The kitchen is often one of the most complicated rooms in the house to clean, yet one of the most important since this is where food is prepared. To keep foodborne illness to a minimum, a clean kitchen is important. At the same time, none of us wants toxic chemicals touching surfaces where food also touches! Many households have numerous cleaners just for the kitchen. These include floor cleaners, oven cleaners, dish detergent, and one or more surface cleaners. This is often not only expensive, it can also results in a lot of added chemicals in our homes.
Making your own natural cleaners can save money and avoid the hazards of cleaning the kitchen with harsh chemicals. Here are some kitchen cleaners you can make easily, using natural ingredients:
Oven Cleaner Traditional oven cleaner is smelly and very toxic. Prevention is key here. To keep the oven from getting so messy in the first place, try sprinkling a generous amount of salt on spills right after they happen, while the oven is still hot. Once cooled, you can usually scrape the spill up easily. Also, put pans on top of larger cookie sheets in case of spillage. Then you only have to clean the pans, not the oven.
For regular cleanings, a mixture of equal parts baking soda and hot water is safe and effective. This will make a paste that you can apply and let sit for one minute (or longer if needed) before scrubbing and rinsing off. For tough stains, add an equal part of salt to the mix, apply and heat the oven to 500 degrees for one hour, then let it cool and rinse off.
Dishwashing If you wash dishes by hand, adding baking soda to liquid soap (such as Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds) makes an effective cleaner that is less damaging to the environment than regular dish detergent. There are also organic dish detergents available in health food stores. In the dishwasher, washing soda and borax are a good home-made alternative to traditional dishwasher detergents.
For the rinse cycle in the dishwasher, adding vinegar will keep your dishes spot-free. It's also good for keeping the dishwasher itself clean. The rinse compartment in many dishwashers will not hold vinegar very well, so you might want to add it at the beginning of the rinse cycle.
For pots and pans that are greasy or have food stuck on them, soak in a solution of baking soda and a little water. Coarse salt and lemon juice work wonders on copper pans.
Drains and Garbage Disposals
Clogged drains can often be cleared by pouring a cup of baking soda and a cup of table salt down the drain, followed by half a cup of white vinegar. Let that sit for ten minutes, then flush out with a teakettle full of boiling water.
Baking soda and vinegar are also great for cleaning the disposal. Pour those ingredients down the disposal, let sit for ten minutes, then put a few ice cubes in the disposal and run it. Citrus peels or cut up citrus fruits that are going bad will freshen the disposal between cleanings.
Floors Floors can often be cleaned with nothing more than a damp microfiber mop. If you need something more than water, white vinegar is effective and safe for almost any type of hard flooring. A few drops of dish detergent in hot water also does a good job.
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