I first became a homeowner in September of 2017. It’s wild to think it’s been about a year and a half already! Everything was clean and pretty and I wanted to do anything and everything to keep it that way. I told myself I would limit the use of chemicals by creating my own natural household cleaning products.
I’ve always hated chemicals and thought of our everyday cleaning products as almost a last resort. I just never thought of them as a healthy choice. They’ve burned my eyes, irritate my throat, and cause funky smells in the air.
Growing up my mom used Windex for literally – everything. It was far from just a glass cleaner in our house, it was more of an all purpose cleaner. We felt like we were in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, every day. HAHA! Even still it doesn’t feel like home if it doesn’t smell like Windex!
It was without a doubt her favorite household cleaner, so when I moved out and saw a bottle of Windex under my new kitchen sink – it was a sign, I picked the right house.
So what do we at the FEMPIRE use to keep our home nice and clean but free of scary chemicals? Stay tuned!
**This post may contain affiliate links, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you, these are all products I recommend, I won’t put anything on this page that I haven’t verified or personally used.**
The Basic Household Cleaner’s
All Star Ingredients:
–Castile Soap– A soap derived from all plant oils! Pretty cool! This is a great mixing agent for our household cleaners. We love the Dr. Bronner’s baby unscented castile soap, and in the spring we love the lavender scent!
–White Vinegar– Another acidic all star in this show. Nothing tackles grime and dirt like vinegar. All natural, chemical free, we’re here for it.
–Baking Soda– Again, non toxic, abrasive agent that helps to dissolve mildew, grease, basically any type of dirt you could imagine. Also has amazing brightening and deodorizing qualities as well.
-Lemons- How much more natural can we get? Lemons are naturally acidic and are phenomenal for helping us clean! They’re especially great for battling mold!
–Olive Oil– All natural polisher! Cant beat that!
–Essential Oils– Mainly tea tree is the focus in this article but truly you can mix essential oils into any of the household cleaners to tweak the smell. We have MANY essential oil diffusers positioned throughout our home so we tend to stick with the basics! Tea tree is a fabulous disinfectant, and bugs HATE it. Double win. (so do lice – can’t take the hairdresser out of me, I swear)
**A little disclaimer** Don’t combine castile soap & vinegar. It just won’t work- the chemical reaction will cause it to crystalize and ruin your spray bottle! And the properties of both substances cancel each other out! I definitely definitely don’t speak from experience here…:)
All Purpose Cleaner
We love mixing equal parts of pure white vinegar with water in a spray bottle and we use this for a replacement of my mother’s Windex habit! Use this to clean anything! Counter tops, tables, sinks, the fridge, whatever your little cleaning heart pleases. Don’t worry- the stinky vinegar smell will go away with your favorite essential oils! We actually have a separate spray bottle of this that I keep in the shower for a daily cleaner!
All Purpose Disinfectant Cleaner
Tea tree essential oil is natures best disinfectant! We take about 2 cups of water, a few tablespoons of castile soap, and about 20 drops of the hardcore tea tree essential oil! Yes, this is potent, but so are germs!! Kill em all!
A DEEP Cleaner
Meet your match with baking soda AND vinegar. These two are a pair like no other. Together, they can take off the WORST and the NASTIEST build up of literally anything. Windows, oven racks, refrigerator shelves (the WORST), a really gross microwave, the options are endless! Sprinkle baking soda on the surface, spray with vinegar, let sit, watch the bubbles happen, and wipe away all of the grime!
The Kitchen
The kitchen is my favorite room in my house – aside from my living room. I’m in the kitchen seemingly ALL day long and never complaining about it. When Lynn and I were first dating she would make fun of me for the amount of times I would wipe down my counters.
I’ve never had counters of my own before! They were beautiful!
What are my favorite cleaning products for the kitchen – here we go.
Nano Towels
NANO TOWELS: Two words. You need them! I was watching GMA one morning before Christmas and they were covering a bunch of gifts, giving discounts of course, and I saw these women talking about these towels. They came in a package of 4, nice and soft microfiber material, and ALL you needed to use them was water! I keep one damp by the sink to wipe down counters and messes, and I keep one dry right on top of the paper towels – this helps us cut WAY back on paper towel usage. If we have wet hands or just need a quick towel, we’ll always grab this. These guys were game changers this year.
NANO STAINLESS STEEL TOWEL– Okay after this I’m done talking about the nano brand. Swear. This is a one pack guy developed specifically for stainless steel. Same concept goes here- no chemicals needed- just water! Wipe down those appliances and of COURSE your sink, and watch them SHINE!
Cutting Boards
Guys, these things can get NASTY. Even MORE so if you’re not cooking plant based. The star of this show will be a LEMON! Cut it in half, rub it all over the cutting board, let sit for ten minutes or so, rinse, and voila! Clean cutting boards. If you have a REAL nasty cutting board try rubbing some salt on the board while scrubbing with the lemon. That almost always does the trick!
We have an obsession with wooden cutting boards. If you haven’t used one, you’re missin out! The company of our cutting boards has a lifetime guarantee, so any cracking or weirdness happening – no questions asked they send you a brandy new one! Check it out – here
A Much Loved Oven
The oven gets a lot of love in my house. As a result, we have some grimy build up! Lemme tell you though guys, get yourself some oven liners. They’re huge game changers for us! BUT we didn’t start off using them, so again, we were left with oven grime. Heres what to do: preheat your oven to around 120-125, spray vinegar all over the inside- focusing on the heaviest grime spots, then sprinkle with baking soda. Allow the oven to cool – DON’T get in there and get burned PLEASE. This isn’t a horror movie, though the grime tells a different story. Once the oven has cooled take a wet cloth and wipe it down! Grime = gone.
Microwave
Another guy who is SO loved in our home, but he gets OH so dirty. This is the coolest trick ever. Heres what I like to do. Take one of my baby small Pyrex dishes, pour some fresh lemon juice and vinegar in it, pop it in the microwave, turn it on for 2-3 minutes, DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!!! Let sit for at least another 10 minutes, when you open the door just simply wipe down the inside- Boom. Clean as a whistle!
Garbage Disposal
NAAAAASTY. Another wicked cool trick. (yes, wicked, where my New Englander’s at) We’re going to freeze vinegar and a chunk of lemon in ice cube trays, once they’re frozen I like to take them out and put them in a ziplock bag- always mark these guys, no one wants to think they’re sipping on yummy lemon ice cubes only to find out its vinegar. GROSS. Pop a few of these down the disposal- turn it on and let it run, this does a wonderful job of cleaning the blades and keeps your disposal smelling like lemony goodness.
Cast Iron Pans
Never never never use soap with these- says the professionals. We’ll believe them. If you have a really yucky cast iron pan who needs all of the cleaning help, we’re here to rescue it. Olive oil and salt are going to be your star winners for this one. Sprinkle coarse salt and olive oil, use a scrub brush, and get to work!
And even better, if you dont HAVE a cast iron pan do yourself a solid and invest in one! They’re not expensive at all and because we’re not using soap with them everything tastes SO much better because the pan is seasoned. Especially tofu. Like….GAME changer.
Dishwasher & Dishes By Hand
Castile Soap for the win. We love Dr. Bronners baby unscented castile soap! Here’s what we do. In a mason jar we mix equal parts castile soap and water. Then, we’ll pour a small amount in the soap compartment of the dishwasher. In the other side instead of using a chemical ridden rinse agent we like to use white vinegar! However, if you’re washing dishes by hand you’ll be all set with the castile soap and water!
The Bathroom
This is probably my LEAST favorite room to clean in my house. As a result, I want something nice, easy, and highly effective. I use my all purpose cleaner for the surface things like the sinks and the toilet. But what about for the shower? Or to actually clean the INSIDE of the toilet.
The Shower & Bathtub
If you’re lucky enough to have a separate bathtub, well, we’re envious. That is all. We use the same cleaner for both the shower and the tub. Here’s where our vinegar all star shines yet again. Mildew is no match for vinegar. We spray vinegar directly on the surface, let sit for 30 minutes or so, if its REALLY dirty you can sprinkle baking soda as well. Lastly, rinse with nice warm water. If you still have stuck on grime mix baking soda with castile soap, and scrub, scrub, scrub!
The Toilet
We heavy duty clean our toilets about once per week. To heavy duty clean your toilet the oh natural’ way- pour about a 1/2 cup baking soda in the toilet, followed by a few drops of tea tree essential oils, and lastly, a 1/4 cup of vinegar! This will cause a big fizz! That’s okay, it’s what we want! Scrub with the fizz!
For daily cleaning, we use the same multi purpose cleaner and spray the seat, the inside, and the outside to maintain the deep clean all week long!
Floors, Walls, And Everything In Between
Floors
We have hardwood floors throughout most of our home. This gets tricky when cleaning all natural! Olive oil works WONDERS for polishing, but it also makes for a slip waiting to happen. We both have horrible knees here, so we don’t use this method often.
This is perhaps the ONLY time I purchase a separate cleaner from an actual store. Enter: The Bona System. This actually is a non toxic brand believe it or not, the smell won’t kill humans or animals, its non toxic, and truly truly makes hardwood floors a BREEZE to maintain. Works just like the swiffer wet jet, they sell refills that simply plug into your device, or separate spray bottle refills! My hardwoods shine, Leo the terror cat is unaffected, and so are we! Win!
Guys, NEVER NEVER NEVER use vinegar on hardwoods! Ever! IF you’re trying to strip the shine- go for it.
**If you have tile, or anything other than hardwood: mix one part white vinegar with two parts warm water, wipe them down by hand or with a mop. No need to rinse!
Walls
Yes, you must wash your walls. I know, I felt cheated too. I had no clue! However, we’re trying to rock this whole adulting thing- so yep, lets get to wall washing! 1/4 cup white vinegar + 1 qt warm water = wall cleaner. I use my swiffer wrapped in a towel for this job. Makes for a great little wall cleaning device! All you have to do is wash the towel after! So easy!
Cabinets
If you have varnished wood cabinets, you must wipe them down! We use a couple table spoons of olive oil, mixed with a small amount of white vinegar and about a qt of water in a spray bottle! Wipe them down after with a dry cloth.
There We Have It!
Congratulations on your home renovation of cleaning products! 2023 is all about going GREENER! Including your cleaning products! Be aware of what you, your pets, and your babies are breathing in! So many toxins are found in every day household cleaners, why chance it when we can make our own non toxic versions! We hope this helps! Cheers to spring cleaning FEMPIRE!