Chemical free cleaning - ideas please!!

Nova5

Lots of great tips for this thread on Kim and Aggie last night like cleaning limescale off with pumice stone (doesn't scratch surface of toilet apparently!).

The lady featured last night also had asthma and wanted to use natural products. This is something I'm very interested in. I don't suffer from asthma, but have eczema and whenever I use chemicals I feel choked and my skin feels terrible - even if I don't have direct contact. I think the fumes have something to do with this. I am phasing out chemicals in my home but what do people replace bleach with? There's nothing worse than a smelly plughole/drain, ugh!

I know cleanliness is relative but her house was (trying to be polite) quite disgusting! Aggie did her usual swabbing and growing nasties in petri dishes - loads of stuff found inc salmonella. Even her daughter didn't like to visit and her grandson had never even set foot in her house as her daughter wouldn't allow him because of the dirt. These natural products with help of a steam cleaner brought everything up really clean.

lynzpower

another great one which i got from Kim & Aggie is ( and really fab for bathgs & tiles)

Grapefruit or lemon - sliced in half. the damp bit dunked in general talbe salt.
Use this as a scouring pad.

Absolutely marvellous. and the smell is lovly too.

annaangeluk_2

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

My cleaner uses a steam cleaner for nearly everything icluding the floors, kitchen fronts, kitchen sides, fridge/freezer, bathroom tiles, kitchen tiles etc-but she does hoover the floors first to deep clean it. She uses an organic polish, dusters but does use bleach for the sink and toilet.

I have to disagree that my house doesnt feel as clean though. The only real difference is that you dont have the over-powering smell of harmful cleaners.

HTH

PP
xx

Actually i have to agree with you on this! In fact everything does "feel" clean because the worktops etc are so smooth and not sticky etc after they've been steam cleaned as they sometimes are with chemical cleaners, but I think I miss the smell that you get with the cleaners!!

Will definitely try some of the recipes so i can get that lovely smell back but without it choking me or my daughter!

Thank you all for your tips and suggestions!

I love this board!

Stacey

Thanks for everyones replies - will definitly try some of these out!!

stamford

Elbow grease is free

annaangeluk_2

stamford wrote: »

Elbow grease is free

We have plenty of that in our house!!

My 5 year old daughter and I have homemade 50's housewife aprons and matching rubber gloves - I've got her well trained! She's a little mini me and loves to do a bit of polishing etc!

we look fab in our matching aprons! :rotfl:

vixtress

annaangeluk wrote: »

I've recently decided to "go green" and get rid of all chemical cleaners etc for my house.

my daughter and I both have allergies and I have asthma and the products I used to use seem to aggrevate these so I'm looking for natural alternatives.

I have a steam cleaner (which I'm addicted to using!! Love it!:rotfl: ) but I don't feel my house is as clean as it was!

i'd love some ideas / recipes for air freshners, worktop cleaners etc. And what the hell is borax and where would i get it from?!

Thanks in advance!

Stacey

can you tell me more about steam cleaners? eg, which to buy, what you can use then for and most importantly, how much hassle is it to use one!
thant would be fab, thanks

vixtress

one more question.....
do they leave loads of water everywhere.
thanks

ceridwen

www.steamcleaning.tripod.com/

info on buying/using steamcleaners.

vixtress

thanks but the link doesnt seem to be working.

ceridwen

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/help_i_need_to_.html

link to www.noimpactman.typepad.com relevant page re chemical free cleaning. Quite a long thread on.