Top 5 Best Natural (and cheap) Cleaning Essentials

Cleaning... It's not really something anyone WANTS to do, but it has to be done. The problem with conventional cleaning products is that they are very toxic. All those warnings telling you not to get on your skin, or inhale..... It's scary. Why would I want to be "cleaning" the surfaces that I touch and eat off every day with chemicals that are potentially MORE dangerous than the germs I was originally trying to kill. Nope, not for me. There's got to be a better way...... Oh, wait there is! Here are five of my essentials for a naturally clean home. (they're pretty cheap too)

#1. Vinegar: Vinegar is the best cleaning agent ever. It's natural; it can be used for EVERYTHING, and a gallon of white vinegar is only about $3. If I could only buy one thing to clean, it would be vinegar.

I'm planning on doing a separate blog post for each of these cleaning agents (uses for them and such) so we won't go into that now.

#2. Baking Soda: Baking soda is also a very cheap one. Most of us already have it in our pantry for baking and such. A couple of the things I love about baking soda is that #1: It has no scent. Any family members that don't like the smell of vinegar? Baking soda has your back. #2: It's AMAZING for anything that needs some scrubbing. It'll lighten and scrub that gunk right off!

#3. Castile Soap: Castile soap is the best for anything that needs a sudsy soapy cleaning. Like your hands? Yup, I use Castile soap for hand soap, occasionally my hair and body, and for washing dishes. All sorts of things! In the laundry, on the floors, EVERYWHERE

#4. Salt: Salt is great for cleaning anything in the home that needs a REAL scrub down. Do you have caked on burned food in the oven? Salt is to the rescue! I bet you've already got it in your pantry, too.

#5. Essential Oils: Essential oils are amazing for cleaning the home. Not only do they kill off unwanted germs, they also give your home a pleasant aroma, NATURALLY!! The best ones for cleaning are tea tree, eucalyptus, and really any of the citrus ones. My personal favorite is grapefruit. You can add them into your bottle of vinegar for a pleasant scent (the vinegar smell will go away when dry, but the essential oil scent will stay and smell really good), or add a few drops to your Castile soap for extra cleaning power.

The biggest problem I have with conventional cleaning products is that you have to buy a different cleaner for each thing you want to clean. For example the bathroom needs toilet bowl cleaner, outside of toilet cleaner, floor cleaner, sink cleaner, faucet cleaner, tub cleaner, hand soap, body wash, shampoo..... The list goes on. Every different thing in your house needs a separate cleaning product that's not only expensive, and bad for your health, but where are you going to stash all of those? A lot of money, a lot of space taken up with toxic cleaners when you could have just one product instead of fifteen. Wow cleaning kind of is fun isn't it?

Now go clean that nasty bedroom of yours.

-Amy