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Eco-Friendly Cleaning Tips and Tricks

By Luke Armstrong

A lot of times in today’s world we seem to clean our homes with products that don’t promote any useful ways of going green with our cleaning efforts. The following tips will allow you to figure out the best ways of handling that so you won’t have to suffer ill-side effects of toxic fumes and chemicals. In many of today’s households we have far too many cleaning products and not enough time. You don’t need to worry about a thing however, as there are just a few natural products that get the job done with no hassle at all. Let’s start with the first one on our list:

Eco-Friendly Cleaning Tips and Tricks

• Cleaning Mirrors and Glass
The first thing you need to do is to throw away all ammonia-based cleaners you’ve been working with so far. You can just clean your entire home’s windows and glass surfaces with something as simple as lemon juice mixed with water. You can also clean glass with witch hazel and rubbing alcohol as well. You can use an old T-shirt or a cloth diaper to wipe your windows, as well as the alternative of using wash leather to do so.

• Cleaning Vinyl Surfaces
If you dip a cloth in lemon juice and rub that on the area of the stain, you will have a great way of cleaning any tile floors and vinyl items you have around your home. Remember to use pure lemon juice without diluting it.

• Polishing Furniture
One of the worst types of chemicals are used in furniture polish, alongside other nasty chemicals used in toilet cleaners, oven cleaners and more. The petroleum distillates present inside most of the cleaners used commercially are hazardous and they possess an unpleasant smell. There is no need to use them if they are poisonous, so we can look toward other possible solutions to our problems. One of the easy and effective ways you can deal with the problem is to mix olive oil with lemon juice, then apply that to the furniture’s surface as you see fit, using a soft cloth for application purposes. The combination of both oil and lemon juice will give your pieces a nice shine and scent. If you happen to have a mark left by a glass of water or a serving dish that was hot on contact, you can remove the mark as quickly as you can with a small application of lemon oil and salt. The paste will provide the necessary fine level of grittiness you need to dissolve the spot without harming the surface.

• Removing the smell of paint
If you have just finished a paint job or a project of sorts, you will not be able to ignore the smell of paint. You can, however remove it from the air by using some strategically-placed small dishes filled with vinegar. The vinegar has the ability to absorb the smell of paint as you work. Just leave the dishes out for a few days and remember to change them every day or so.

• Cleaning Metal
Polish used for metals such as copper, chrome, brass and stainless steel are also quite toxic due to the acids used in making them. Combine those with ammonia that is also part of the picture and you have a good mix of hazardous and dangerous chemicals. You could avoid that however by using a different approach. If you have brass or copper antiques, you can fix them with a mix of salt and vinegar, together with salt as part of the paste. Use the mix to shine the metals without damaging them, while also being completely safe from any toxic chemicals in the process. Use the paste on copper or brass by coating the surface with it, them letting it dry. Wipe it off and you’re ready to go. You can also use lemon slices to clean up light tarnish from copper or brass. Dip them in salt and then use them to rub at the location you need to clean. Make sure you rinse them well, then dry them once you’re done. You can also fix copper with a light spray of white vinegar, just spray it and cover it with salt and then wipe the area with a cotton cloth or sponge. Make sure you remove all the salt completely or the surface may turn green if you’re not careful.

 

Source: http://bayswater-cleaners.co.uk/w2-carpet-cleaning-bayswater/