Green Work

Green, or eco-friendly cleaning products are finally hitting the retail shelves. It's about time! But should you run right out and buy them and pitch your unused products that are already around the house? What about cleaning products that you can make at home, do those work?

First, and very important, don't dump your cleaning products down the drain or toilets. This goes into the nearest water system and has an effect on the fish and other aqua-life. It also will eventually end up in trace amounts back in the drinking water. There are a couple of options for disposing of cleaning products. You can take them to a local hazardous disposal company, or you can simply use them up and not worry about the hazards of their disposals.

The eco-friendly cleaning products you will find on the local retail shelves might include all purpose cleaners, laundry soap, dish soap, and paper goods. The recycled paper goods like toilet paper, paper towels and napkins are always a great idea. The green cleaning products like laundry and dish soap and all purpose cleaners are on the fence. Some work well but have medicinal scents and others don't work well but smell good. There are some products that both work well and smell good, but they seem to cost about twice as much as the comparable non-green products.

You can make your cleaning products at home with things that you already have in the cupboards. Clean your toilets with white vinegar and baking soda. The vinegar can be poured directly into the water and the baking soda sprinkled onto the brush for scrubbing. This works great and the vinegar smell is flushed when you're done. Vinegar can also be mixed 50/50 with water in a spray bottle for a wonderful, natural all purpose cleaner.

Lemon juice has wonderful natural cleaning properties. It can be used to clean sinks and showers and does wonders on soap scum and hard water deposits. You can mix lemon juice with baking soda to form a cleansing paste for scrubbing hard to clean spots. Naturally squeezed orange juice is almost as good as lemon juice for the same purposes. Many people prefer the orange for the scent, or switch back and forth to change things up a bit.