what the commercials say, you don’t really need to have a whole cabinet filled with cleaners for every specific purpose. One good general cleaner will go a long way, and you can make an easy one with basic ingredients.
Just mix everything together, let any fizzing settle down and store in a spray bottle. You can use this mix for lots of surface cleaning around the house. The vinegar is a naturally acidic disinfectant, and the baking soda gives just a hint of abrasive power. The baking soda can settle out if the bottle has been sitting for a while, so just give it a shake when those cleaning chores crop up.
Tub or Tile Cleaner
If you need a more robust cleaning solution for the tub, or even around the stove top in the kitchen, you just need to use a damp sponge and a sprinkling of baking soda. Just because it’s a tougher job, doesn’t mean you need harsher chemicals.
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
You can use the surface cleaner to give your toilet a basic wipe-down, but for scrubbing inside the bowl, you’ll need a different recipe.
Just dump both ingredients straight into the bowl and let it sit. The fizzing will help loosen the grime, and then you can use a standard toilet brush to finish the job.
Laundry Soap
For the more industrious DIY-er, you can even make your own laundry detergent.
Mix everything together and store in an air-tight container. Use just 1 tablespoon for an average load of laundry.
Use all that free fresh air out there to reduce your electricity use on laundry day. It’s not as quick or convenient as that handy dryer in the laundry room, but it really isn’t that much work once you get into the routine of putting your clothes out on a line. Here’s how to get started.
The Simple Approach
A folding rack would work both inside and out if you only have a small load to dry. Otherwise, you can go with one of the free-standing umbrella style racks for more space. You may need to sink a hole to anchor it down, depending on the model. They work fine (and are especially suitable for little yards), but the clothes aren’t as spread out and it can take longer for your clothes to dry. Still, it’s a fine option.
Or you can just get some sturdy rope and string up a stationary line between two points. You’ll have to walk along the line as you put up the clothes since the line doesn’t move.
A Classic Clothesline
For the full clothesline experience, you might want to put up the standard type of line that moves by using pulleys at either end. This allows you to stand at one end, and move the line along as you add clothes. You can usually buy kits that contain a good length of proper vinyl-coated line, two pulleys and a connector.
Attach a pulley at either end of your intended clothesline, then loop the line through them both. You’ll want to cut the length long enough to cover the distance twice with at least 6 inches extra for the connector. Once the connector twists the ends together, it should be fairly taut. Now you just need a non-rainy day to put out the clothes.
How long it takes will really depend on your clothes and the weather. A warm day with a light breeze can dry thinner fabrics (perhaps cotton sheets) in as little as an hour. On the other hand, a heavy pair of jeans can take all afternoon. On average, you should be able to dry 2 loads of laundry in a day though. Just make sure to wash clothes on sunny days if you can.
So how green is this tip? Well, on average, your electric dryer is going to create 4 1/2 pounds of carbon pollution for each and every load. If you air-dry 2 loads per week, that’s 36 lbs. of carbon you’re keeping out of the atmosphere in just one month. In terms of electricity use, a pretty standard dryer uses 5400W making it one of the biggest energy drains in the house.
I’ll bet the title of this tip has you thinking, but probably about the wrong thing. This ever-so-clever expression is actually talking about shampoo, or rather the lack of it. Some people have stopped washing their hair with shampoo, and you might want to see the reasons.
The premise is that modern shampoos are really much too harsh on our hair, stripping away natural oils. Your body overcompensates by producing more oil, and so you need to wash more often. Not a sensible approach. Besides that, most commercial shampoos are loaded with chemicals that aren’t great for the environment. Two of the worst are sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. They have been potentially linked to cancer (particularly the laureth form) and both are actually harmful to your skin. The paraben family of chemicals are also found in shampoos, and they have also been tied to cancers (cite). They’re all bad for your body, and bad for the environment once they go down the drain. So how do you actually do this?
Not everyone handles their hair hygiene the same way, so there isn’t a single “no poo” process. Generally, hair is given a brisk scrub with just water during your regular shower, which is enough to get rid of most dirt or dust. Some people leave it at that, especially if they have short hair. Others have added some natural “products” to their routine.
A little baking soda can help absorb oil and add some abrasive to give your hair a thorough cleaning without the host of chemical products. Just sprinkle a little in your hair, and use it to gently scrub your scalp. Rinse out well. And speaking of rinsing, an excellent conditioner for no-poo hair is apple cider vinegar. A quick splash worked through the hair is all you need, again make sure to rinse well. If you try going without shampoo, be prepared for a few weeks of adjustment. Your scalp is used to producing a lot of oil and it’s not going to just quit that overnight. Eventually, things balance out and you can have naturally soft and non-greasy hair without the shampoo.
