What do you use to clean with? (Green-as-can-be products please)

[Dace]

<aybe I missed it but can anyone help me with stone? We have traveritine floors and I prefer to mop with hot water, vinegar and a few drops of EO to make things smell nice....but then I read acids like vinegar are bad for stone. Now I am stumped so I went back (EEEEK) to MrClean

 

[patandchickens]

Dace, have you tried just hot water alone? Possibly with a little soap on particular areas if necessary?

If you associate a particular scent with 'clean', get (make!!) some potpourri or grate the rind off an orange you're eating or make the pine-needle concoction mentioed early, something like that, to scent the room

Pat

 

[dragonlaurel]

Baking soda for sinks, pans, and lots of stuff.
Vinegar for mirrors, counters, burned on food, laundry rinse, heavy dirt on floors, disinfects too.
Simple green- diluted various amounts- for counters, stove top, mopping, greasy gunk.
A little cat litter in bottom of trash can to keep them from getting nasty.
I liked pine cleaner for mopping but the commercial stuff is bad for humans- so I will be looking for a spot to gather pine needles.

Trying to find a alternative to bleach for cleaning the toilet. Tried vinegar already.

 

[FarmerChick]

I use baking soda, vinegar alot but I also have some leftover chemical stuff I use sparingly.

I won't throw these things out cause I won't waste the money.

I have a few bottles of Windex I am slowly using down...LOL.

great natural recipes on this thread.

good old soap and water cleans up so much. I don't ever use furniture polish...I just dust.

 

[Dace]

Dace, have you tried just hot water alone? Possibly with a little soap on particular areas if necessary?

If you associate a particular scent with 'clean', get (make!!) some potpourri or grate the rind off an orange you're eating or make the pine-needle concoction mentioed early, something like that, to scent the room

Pat

I know that I should fele perfectly fine with that but perhaps the nearly 42 years of commercials have convinced me that I need somethign stronger

I will try it.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Trying to find a alternative to bleach for cleaning the toilet. Tried vinegar already.

Between the hydrogen peroxide "bleach" and the borax (used separately, not together), I don't think I will ever go back to using bleach very often. The nice thing about the peroxide "bleach" and the borax, over chlorine bleach, is that both of them have better "scrubbing action", if you will. The peroxide will fizz and dislodge most gunk, as well as removing stains, while the borax is mildly abrasive when used in solid form (like that stuff Comet). Good stuff.

 

[patandchickens]

Dace, have you tried just hot water alone? Possibly with a little soap on particular areas if necessary?

I know that I should fele perfectly fine with that but perhaps the nearly 42 years of commercials have convinced me that I need somethign stronger

To do what?

Look at it this way. There are 2 kinds of cleaning: "removing visible dirt or crud", which let's call mechanical cleaning, and "reducing populations of bacteria", which let's call biological cleaning.

The only reason to add something to hot water for mechanical cleaning would be if plain water and scrubbing aren't enough, primarily for greasy substances. Soap or other surfactants work well for most situations, or acids for dissolving mineral deposits. (Since travertine IS a mineral deposit, and is highly acid soluble, there is probably a limit to how much you should use acid on it, tho I say this from a minerological standpoint not as any sort of flooring expert )

For producing a biologically (somewhat) clean surface, scrubbing with hot water and a bit of soap is actually reasonably effective, esp. on nonporous surfaces, because it physically wipes away many/most germs and soap tends to damage bacterial cell membranes. You can go with other stronger cleaners (stronger surfactants, alcohols, bleach, etc) for more-intensive decontamination, but frankly, for a FLOOR? Why? You're not licking it, and you *are* walking all over it anyhow.

So, I'd say definitely try just hot water and see what you think

Pat

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I agree. I only use hot water and a little vinegar on my floors. I only worry about disinfecting if an animal leaves me a little present. Then I will clean the present up and then wipe that little spot of the floor with rubbing alcohol. I agree that soapy water would be enough . . . it is just more convenient for me to wipe it with rubbing alcohol.

 

[ducks4you]

I understand that hydrogen peroxide will clean a lot of things that bleach will not. (I'm kindof addicted to using bleach for EVERYTHING that I want white, so it's hard for ME to switch.) Maybe if you do a web search you could find out if this would work for you. Just make sure that you DO NOT MIX BLEACH WITH AMMMONIA!! You'll pass out from the fumes!!

 

[MorelCabin]

You can put a teaspoon of teatree oil in a spray bottle with water if you want a disinfectant to wash surfaces.
You can do the same with oregano oil and use as a room spray to ward off flu and cold viruses.
The pine cleaner mentioned is great! I used that alot a few years ago, lately have been using teatree, but pine is alot cheaper! (free) I also tried spruce needles and really liked the scent.