Decrease Toxins in your home with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

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Reduce toxins {and save money at the same time} in your home with these four frugal cleaning ingredients! Your family and your health will thank you. You’ll happily notice how you save on space from only storing and using 4 ingredients, but you’ll smile while cleaning due to saving time while cleaning efficiently through each and every room of the house.

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

The world we live in is a dirty place. Even a spotless home can be a haven for nasty toxins – especially if the very “cleaners” you use are more harmful than beneficial. Tight, energy efficient homes are good for energy preservation, but sometimes make for dirty indoor air quality because leached chemicals have no place to go and just build up in homes {especially if you never open your windows}. Toxins in food, toxins in our clothes, toxins in our make-up and soaps: sometimes it’s hard to know where to start to clean up.

One of the first steps I made to clean up my house was to stop buying commercial cleaners which are notorious for leaching toxins. They may smell clean, but they aren’t safe. Making homemade cleaners is a quick and frugal way to decrease toxins in your life. Most cleaners are easy to prepare, easy to use, and best of all, they work great!

Here are four frugal, effective, and safe ingredients no green home should be without:

1. White Vinegar

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

White vinegar is the quintessential, frugal home cleaning ingredient. It’s all natural, effective, and has antibacterial qualities. It’s safe for you, safe for your children, safe for your pets, safe for the environment. And best of all, it can be used to clean your kitchen, your bathroom, your woodwork, your floors, and your laundry. I use vinegar to wash my fruits & veggies and to clean just about everything in my house! The easiest way to use it is to dilute with water, add to a squirt bottle, and start cleaning! This helpful website here has a lot more information on vinegar if you’d like even more ideas.

2. Baking Soda

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

Another must have in my house is Baking Soda. Also very frugal, also very versatile, baking soda is used in a whole host of applications. I use it to clean my kitchen sink, keep my drains clean, deodorize my fridge, make my laundry soap, clean my carpet, freshen my trash can, and bake cookies! How nice is that? This website has even more uses for baking soda.

3. Borax

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

Borax is a natural mineral compound great for all sorts of cleaning. Use it to whiten your sink, freshen your toilets, and boost your laundry. My kids also love borax for making slime.

4. Lemon

Decrease Toxins with 4 Frugal Cleaning Ingredients

A natural whitening agent, lemon juice is great for some many things. From cleaning your sink to cleaning your cutting boards – you’ll want fresh lemon juice in your frugal cleaning ingredient arsenal!

For more Green Cleaning Tips, check out these posts:

How to Clean Porcelain Sinks without Bleach

DIY Fruit & Veggie Wash

Green Carpet Cleaning

Do You Know What’s in YOUR Home Cleaning Products

About Michelle Marine

Michelle Marine is the author of How to Raise Chickens for Meat, a long-time green-living enthusiast, and rural Iowa mom of four. She empowers families to grow and eat seasonal, local foods; to reduce their ecological footprint; and to come together through impactful travel.

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20 Comments

  1. Awesome, I have been using a vinegar/water solution to clean (as an all purpose cleaner) for a while now, but gosh the smell leaves something to be desired (my husband always thinks it’s easter egg dying time). Can’t wait to try it! Just one question though – what kind of squirt bottles do you use? I’ve found that the vinegar solution eats through the cheap Target brand type, but haven’t found a source for more industrial types.

    1. I’m not sure I’ve had that problem. I have had a problems with squirters not working after a while. Is that what you mean? I’ve found some more industrial bottles in garden sections. Maybe they would work for you? After a while, I just have to replace my bottles though.

  2. What great ideas for going green cleaning! My husband brought home a huge bag of Cara Cara oranges today, so I’ll be saving the rinds to soak in vinegar. I LOVE that idea! Thanks for this post and the links!

  3. What a great idea! Citrus peels don’t compost very well for us and I always cringe when I throw them away.

    1. You’ll still end up with wasted peels, Jennifer – it just delays the inevitable. But you have to drain the vinegar from the peels before you use it. 🙂

  4. I’ve been meaning to research this, so thank you! I love it when I find new uses for things I already have around the house!

  5. Awesome! Love cleaning with vinegar and other natural cleaners. I have added essential oils but I love this idea, too. Thanks for sharing.

  6. Great tips for non-toxic cleaners! We use natural cleaners because the store-bought cleaners usually contain ingredients that are bad for the septic tank. They kill the good bacteria that breaks down waste.

  7. I’m glad you added a caption…because I looked at the picture first and immediately thought, those are the ugliest peaches I’ve ever seen. I guess the post title hadn’t registered with me yet. haha! I’ve been wanting to go green within the house and this is a good place for me to start. I immediately think of the $$ we’ll save. I’ve had a good time here…laughing at myself and learning! Thanks for sharing at the Rock ‘N Share!

  8. Great ideas. I soaked my lemon peels in water to use in the final rinse for laundry and sometimes in my hair. I then chucked it in the compost as it breaks down quickly in that state ( i also live in a warm climate). From now on I will be using citrus infused vinegar for the laundry – as soon as the first lot is ready!

  9. Baking soda is a great product to be used as a carpet freshener. You just sprinkle it on the carpet and then leave it for an hour to settle and then vacuum the entire carpet.

  10. With the surfacing of different cleaning materials, we are no longer sure which of these are safe for the family. Thus, it becomes common that people go for more natural or toxic-free remedies. Thank you for sharing these ideas. These will definitely benefit all homeowners; consequently, our environment.

  11. Thanks for the advice 😀 Just wanted to mention that I found a surprising number of professional companies actually use natural and/or non-harsh chemicals as part of their service. As a disabled person I find this a great middle ground. I can personally recommend carpet cleaning birmingham but there are plenty on Google if you’re not in the area.