Keeping your home green while you clean is easy when you have a chemical free cleaning kit handy to use for every task. With the right tools and a few recipes you can keep your home clean and fresh without the worry of expensive, toxic chemicals around you and your family.
I have listed the items necessary for a fully equipped cleaning kit but feel free to tailor it to your needs. Make it as deluxe or as simple as you want. You can even make this kit as a gift or to send off with your college bound kid! Be creative and have fun with it!
- Spray Bottles
- Glass Jars with lids
- Cheese Shaker (for baking soda)
- Microfiber Cloths
- Shower Caddy or similar carrying case that can be cleaned
- Sponges
- Pumice Stone (use to remove stubborn stains from the inside the toilet bowl)
- Old toothbrushes
- Rubber Gloves
- Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Salt in a shaker bottle
- Lemon Juice
- Borax
- Tea Tree Oil (found in health food stores)
- Castile Soap (found in health food stores. Please note: do not mix with anything containing vinegar as the two cancel each other out)
- Peroxide (in the brown bottle found in drug stores)
- Liquid Detergent (look for a green one free of phosphates and nonylphenol ethoxylates)
- Vegetable Glycerin (found in health food stores)
For basic cleaning around the home simply make a solution of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water and use on any non-porous surface. Avoid using vinegar on porous materials like marble as it may pit the surface.
For stained or greasy areas and soap scum, sprinkle baking soda on your non-porous countertops, sinks and bathtubs and spray your simple vinegar solution right on top until you see bubbles. Let it sit for a few minutes and then clean area with a damp microfiber cloth or sponge until all traces of baking soda are gone. For stubborn areas, repeat process and add a sprinkle or two of salt to baking soda and scrub. No rinsing is necessary!
While vinegar and baking soda will work for many of your cleaning needs but sometimes you need a more specialized cleaner. We have compiled a list of some of our favorite DIY Non Toxic Cleaning Recipes using the all the ingredients in this post. Give them a try and let us know what you think!
When using these or any other cleaner you should always test your products on an inconspicuous area first before using.
I definitely need to try the vinegar/baking soda method of cleaning. This is an easy kit to compile too since it’s full of things most of us have on hand all the time.
Love this. I use tea tree oil the way the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding used Windex. For house cleaning I also add Lemon Myrtle essential oil too!
Off to make my own kit!
Great tips! It is scary how many chemicals we have in our house through cleaning supplies.
We use everything listed except for the tea tree oil and castile soap, I have a cat and it freaks me out having it around, as for the castile soap I can never find it, and ussually order small batches when I need it
Love this. I need to get more of the cleaning supplies.
Non-toxic green clean sounds great! I used to clean everything with bleach because I was always afraid of what lives under what I clean. Now I know there are so many great alternatives, especially ones that aren’t toxic.
Ooh, I am so doing this! Thanks for the great tips!
Thanks for this post. I am all for chemical free cleaning.
What a great post! I am always looking for ways to clean chemical free in our home. I will have to pin this so I can start.
This is wonderful I have been making my own cleaning products from essential oils, vinegar etc for years it’s nice to see others using natural products too!
Love this gathering of items to make cleaning chemical free. Thanks.
Great post about cleaning chemical free – I only use natural products to clean. Natural is better for the environment – our bodies and our pocketbooks!
I think this is great – thank you so much. These are way better than the ones filled with chemicals.
wow, these are really good to know. i’ll have to print this out and see if my cleaning service would use some of these options.
Oh, thank you for this awesome idea! I buy a lot of natural cleaners but for the most part, I am not very conscious of the cleaners we use. I need to get better about that!
I try to buy natural cleaners but I need to be more conscious about it. This post will hopefully help me with that.
This is awesome. I hadn’t thought about DIY cleaning combinations like this that are chemical-free. It would be much cheaper than the cleaning products that I purchase at Whole Foods, so I’m excited to give some of these a try.
Thanks for the tips! I have been trying to use less chemicals in cleaning my house. I’ll have to put together a kit like this.
This is great! I have been working on getting all the chemicals out of my house.