Unless you enjoy living like a pig, cleaning house is a chore that just can’t be avoided. If you're not careful while doing it, not only will you become a passive accomplice of the slow (but steady) destruction of our natural environment, but you'll also bleed your wallet to death using all these modern brand-name chemical products.

As a (stingy) friend of the earth, you’ll want to utilize proven, cheap cleaning methods that also have the advantage of being non-toxic, biodegradable substitutes so you minimize negative environmental impacts! Hell, who doesn't like to win on all sides of a deal?

Here are some ways to clean naturally without buying expensive products by using a few common household items that are, I'm sure, already sitting around in your pantry. Clean on and save on, little green maid!

1. Do it all with baking soda

Seriously, this one is a Nobel-prize-worthy invention; it can do it all, and is non-toxic. Baking soda is both a natural deodorizer and a wonderful cleaning product. Here are examples:

• Place an open box in the back of your family’s fridge and in only a couple days it will rid you of the infamous "fridge bad breath".
• Baking soda also makes a useful scrub for removing hard water stains and for polishing household metals: try it on your calcite-white bathroom faucets and watch in awe how the chrome shines again.
• Did the cat pee again on the living room floor? Sprinkle baking soda on a rug or carpet and let it sit for 20 minutes before vacuuming – the baking soda will pull those stale household and cooking odors out of your carpet.
 

2. Lemon juice

Fresh lemon juice contains citric acid that can be used to remove grease from counter tops and those wooden or plastic cutting boards. When combined with baking soda (I told you it could do it all!), lemon juice is a great way to eliminate food stains from plastic storage containers.

You can put your homemade lemon juice/baking soda mix into an empty trigger spray bottle to reuse over and over.

3. Salt

Salt is a wonderful, biodegradable substitute for commercial scouring powders – and it won’t scratch your nice cooking pots, oven surfaces and countertops. Combined with our friend lemon juice, it even removes rust! Try it on the chrome bumpers of Grandpa's old 1957 Chevy Bel-Air.

4. Vinegar

White vinegar, an excellent natural deodorizer and disinfectant, can be used to clean windows, mirrors and floors when combined with water and a small amount of mild soap (like liquid dish soap). Undiluted white vinegar can also be sprayed on mold and mildew instead of caustic bleach.

Remember that commercial window cleaner’s squirts may often deteriorate woodwork. Don't let them drip on the windowsill’s paint or varnish. No issue on the other hand with the much milder water/vinegar/soap mix!

5. Olive oil

Do you want to restore this deep handsome shine to your antique wooden furniture? Mix 2 parts olive oil and 1 part lemon juice for a natural wood polish.

6. Newspaper and old clothes

Recycle Sunday’s newspaper! Use the front page instead of expensive paper towels to clean windows and mirrors (don’t forget the white vinegar, soap and water mix!). Want a bonus? Newspaper is lint-free, polishes glass and leaves a film that's resistant to dirt!

We all have old cotton towels and raggedy tee-shirts sitting around in our closets. Wash them and reuse them to clean instead of paper towels. This will save you money as well as spare hundreds of trees from an untimely death.

7. Toothpaste

Need to clean and polish spots on your grimy glass stovetop? Take advantage of the natural polishing potency of toothpaste. It also works at removing tiny scratches on glass just as well as expensive commercial scrubbing and polishing products.

8. Indoor plants

Avoid sick building syndrome! The air you breathe inside of your house must also be renewed and cleansed. The first and easiest thing to do is to open the windows several times a week and let the exterior air flow through – even if you live in the city or in an area close to automobile traffic.

You can go the extra mile by buying and installing several low-maintenance potted plants in your house. Not only will these look great indoors, but they’ll also help you breather better by providing more oxygen and removing harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from your air.

Here are a few examples of such natural air-cleansing plants, recommended by the NASA itself:

• Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea Seifritzii)
• Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema Modestum)
• English Ivy (Hedera Helix)
• Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera Jamesonii)
• Janet Craig (Dracaena “Janet Craig”)
• Marginata (Dracaena Marginata)
• Mass cane/Corn Plant (Dracaena Massangeana)
• Mother-in-Law’s Tongue (Sansevieria Laurentii)
• Pot Mum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
• Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
• Warneckii (Dracaena “Warneckii”)
 

Conclusion

Be an eco-warrior for the “green” army and make it a habit to use safe, natural cleaning alternatives for your household chores. You’ll knock out those dreaded tasks in no time flat… and in the bargain you’ll avoid those dangerous traditional cleaning chemicals like ammonia and chlorine, which, when mixed together can literally knock you out!