Till about two decades back, most people I knew would use natural homemade cleaners at home, primarily because at that time it was rare to find on the shelves, the now widely available range of branded chemical household cleaners. And then we were barraged with these nicely packaged and wonderfully marketed chemical cleaners that promised to make our lives easy. And they did make our lives easy, for all these years. No mixing of stuff and creating homemade cleaners. No hard scrubbing. Just pour a bit of stuff on to a piece of cloth and wipe – that easy! However, we are all now waking up to the fact that most of these chemical household cleaners contain harmful chemicals, including carcinogens that cause cancer. 

And that gets one thinking – for a little bit of convenience, is it worth risking your and your family’s health? Although I am not yet completely off these wonderous cleaners, I have started moving towards homemade cleaners whenever and wherever possible. Ofcourse I still use Harpic for all toilets, but say to wipe a fridge clean, I have gone back to what my mum would use – baking soda.

Here are a few alternatives I discovered – most of it is like going back to what we did a score of years back or what our moms and grandmoms used all the time. Even if we can follow a few of these household cleaning tips, it would reduce our exposure to these harmful chemicals. If you know of any other cleaners, do share. Would love to hear!

• Use baking soda and a wet cloth to scrub and clean refrigerators, mixers and kitchen stove.
• Use Imli (tamarind) or lemon peels as scrubs to give shine to brass or copper decoratives.
• To clean silver, take a used toothbrush. Take some warm water in a small bowl. Dip the toothbrush in warm water and apply some toothpaste. Scrub the silver with the brush.
• To clean silver chains and small objects, I just dip them in a mixture of baking soda and warm water and keep overnight. Take it out in the morning and wash in clean water.
• When something spills, wipe it off immediately. Don’t let it dry and make it worse for you to clean later.
• Put a bit of salt in the water to be used for cleaning floors.
• To give shine, use some vinegar instead to the water used for mopping floors.
• To bleach clothes, don’t throw away the lemon peels that have been squeezed of juice. Put them in a bowl of water. I do so for the whole week and then on the weekend I use this water to soak any clothes that need to be bleached.
• Instead of a chemical starch, use rice water to starch clothes.
• To deodorize bathrooms, I put a big blob of rock salt in a glass in one corner. I also keep half a glass of vinegar with some decorative artificial flowers in it.
• To give a no-streak look to glass surfaces, I wipe with a wet cloth and then wipe the surface dry with old newspaper. 
• For furniture, I wipe wood surfaces with a bit of mayonnaise when need be.

Again, if you clean your home and equipments regularly, and not let the dirt and gripe settle, a damp cloth is more often than not just enough to clean. And I can’t underline enough the importance of everyday cleaning in keeping one physically active. The days when I start my day lazy and skip household cleaning, I feel nearly drained of energy at the end of the day and a whole ot of inertia. Its almost like what happens when I skip my morning walk or yoga session. I don’t feel active as much.

And come to think of it, doing the above also helps us save money and positively impacts global warming by the simple virtue of reduced consumption!

Tags: environment conservation, green living, healthy eating, homemade cleaners