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
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Thanks for sharing the tips n’ tricks. I LOVE Real Simple – big fan. :)
I used to watch ‘How Clean is Your House?’ on BBCAmerica all the time and those ladies have some great ideas. My favorite is soaking a towel in water, wringing it out then putting it in the microwave for about a minute. Place the warm towel on your stovetop to break up any caked-on grease. It works like a charm.
Also, a mixture of baking soda and vinegar made into a paste and layered on your bathroom fixtures will get them sparkling again. (Wrap the paste-soaked fixtures with plastic wrap for about an hour, rinse with a warm rag to clean). :P
Awesome post!!
I’m curious if anyone has any ideas on how to get grease stains out of grout?
You can also use ice cubes and salt with a little water to clean glass things like coffee pots, decanters etc.
I used baking soda and vinegar to deodorize smelly garbage disposals. It works like a charm!
Last week, I bought 2 silver candlestick holders at a thrift store for 80 cents each. They were tarnished really bad but I didn’t want to buy silver cleaner just for that. So I googled it and found out that you can clean your silver with an old toothbrush and toothpaste! It worked great! And I didn’t have to run out and buy silver cleaner.
Great suggestions! Anyone have ideas for natural carpet/area rug cleaner? I have used baking soda to freshen them up, but haven’t heard of a deep-cleaning natural product.
These are so helpful. I had just read about the one with club soda. They are so neat!
Club soda works wonders on the carpet for overly excited/young pups who might leak just a little. Pour the club soda over the area, let it bubble & fizz for a minute, then blot with a towel.
I use club soda to get fresh stains out of carpet. Just pour the club soda on the stain, let it bubble for a few minutes and then use a clean rag to blot the stained area. Repeat if necessary.
This isn’t really a cleaning tip per se, but I’ve discovered that stainless steel gets rid of the smell of onions on your hands. (I once saw a bar made of stainless steel made for that purpose. I thought hey! I could just rub my hands on my sink which is made of stainless steel and I’d get the same results!) It may sound weird, but I always rub my hands on my stainless steel sink now after I cut onions and it gets rid of the smell! :)
I use vinegar to clean all my counters/toilets. It’s a great cleaner because it’s safe, and if you let it air dry, it kills bacteria. I also use hydrogen peroxide to clean my windows (with newspaper first, then paper towels) for streak-free windows.
Also wanted to let you know about a book you might want to look at. It’s called Super Baby Food. And while it does have a lot of great recipes and instructions on how to make your own baby food (which is great if you want to know EXACTLY what your baby is eating), but party ideas, cleaning solutions and more. They really should just call it Super Baby Book. :-)
I think America’s Test Kitchen did a comparison of ketchup & other cleaning tricks for copper & brass. They found that ketchup was the best of all the non-commercial cleaners (partly due to the acid and salt content helping lift up the grime, and partly because the viscosity of the ketchup keeps it from dripping off whatever you’re trying to clean). However, they also noted that even ketchup was not as effective as “commercial” cleaners like Barkeeper’s Friend, which is my go-to. Anyway, if you do use ketchup, I think you’re supposed to let it sit on the tarnished pot/whatever for a few minutes before rubbing it away.
I attempted the all- nach-err-al way of cleaning and for some reason it did not work out so well for me but I am definitely not discouraged. I made a homemade furniture polish with olive oil and vinegar and I ended up with some spots (no worries-not permanent) on my furniture. I will keep on truckin’ though!
When you guys talk about using vinegar does it matter if it is white or raw apple cider?
We always assume it’s white vinegar but in a pinch for drain unclogging we’ve used apple cider vinegar (we wouldn’t use that on anything it could stain though). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I have a weird one that I found on the internet, then much to my surprise, worked like a charm. For blood stains on fabric, using the spit of whoever’s blood it is breaks it up and turns it nearly clear.
Obviously this method isn’t a good idea if there’s a lot of blood involved, but for small blood spots, spitting on it, letting it sit on the stain for a few minutes, then blotting it away with a cloth works wonders. Then you wash the cloth as normal.
The theories I have found on why this works has to do with enzymes in your spit matching the blood’s (which is why it has to be the spit of the person whose blood it is), but I’m not 100% sure I buy that theory. Nonetheless, I have used this method, and it works better than using Shout pre-wash spot treatment or anything like that.
Rubbing alcohol also acts as a paint thinner. You can use it to get acrylic paint out of clothing and carpet. The fresher the spill the better, and it’s not going to be good for that 1/2 gallon of blue paint you spilled on the bedroom carpet. But I dripped some black paint on my beige carpet. A little rubbing alcohol, a tooth brush, and some elbow grease took out the stain, so I tried it on my favorite pair of blue jeans that I thought were ruined by white paint, and had been washed 8 times, still worked like a charm.
When my husband and I moved a couple of years ago, some sort of oily substance dripped from the roof of the moving truck onto our beige couch. I thought it was ruined, but my mom told me to pour salt on it and rub it in, so I gave it a try. I completely covered the oil spot with salt, rubbed it in and let it sit overnight. When I vaccuumed it up the stain was almost gone. I tried the treatment one more time and it went away completely. @Kari…it might be worth a try to pour some salt on those grout stains! You never know!
Hey youngsters!
The powder detergent that I’ve been using for a year now and never going back:
1 part of olive oil soap flakes
1 part of baking soda
1 part of boric acid
10-15 drops of essential oil of your choice
Use 3 tbs of the above mixture per load
Also, the best softener out there (alas without any aromas) is white vinegar.
Making my own home cleaners has made a huge difference to our wallet and most importantly to our health and ease of mind
We’re loving all the tips everyone! Thanks so much for sharing.
xo,
s
why don’t you add some essential oil to the vinegar
to make a scent?
Great tips! Thanks for sharing! My work, a corporate hotel property, uses Vinegar to clean quite a few things… mixed with hot water, it’s better on glass & other surfaces than chemicals would be. I’m eager to try some of these other tips, though.
A follow up/tangent on the Martha Stewart cleaning products… I LOVE the all purpose spray so far. I’ve used it on stainless, on my (white) refrigerator, and on wood surfaces with great success. I am not a huge fan of the dish & hand soap. It doesn’t suds much – and I realize that suds are not essential for things to be clean, but I *like* having a few suds to feel like things are being cleaned.
FYI Rubbing alcohol can also remove shoe polish stains from carpet. Use an old white clean cloth to dab away after pouring a little rubbing alcohol on the carpet stain. Repeat until the stain is gone. Carpet will go back to original color.
Just one comment… re: baking soda to remove stains from cups and mugs —-
No need to soak overnight!
I just sprinkle it in the cup when I’m washing them and wipe away. With very little scrubbing it’s sparking clean immediately!
(I guess, though, if they’re REALLY badly stained some soaking is easier than scrubbing!)
I have a question about the vinegar/water cleaning solution. I got some vinegar and some spray bottles to start using it, but would like to know if I can just make up the solution and leave it in the spray bottle, or does it break down, so I would have to make it fresh every time I’m going to use it? Anyone know? It’d be a big help, thanks!
Good question LauraC. Anyone know?
xo,
s
Oh, I have a good one:
My friend accidentally put a hot pan directly on my wood table with no hot plate underneath. Needless to say, it left a burn ring.
I used some toothpaste to scrub out the mark. I don’t know if it was the natural oils, or if its the gritty texture, but IT WORKED!!! We then rubbed a little olive oil directly on it to “refinish” it!
Love the blog!!!
Thanks for the tips, guys. That remember me something…
When I was a kid, I got my hands dirty with some kind of sticky lime that is expelled from a delicious Brazilian fruit named jaca, that used to grow all around the backyard at my gramma’s house. Terrifyed that my mom would be mad at me because I had eaten too much, I tryed cleaned it up by my own, and didn’t have any idea how to do it. Poor little girl, just razed the two little hands trying to get that sticky substance away. All that I really needed was a bit of cusine oil, and… Tadaaaaaaa!
The things that kids usually do… Get ready, guys!!! Your little angel is gonna preach one of this tricks on you.
love.
Nara
Hey, I have 2 kids and am very hesitant to use chemical cleaners in my house these days… we started using vinegar to clean everything (I just buy a huge gallon at walmart for like 6 bucks and mix it half and half with water in a spray bottle) I’ve never had any trouble with it breaking down. I will never go back! It’s sooooo cheap and I feel ok using it to clean even their toys!
ooooh and another grat use for it is to get that weird waxy residue off of some produce!!
When cleaning the kitchen, I swear by heating sliced
lemons in a bowl of water in the microwave. After a couple of minutes of cooking time, you just need to wipe the microwave down. Then you can use the liquid to clean coutertops, the fridge, or more (works great on stainless steel). I finish by running the lemons down the garbage disposal which clean it plus gives the sink a fresh smell.
Yay! I was surprised to see my name in the Google Buzz section. :) This is a good reminder that I really need to clean my stainless steel sink with some club soda. Oh Real Simple, you are amazing. Cheers!
This tip came from a similar Real Simple magazine article but I didn’t see it mentioned-
Pour a small amount of olive oil on a soft cloth or paper towel to clean the surface of stainless steel appliances. This works better than any method I’ve tried and produces amazing and spotless results.
Note- I have caught my dog licking the front of the fridge after using this method so keep a watch on your pets after trying this trick!
These are great tips! I’ll have to check out the links to see if there’s a natural solution for removing rust stains from tile (courtesy of a sweating toilet).
Stop by my blog today – we’re having a jewelry giveaway!
http://journeychic.com/2010/03/01/jewelry-giveaway/
I had a vase on my wood coffee table that left a cloudy white spot (moisture in the wood…or something?) Anyway, equal parts olive oil and white vinegar, dip a rag in it and rub with the grain of the wood. My white spot was really bad, but after doing this twice it was completely gone. Took a fair amount of rubbing, so don’t give up. But it SAVED my beautiful coffee table.
Some additional info on toothpaste as cleaner: I’d recommend sticking with a basic toothpaste, like plain Crest (not the gel; the opaque blue stuff), plain white Colgate, or (even better bc it’s all natural with no artificial sweeteners) Tom’s of Maine. As I understand it, the sole reason toothpaste works to clean things is that it’s a mild abrasive, similar to using a Magic Eraser, so don’t over-use it on anything shiny, because it could dull the shine over time (just like the Magic Eraser can on, for example, a glass table or semi-gloss or gloss painted walls).
I’ve done the vinegar+water through my coffee maker, and it works very well. You can also clean your microwave by microwaving a bowl of the same vinegar+water mix so it steams up the inside of the microwave, then wipe with a damp cloth or sponge to remove any grime & rinse off the vinegar.
To clean your glass coffee pot (since you’re not supposed to use soap) or the hard-to-reach bottom of any glass container, put coarse salt (such as kosher salt) in the bottom with some ice cubes, and swirl it all around, then rinse – this sounds similar to the water+rice thing.
Lemon juice is an acid, and thus a mild bleach, so only add it to your white wash! We have been using homemade laundry detergent using a mix of Water, Fells Naptha, Borax, and Laundry Soda (which is similar to Baking Soda). My hubby makes it – it involves some boiling of the water to dissolve everything together, and then it turns into a gel kind of thing. You can also add essential oils if you want it to be scented, but we are loving the smell of just truly clean fabric!
I am trying the baking soda + water soak for my stainless steel water bottle tonight, hopefully it will remove the tea stains on the bottom. And thanks for the freezer tip to remove wax from a glass votive, I have a few places to try that too!
PS: Vinegar+water definitely won’t break down, since any vinegar you buy is already partially diluted with water. Adding more water doesn’t change anything, just dilutes it a bit more than it already is!
Thanks so much for that info Meredith! Hope it helps LauraC.
xo,
s
Kari,
While I may not have a simple home rememdy to clean up grout, I do know of a miracle worker: Stain Solver.
http://www.stainsolver.com/
I heard about this stuff through a newspaper article, and with all the claims made about this stuff, I had to try it. We made the mistake of putting a light colored grout in our kitchen, a room of numerous spills and gathering place for our four dogs. Just whipping up a batch of the Stain Solver immediately took our grout from a groddy brown/black to its original taupe color…I was amazed! We’ve tried it on many other surfaces of our house too, and while I didn’t see any change when using it on the carpet, it also worked miracles on our bathroom fixtures and the mold on our deck.
Huh – who would have thought?
I was looking at my shampoo bottle today and it said something about having avocado in it. I wonder if you could make your own shampoo? Has anybody ever heard of someone doing that?
1. Use bakind soda to clean white laminate countertops. It takes away all those water circles or any grime.
2. Baking soda is also a great way to scrub stainless steel sinks and cooking range hoods.
I have recently been hearing about using dryer sheets to clean the scum off of shower doors. I tried it this weekend and it actually works! Just wet the dryer sheet a little and rub away- then wipe the residue off and you can see through the door again.
Ketchup can do that? I wonder what it does to my insides?
What a helpful list! I had no idea about some of that stuff.
jbhat
Here’s another question for everyone. Does anyone know an easy way to get the icky brown water line ring off the inside of the toilet? I just can’t handle the thought of getting my hands in there and scrubbing and then sloshing that water all over the place. But with three males in the house, it has to be done. It grosses me out to even write this! :-)
don’t have a solution but if you pour a bucket
of water into your toilet it will flush the toilet
and won’t refill. then you can clean without splashing
flush to refill bowl
Hey thanks guys! Yeah for not remaking vinegar-water every time you need it! Off to mix some up now!
Club soda is awesome …. it’s also a FaBuLoUs glass cleaner :)
I don’t know how my husband did it, but he got candle wax on our bathroom wall. Do you think glycerin will get it off?
Hmm, good question. Anyone know? Our worry is that it might end up leaving a grease mark on your wall, so you might just want to use touch up paint instead to be safe. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Am I the only person who hates the smell of vinegar? Like, I hate to even open the bottle.
I want to use cleaners that don’t have nasty chemicals, but I don’t want my whole house to smell like vinegar either. Can it be scented somehow? Do essential oils cover it? Is it even noticable once it’s diluted?
The smell definitely dissipates a bit when you add water, and once vinegar dries (after you use it to scrub things for example) the odor is totally gone for good. 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!!
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.
Any suggestions on cleaning and buffing marble?