picks up all the oils and the little old bits of ground coffee.
I kind of hesitate to mention this because it’s probably bad for jewelry in some way, so definitely use at your own risk, but every couple weeks I use my sonic toothbrush (with a for-jewelry-only brush head of course) and just plain water to clean my engagement and wedding rings. Works like a charm!
It would probably be a bad idea to try to use this method for getting off serious stains (like house paint) because the amount of scrubbing you’d need to do would surely damage something or loosen a stone, but for cleaning off stuff like hand lotion residue (which is what my main issue is), it’s AWESOME. (plus: free and no chemicals!)
Ooh, I wanna play, too. :)
Lemon juice also works really well for a streak-free shine on glass/mirrors.
You can also clean silver colored and silver-plated jewelry (cheap jewelry; I wouldn’t try this with anything of value) with toothpaste. Works on copper jewelry, too.
You can de-tarnish copper and remove rust from screws, can openers, and other stuff like that by soaking them in a 70/30 mixture of peroxide and water.
My kitchen countertop mixture: `1/3 each lemon juice, distilled water, and mint vinegar (steep a handful of crushed fresh mint leaves in about a quart of vinegar in a dark cupboard for a few days or until the vinegar starts to discolor). I combine 4-5 drops each dishsoap (or castille soap) and lavender essential oil, and then mix that into the watervinegar/juice mixture (that keeps the oil from separating). The lemon and mint keep ants and other critters away, the lemon shines the countertops, the lavender oil is antiseptic and mildly antibiotic – and smells fabulous. :)
We pour vinegar down our kitchen drain about once a week, particularly because we don’t have a garbage disposal, so loose food particles will often get stuck down there. Works like a charm on the clogs AND the smell.
Oh, and peroxide is also a great substitute for bleach when washing whites. We swear by it! I’ve also been told that vinegar is a great substitute for fabric softener, but I’ve never tried that one!
This is not a cleaning tip per say… but I brush my dog’s teeth with some baking soda, a little salt, and water. I don’t have exact measurements but fiddle around with it till you make a paste. I use one of the finger brushes to scrub. She is a boxer so I have a napkin ready for the drool. Do it once a week or more for fresh doggie breath!
Beth – Apparently borax might help with those stains! From the 65 Natural Cleaners link above:
Toilet: Pour borax in the bowl and let it sit overnight, says Annie Bond, author of Better Basics for the Home (Three Rivers Press, $19, amazon.com). Swish the bowl a few times with a toilet brush and flush the next day. “Borax really gets rid of rust stains,” she says.
Love this post! I am all for super green cleaners. I have two kids (ages 4 and 2) so having a cleaner that is totally safe for them is very important to me. I use a ton of vinegar and found the following recipe to be best (and super easy) for an all purpose cleaner:
* 2 cups water
* 2 cups white vinegar
* 10 drops tea tree oil
* 10 drops orange oil
* 5 drops lavender oil
It works great and is so cheap – the oils last forever, and a gallon of vinegar is far less $$ than a bottle of cleaner.
Also, for the hair – I do an apple cider vinegar rinse every other day and it keeps my hair looking shiny and great! Shampoo, then add 1 TBSP of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup warm water (I just store a plastic container in my bathroom for this purpose) and rinse through the hair, then condition.
Baking soda for scrubbing the sink. Also, baking soda will get crayon out of everything, including a white MacBook. :)
Love your site so much. This is my first post! Sherry, where in NJ are you from? I’m a fellow Jersey girl.
I’m from Parsippany- right outside of Morristown in Morris County. Good times. So glad you found our blog!
xo,
s
I’m not sure if anyone’s mentioned this, but I had so many stains I just could not remove from the stainless burner drip trays on our stove. We live in an apartment and really wanted them clean so we didn’t pay for them upon moving out. If you boil water and add a cup of baking soda, then boil the drip trays for 10-20 minutes, you can easily scrub off just about any stain. It was magical! I did have a little baking soda residue to remove from the stove. Bonus- the pot I boiled them all in was also more sparkly than ever.
I love the recipes from your big post. The “all purpose” green cleaner is my favorite, it works so well!
I’m going to give the vinegar in a grocery bag for my showerhead! I never htought about tying a grocery bag to the showerhead – brilliance!
“Rub piano keys carefully with a damp cotton swab and a dollop of toothpaste to remove discoloration. Wipe dry and buff with a clean cloth.”
Be careful with this one! For ivory keys, you may damage the surface with an abrasive such as toothpaste, and it’s very difficult to repair or replace ivory keys. Check with your piano tuner before attempting any cleaning of ivory keys.
Secondly, even with plastic keys (most pianos have plastic keys, as ivory has been banned for a long time now), pianists generally prefer a bit of “dirt” on the keys, because it has the right amount of traction. Also, you run the risk of toothpaste and moisture getting into your piano and potentially ruining the strings and interior, or the keys themselves (some parts of some keys are made of wood, not 100% plastic).
Generally, you can dust with a chamois cloth (nothing scratchy) and your keys will be fine. Or ask people to wash their hands before playing your piano if you are concerned about grime building up.
Does anyone know an all natural cleaner for a front load washer? I know they sell something called “affresh” that can be used to clean it, but was wondering if vinegar and water would work? I noticed ours is starting to smell a little musty…
Use salt on red wine carpet stains (I don’t think it works on old stains, just fresh ones). Dump salt on the stain, leave overnight. Vacuum. Beautiful.
Not sure how your dog lets you brush his teeth with that, ouch! Also, for really effective canine brushing, brush daily. Enzymatic paste works great.
Peanut butter = natural goo gone. I didn’t believe it til I slabbed some on my Trader Joe’s salt grinder…I had peeled off the label earlier, but it was all sticky and nasty…ew. I tried a whole bunch of soaking, all that…but nothing worked until I spread a thin layer of peanut butter on and left it over night. I rinsed with soap in the morning, and it was sparkling. Wonderfully easy!
Rubbing alcohol is a miracle worker. Anytime you have a cd or dvd that starts skipping, apply a little rubbing alcohol to it and it should work again, even if its really scratched. I rent a lot of dvds from the library, and this has saved me many a time.
Fantastic tips guys, can’t wait to start using some of them! There are also several fantastic books written by an Australian author – Spotless & Speed Cleaning. In Spotless, there is a nearly endless list of ways to get anything out of anything! This woman is a genius! Speed Cleaning has heaps of natural ways to clean all surfaces in your house.
http://www.amazon.com/Spotless-Room-room-Solutions-Disasters/dp/0091922569/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267501490&sr=8-1
Anyone have any tips or tricks to clean stainless steel appliances? Or what about stainless steel pots and pans?
I keep vinegar in a spray bottle for when my little one wees on the carpet. I soak it up with paper towel then spray with vinegar. The vinegar neutralises the smell.
Such wonderful tips – not only from Sherry, but from the readers as well! :) Thanks to everyone for posting them!
I’ll add a couple:
Instead of using a rag or papertowel towel to clean your mirrors, try newspaper. No litle fuzzie floaters left behind, and will leave the surface streak free. (Hmmm, wonder if this would help for stainless steel appliances?)
This isn’t for cleaning, really, but an odd use of tea: If you have a problem with foot odor you can soak your feet in a pan of lukewarm tea for 20 minutes each day for a week. The tea removes all odor, and the results are amazing – Dr. Oz said about 6 months, but we did it when my oldest was in 6th, and have never had to reapeat in 3 years. (The tea may leave a light stain, so rinse with clean water after!)
Thanks for these tips! I have been hoarding nearly empty glass candle containers for months because it seems a waste to throw them away, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the wax out of them!
I have a lot of sterling silver earrings that tarnish after awhile. I bring them back to life by squeezing a tiny bit of toothpaste in my palm and rub it onto the earrings. Rinse with cool water. In 3 seconds they’re sparkling new again.
Hi Sherry!
Any tips on removing animal odors and stains from carpets with natural cleaners?
Yes! Just scroll up for some tips. Many people have said that pouring things like baking powder on the carpet and then vacuuming it up helps with that sort of thing. Good luck!
xo,
s
Use a piece of walnut (yes, the actual nut) to get rid of scuffs and scratches in wood. Just take a piece of walnut and rub it over the marked area and voilà!
Oh … Mo-town. I know it well. I am from south jersey, but spent about 6 months at a trial in Morristown a few years ago (lawyering, not on trial myself). I lived at the headquarters plaza and ate in nearly every restaurant in and around Morristown & Mendham. ;)
Salt is great for cleaning egg spills. Pour regular table salt over the egg white, and it mixes, making a fairly simple mush to wipe up.
Well, guys, I have been on a blog fast the last few weeks so I didn’t get a chance to chime in on this one on time. But! I do have two super fun and science-y cleaning tricks up my sleeve. The first is a electrolytic way to polish silver and the second is how to clean copper with lemon and salt. Hopefully these two techniques haven’t already been mentioned in the comments. :)
I’m at the beginning of my natural-cleaning-solutions journey. So how do I get rid of all those chemical sprays and cleansers? Should I just toss them in the garbage? Empty them into the toilet? Call special pick-up?
Also, any suggestions on how to clean white fabric cushion chairs?
Definitely don’t toss them in the garbage or toilet! That sends them right out into rivers, lakes, streams, and the environment at large. Instead if you have a special pick-up service for chemical solvents, that would work. Or you can do what we do and drive to your town or community’s dump and take them to the special section for “chemical solvents” which will carefully be disposed of instead of landing in a landfill. Hope it helps!
As for the white fabric cushion, can it be removed and washed? If you can only spot clean it, perhaps you can use some detergent and water to “wash” it while it’s still on the chair? Maybe you can google around for “white fabric cleaning” or “natural white fabric cleaning” to see what you turn up. Good luck!
xo,
s
Quick question for you:
I live in a 1950 home. The tile in my entryway is 60 years old. It needs to be replaced but we’re not doing a big remodel for another couple of years. The grout in this tile area is so gross. Is it better to deep clean it myself (not sure how but what I’ve tried hasn’t worked), have it professionally cleaned, or consider regrouting it myself (or paying a professional)?
Love your blog. And, I’ve been wondering how you like your cloth diapers. I was happy to see your post today. Glad you love them.
Thanks,
Lisa
We would try deep cleaning it ourselves and then regrout it if that didn’t work (you can google around for a tutorial). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
WOW, I am seriously going to print these out to keep handy – we’re definitely trying to cut down on the amount of chemicals we keep around. A little tip we picked up of our own – when we moved into our house in hot July, there was a distinct cat pee smell… that we didn’t notice when we first looked at the house in cold January… after some investigation, we found stains on the hardwood floors in a corner of each room where the smell was coming from. After some research, we were told to try hydrogen peroxide. Not only did it knock out the smell, but you could actually see it foaming on the wood where the stain was. After a few hours we rinsed with warm water and the stain, and the smell, were gone!!