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Natural And Zero Waste Household Cleaning Products Swaps
Household cleaning products are essentials we all buy regularly, but we rarely discuss how they impact our health and the environment. Many conventional cleaners have harsh chemicals, which can cause many health problems and cause damage to the environment with pollution.
Although there are other options besides chemical cleaners, they aren't the only solution – you can try to clean your home with some easy and inexpensive natural zero-waste cleaning swaps. Also, most of these come more affordable than the conventional cleaners you use otherwise.
READ NEXT: If you want non-toxic store-bought options, check out our complete guide to sustainable and eco-friendly household cleaning products here!
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Easy DIY cleaning recipes for your home.
Awesome Simple Natural Cleaning Swaps
Household Cleaning Products: Use White Vinegar
White vinegar is a staple ingredient in a zero-waste cleaning home. You can use it as a substitute for most surface cleaners and universal sprays you'd typically buy at your local grocery store. It is simple: dilute with water and add to a spray bottle. If you don't care for the smell of vinegar, don't fret – it will dissipate and not stick around on surfaces. Nonetheless, you can substitute the vinegar fragrance with a few drops of your favorite essential oils for a fresher aroma.
Use directly to wipe down surfaces. It's an excellent natural kitchen cleaner. White distilled vinegar has roughly five percent acetic acidity, generally in many household cleaners. Further, this powerful acid is known for tackling mildew and bacteria.
We recommend storing this DIY cleaner in a glass or metal spray bottle in a cabinet away from direct sunlight. However, if you have old cleaner bottles you'd otherwise throw away, feel free to reuse them – make sure they're thoroughly washed before reusing.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Vinegar is not just great for cleaning your kitchen or bathroom. It is also great for personal care. For example, you can make your own apple cider vinegar green tea face toner.
READ NEXT: What is green cleaning, and why is it important? If you are into DIY, you can make a Green Cleaning Starter Kit click here.
Baking soda
If the white vinegar spray doesn't cut through grease and grime, baking soda certainly will. It's a fantastic natural and zero-waste cleaning alternative for your sustainable home, as you can use it to substitute some of the harshest chemicals found in household cleaning products.
It can be used in various ways – cleaning toilets and scrubbing your oven. Baking soda packs a cleaning punch, especially when combined with vinegar spray.
Baking soda is also a terrific alternative to bleach-based stain removers for your clothing!
Lemon
One of the best natural cleaning alternatives is a lemon in the produce aisle. In many ways, you can use lemon similarly to vinegar – when you dilute it with water, but with no vinegar smell that most of us find unpleasant.
Nonetheless, aside from that, it's also an excellent natural and zero-waste way to get rid of those hard water marks in the shower or other bathroom areas. For instance, to clean water marks on your glass shower door cut a lemon in half and on it and wash it down with water.
Natural Fiber Cloth
Many of us love using microfibre cloths, even when using natural cleaners. Although, often, they do not realize microfibre clothes aren't zero waste. The synthetic materials used to make microfibre cloths are pretty much plastic. When this plastic comes into contact with water, it releases microscopic plastic particles – microplastics into our water stream.
Since these particles are often not filtered out by wastewater treatment plants, they will go on polluting our rivers and oceans.
Amazingly, natural fibers, such as cotton or bamboo, do not release any such particles, making them a considerably better alternative for zero-waste cleaning. You can find some great prints and designs on stores like Etsy, but if you have old t-shirts, you can cut them up or any other piece of clothing you would otherwise toss in the trash, and it ends up in a landfill.
Also, if the fibers of the cleaning cloth are fine enough, they can easily replace polishes for wood furniture.
Household Cleaning Products: Essential oils
Many conventional cleaners utilize artificial fragrances to cover up the strong smell of their chemicals. Natural cleaning products don't require such odors because no chemical smells exist. However, high-quality essential oils possess other benefits besides a natural way to add fragrance to household cleaning products.
If you enjoy using air freshener sprays or dispensers, a simple essential oil diffuser can do the job much better – and more naturally. They make your home smell nice and have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties!
**Before using essential oils, be sure to do your research. There is plenty of information on essential oils, and we want to ensure everyone stays safe!
This post was all about natural household cleaning products swaps.
Here is a simple and budget-friendly checklist of all-natural cleaning swaps for your healthy and clean home! There is no need to purchase toxic sprays and cleaners when you can utilize these simple finds!
READ NEXT: Sustainable Living: This Guide Makes Eco-Friendly Living Easy
