Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Cleaning Your Home

---

Deep cleaning your home creates a rewarding sense of accomplishment, but not if you have to use cleaners that go against your sustainable lifestyle. Your local stores likely stock the most affordable products with chemical ingredients and don’t have much of a selection for organic replacements. This guide explains which eco-friendly alternatives to cleaning your home will help you be green when you clean. You’ll never have to purchase another cleaning solution that harms the environment or uses synthetic chemicals.

1. Make Reusable Wipes

When you need to wipe down the counter or swipe the dust off your ceiling fan, you reach for a roll of paper towels. They’re easy to find and help clean almost anything, but they also require destroying natural resources to create the single-use product. 

Reusable wipes will do the same job without removing trees from the environment. Make a few out of old t-shirts or towels and wash them between uses. You’ll reduce your environmental impact and save some money on your grocery bill.

2. Create Fruit Fly Repellant

Pests are annoying, but you don’t need pesticides to get rid of them. Common bugs like fruit flies will disappear with a bit of apple cider vinegar. Pour some into a bowl and add a drop of your preferred dish soap. The vinegar’s natural sweetness will attract the flies into the bowl while the soap traps them in the liquid. Leave the bowl out for a few days to get a cleaner, bug-free home effortlessly.

3. Pick Up Some Vinegar

Distilled vinegar is good for more than just pickling vegetables. You can also use it to disinfect your home. The vinegar’s natural acidity kills bacteria and viruses without any other added ingredients. Although it’s not as potent as store-bought chemical cleaners, it will still remove microbes from common household surfaces during your next afternoon of cleaning.

4. Squeeze Fresh Lemon Juice

Recent research found that organic lemon juice eliminated harmful bacterial colonies because of its high acidic nature. Squeeze fresh lemons into a spray bottle and use it as another counter cleaner all year round or even during flu season. It will leave a pleasant scent behind while lifting odors and even polishing your household flooring in place of synthetic alternatives. 

5. Clean Mirrors With Newspaper

If you love reading the local paper with your coffee every morning, leave it in a special bin when you’re ready to move on with your day. The paper will clean your mirrors without leaving streaks behind because the paper absorbs your preferred cleaners so well. Depending on what you need to clean during your next free weekend, you can also use this trick on your windows and windshields.

6. Unclog Sinks With Baking Soda

Clogged sinks are frustrating when a drain snake can’t remove the problem. Instead of buying chemicals that burn through the clog and pollute waterways, you can combine baking soda and vinegar to defeat buildup and knotted hair. The eco-friendly cleaning alternative recently took over TikTok because it’s also budget-friendly. Pour boiling water down the drain after the baking soda has had ten minutes to work and your sink will be good as new.

7. Remove Odors With Citrus Peels

Sometimes kitchen sinks begin to smell, especially if you have a garbage disposal built-in. Food can stick to surfaces out of reach of the water or disposal blades and rot for days or weeks. Grab your favorite citrus fruits during your next grocery run and remove the peels. Dump them down the sink with some ice cubes and let the disposal run.

The ice provides extra surfaces for the peels to clash against. As they get torn up by the blades, they’ll wipe away the buildup and use their citric acid to leave a fresh scent behind. They’re also naturally biodegradable, so if they travel down your drain and reach the local environment, they’ll support the soil’s nutrient profile.

8. Banish Mold With Vinegar

Pink mildew and mold present constant cleaning battles in the bathroom. Mix equal parts vinegar and water in a bottle and spray it over anything that needs cleaning, like your tub or shower walls. Give it a few minutes to soak into the mold before wiping it away with your sponge or reusable cloth.

The vinegar breaks down growth and kills remaining bacteria that could help it grow back faster. It also doesn’t harm the environment after flushing down the drain. It’s much easier to clean the bathroom when you don’t have to use chemical cleaners to get the job done.

Try Eco-Friendly Cleaning Alternatives

Now that you’ve read about a few eco-friendly alternatives to cleaning your home, you can be green when you clean. Think about what you need to clean around your house to discover the best possible all-natural solutions. Whether you want to use citrus peels to remove odors or wipe your windows with newspaper, you’ll ditch unsustainable cleaning methods for alternatives that support your green lifestyle.