How to Make Organic House Cleaning Products

Many people want to know how to make organic house cleaning products. Using organic and natural products to clean your home means you aren't spreading chemicals around--making it safer for you, your family and the planet.

The Basics of How to Make Organic House Cleaning Products 

If you are looking for ways to bring more natural products into your cleaning routine, there are a few basics you will want to have on hand at all times. All of the following items should be available at your local organic grocery store:

• Baking Soda.This baking basic is a powerhouse of cleaning and deodorizing. It can be used in homemade cleaning solutions, as a paste or sprinkled directly on a surface.
• Borax: A naturally occurring compound made of boron, sodium, oxygen and water, borax is a great cleaner, especially for laundry.
• Cornstarch: Great for cleaning carpets and rugs, cornstarch can also be used in place of baby powder.
• Lemon juice: A natural whitener, lemon juice can also remove grease and other stains, especially on aluminum and porcelain.
• Salt: Abrasive but gentle, salt is great for scouring.
• Washing soda: This is different from baking soda and is a good choice for general cleaning, cutting grease and disinfecting. You can find it on the laundry aisle, but it may not be an organic product.
• White vinegar: Another great general-purpose cleaner, white vinegar is good for removing mildew, grease and other stains. It is also a great choice for washing windows and making metal surfaces shiny. 

Organic House Cleaning Recipes

You can also use three tablespoons of washing soda in a quart of water as a general purpose cleaner. Washing soda may also be used in place of regular laundry detergent.

To boost your laundry with borax, add half a cup of borax along with your organic laundry detergent to each load of laundry.

Organic furniture polish is made by combining three parts olive oil with one part vinegar or lemon juice. Just wipe on with a soft cloth.

A combination of two tablespoons cornstarch, a cup of white vinegar and a gallon of water is a good choice for washing windows. To get even more natural bang for your buck, use your newspaper to wash down the windows. This helps eliminate streaking and saves you from having to buy paper towels.

A cup of white vinegar in a gallon of water is also a good way to clean linoleum floors. Add a quarter cup of baking soda for an even more powerful cleaner. A cup of vinegar microwaved for a minute or two will also loosen up any cooked-on food and make the microwave easy to clean.

Salt is a great way to deal with stains and spills in the oven or the sink, and a combination of baking soda and borax is a great sink cleaner that won't scratch porcelain.You can also make a cleanser out of two ounces of borax and two cups of water to wash walls and other dirty surfaces.

Cleaning With Organic Products

Now that you know how to make organic house cleaning products, it is important to note that while all of these are great alternatives to the chemical-laden products you can buy at the store, none of them work as quickly as those chemicals.

Patience is necessary for seeing the best results with these cleaning products. You might need to put in a little more elbow grease or let things soak a longer period of time than you might be used to, but it is well worth the effort to get conventional cleaning products out of your house.