• 1/4 Cup baking soda
• 1/2 Cup white vinegar

First, you fill your washing machine with water and add your baking soda, laundry detergent and then your clothes.  During the final rinse cycle, add the vinegar (pour it into the softener dispenser of your washing machine has one).  It’s a lot gentler on your clothes than the commercial brands and you will surely save money by using the homemade version.  It will also eliminate the build-up on your lint screen that was mentioned in my previous post.

I would love to hear about any other alternatives for homemade fabric softeners if you’ve used them!

Kitchens are often the hub of a home and one of the busiest rooms in a house. It’s no wonder that it can also be one of the messiest rooms in the house, too. However, ridding your kitchen of grease spills and grime is as easy as following a few of the simple tips and technique listed below.

1.To start, you will need the following cleaning materials: buckets or other containers, brushes, rubber gloves, and cleansers.

2.Create your own kitchen cleaner and kitchen brighteners to clean up grease, grime, baked on stains and spills and to brighten counter tops and back splashes.

3. Use straight vinegar for shiny counter tops daily. For a nice, fresh smell, try cider vinegar.

4.Apply a baking soda and water paste to remove stains from laminate counter tops. Apply, allow to dry, then rub off and rinse.

5. With a paste of one part bleach and 3 parts baking soda, you can easily tackle tough stains.

6. Use a tile and grout cleaner and a toothbrush to remove dirt and mildew from tile grout.

7. Help your white appliances or enamel sinks that are starting to yellow with a little kitchen brightener.

8. Remove skid marks on linoleum floors with a spot of toothpaste just before mopping the floors

9. Remove hard water build-up in a teapot by pouring in 2 cups of vinegar and then bringing it to a boil. Let the vinegar simmer for 10 minutes and rinse the teapot thoroughly.

10. Use olive oil to clean stainless steel kitchen sinks.

About the Author: Kyna Woollery—Now that’s Organized, LLC™ Looking for more useful household cleaning and organizing tips? Visit www.nowthatsorganized.com to get your FREE “50 Solutions for Organizing Your World” idea-pak.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Borax. Borax is most often used as a laundry booster and water softener, but it’s also great for killing insects, cleaning walls, floors and bathrooms, killing weeds, and getting rid of nasty odors. Unlike many of the other cleaning products listed here, borax can be toxic if swallowed. It may also lead to skin irritation. Be sure to keep it away from pets and children.

Vinegar. You know those spray bottles of multipurpose cleaner. Why not replace that with a solution of half water and half vinegar? It cleans glass and surfaces, while disinfecting and deodorizing. Plus it’s safe for your kids to drink (it’s actually healthy).

Hydrogen peroxide. You may have used this to clean out cuts and scrapes, or just the inside of your ears. If it can clean so well inside your body, imagine what it can do for your house. While drinking hydrogen peroxide is safe, it can make you feel very sick, so keep it away from children.

Lemon juice. Lemons juice is a strong acid, so it breaks down dirt and the organisms that live all over your house. It can be used to clean and disinfect just about anything (just test for staining first) and even polishes and shines many metals. Plus, you don’t have to add the lemony scent, it’s already in there.

One great thing to do with natural cleaning products that you should never ever do with conventional products is to mix them. While mixing certain household cleaners can be harmful and even deadly to you and your family, mixing natural products can give you added cleaning power.

You know all those bubbles that get released when you mix baking soda and vinegar? Well those bubbles are great for unclogging drains and breaking up other hard to reach dirt and grime. You can also substitute lemon juice for vinegar to produce the same effect with a fresh scent.

So, next time you need a new cleaning product, why not replace it with one of these great natural alternatives instead? You’ll soon find you can have both a clean house and a safe house.

Copyright © Lara Velez, All Rights Reserved

Do you have a problem with getting your windows clean and streak free? Have you ever washed your windows thinking you had them sparkling clean; only to discover, that when the sun came around, they were still streaked. I have lots of times, till I found microfiber cloths and towels. Other tips I have used before microfiber towels are:

• Using newspapers to dry the windows with, but that left you with carbon on your hands from the print on the paper

• Using some vinegar in the water helps to cut dirt and grime

• Wiping the inside of the windows in one direction and the outside in the opposite direction. This helped me to know which side I had to redo.

• Another trick my mom used to use (on her windows that would get coated with road grime) was to wash her front porch windows with oven cleaner. It was the only way she could get them clean. She lived on a heavily traveled state highway, with lots of trucks and farm traffic. So that left her windows with lots of oil, dirt and exhaust residue on them.

• But my favorite tip was when I discovered microfiber towels and cloths to wash and dry my windows with.

What microfiber towels I like best to use:

I use a wet suede microfiber towel to wash my windows with and a dry waffle weave towel to dry with. You could also use one 16″ x 16″ microfiber terry towel to wash with and one or more 16″ x 16″ terry microfiber towels to dry with, depending on how many windows you need to wash. One 20″ x 40″ waffle weave will dry numerous windows with just this one towel, because of its special built in “pockets” that whisk the moisture away, first into the pocket and then deep into the fabric of the towel, leaving your window dry and streak free. I have heard people tell me they just wash and let air dry.

How the microfiber towel works:

The unique technology of the microfiber blend, gives you a towel that is soft, durable, dirt grabbing and absorbent. The microfiber blend is made up of polyester and polyamide (nylon). The polyester gives it its softness, and the polyamide gives it its absorbency. The “star” wedges gives it its scrubbing ability, with it’s thousands of surface edges. This technology allows the fibers to pick up the dirt and pull it into the towel not just pushing it ahead of itself.

I use hot water to wash my windows with. Rinsing your microfiber towel in hot water causes the fibers to swell, thus forcing the dirt, oil and grime out of the fibers into to your water. Rinse your rag frequently, to keep it clean. Dirty rags can also cause streaking of your windows. Just using hot water and microfiber towels helps to save you money, eliminating window cleaner and paper towels.

Caring for your microfiber towels:

Launder your cloths in hot water if they are especially dirty, microfiber loves hot water. Dry on low heat in the dryer or line dry. Use regular detergent, no bleach or fabric softener. If the microfiber cloths are getting stiff, they may not be clean, or they have been dried at too high of heat; try soaking them in hot water, detergent and OxiClean (a non-bleach stain remover) for ½ hour to help loosen and remove dirt deep within the fibers.

Written by Marcia Loofboro, believer in chemical free cleaning and owner of http://www.MerryMicrofiber.com home of affordable, dirt grabbing microfiber towels, cloths, mitts, sponges and mops.

There are a variety of vinegars on the market – from plain distilled white vinegar to vinegars made from fruit, herbs, cider, malt and wine. All of them are somewhat corrosive, with a level of acidity between 4% and 6%; this is why they are sold in glass or plastic containers with cork or other corrosion-proof tops. Since they contain vinegar and are acidic, marinades, vinaigrettes and pickles should be mixed in glass, enamel or stainless steel vessels and kept well away from copper, zinc, aluminum, iron and galvanized metal.

Distilled white vinegar, based on dilute distilled alcohol fermented to a 4% acetic acid count, is an effectual inexpensive household cleaner and stain remover. Being acid (with a pH below 7), it will NOT remove the majority of stains which are caused by acid substances (oils, fats, etc.). Vinegar is very effective, however, against stains caused alkaline substances such as soap, mustard, ketchup, coffee, tea, beer, gum, glue, calcium, rust, grass, etc.

Only distilled white vinegar should be employed for household uses, as the other varieties of vinegars could stain what you want to clean. Make use of the vinegar at full strength to absorb offensive odors in a room or to remove tannin build-up from teapots and coffeemakers. Mix it 50/50 with water to take out salt from the carpeting in your car after winter. Add a small quantity to water when rinsing your fine china and glassware, machine-washing your clothes, cleaning your wood floors. You should never use vinegar on cotton, linen or acetate.

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