Go green cleaning tips. Natural cleaning products, green cleaning solutions that you can DIY, and more tips on how to keep your home clean in a more ecofriendly way.
This post may contain affiliate links which may earn me commissions should you click through them and take certain actions. As an affiliate for Amazon, Cricut, xTool, Home Depot, and other sites, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please DIY carefully. View my full legal disclosures here.
Please read the whole post so you don’t miss any important information!
Gosh I know what you’re thinking. Cleaning rots. But it’s an important part of decluttering and organizing. While you’re doing the other two, you need to be deep cleaning as you go.
Now the worst parts about cleaning for me are the expensive cleaning supplies and the harmful chemicals. So I’m going to discuss not only WHAT to clean, but also what to clean WITH.
Natural Cleaning Products and Tips
Here are some of the ways that I do greener cleaning in my home, as well as tips for how I make cleaning easier.
Use Steam Cleaners
Steam cleaners are a great alternative to using chemicals or paying tons of money in natural cleaning products. They have no scent (unless you add something to the water), but the heat will still kill bacteria.
I have these two steam cleaners:
- Steam mop
- Hand steam cleaner: If you’re on the market, get one of the ones that does it all, not one exclusive to clothing.
Read about my steam mop, a Bissell Powerfresh Steam Mop. I’m pretty happy with its performance and it’s still going strong- although the tank cracked so we replaced that piece.
I also have a hand steamer that I love and a carpet steam cleaner (this actually uses a cleaning product plus steam). Please be careful with steam because it is HOT and can burn. I always read the manuals on my products so I don’t accidentally burn myself because I do something stupid- like open my hand steamer to refill the water before it’s cooled off.
I have a LOT of lazy girl hacks with my steam mop. Check them out in the video below:
The nice thing about steam cleaning is that using steam as an alternative cleaners means purchasing and storing fewer cleaning products. I am trying to reduce my use of dangerous chemicals in my home because it is, quite frankly, easier to get rid of dangerous products than to baby proof them. I’m of the mindset that no baby proofing product is 100% hack proof.
One note is that I don’t like to put my steam against cold glass. Or use steam then immediately hit it with cold water to rinse it. Some websites don’t mention that this could be a problem- so MAYBE it’s fine. But I am going to err on the side of caution because hot/cold method is how I cut glass for wine bottles. I don’t want to take the chance of stressing the glass on my sliding glass doors- they are REALLY expensive to replace.
Upcycle Old Clothing and Linens for Rags
Upcycle old clothing into rags to clean with. They’re easy to cut up into smaller pieces and place them in a bin for later use. The best part is that they can be WASHED, unlike paper towels or sponges. This means you can start fresh after each use instead of possibly spreading bacteria around from a sponge.
Reusable Products vs. Disposable Products for Cleaning
I try to use reusable products over paper towels and other disposables if I can. We have old towels that I cut up and sewed into unpaper towels back when I started blogging that are ugggggllllly, but they are AWESOME for cleaning.
If you can’t stand the idea of ugly unpaper towels, I have some very pretty ones that I made too, plus I made this gorgeous patchwork wet bag for the kitchen to hold all of the dirty linens too!
DIY Green Cleaning Products
I hate to spend money on cleaning supplies. I’m also really sensitive to some products… anything with bleach really bothers me. I have asthma so I try to be careful. Windows are open and kids are out of any room that’s getting cleaned with heavy duty cleaners.
But honestly, I’ve been making a lot of my own cleaning supplies recently and they work GREAT. From DIY Laminate Floor Cleaner to DIY Window Cleaner and beyond, I have found making my own cleaners to be better for my health and cheaper to make. Products like vinegar do wonders for cleaning. And steam, of course. Steam cleaning can also be a good alternative to using cleaners.
Now… DIY cleaning supplies. Make sure you’re not mixing dangerous chemicals. Some chemicals are extremely dangerous to mix and some are completely pointless to mix. Chemical reactions, yo. Be careful. You could actually die if you f it up.
Please share and pin this post!
