The CleanSuds Blog
Where education and truthful facts are easy to come by.
5 Essential Oils That are Great for Green Cleaning
Sometimes it can be hard to find the time that you need to give your home a good, thorough cleaning.
It can be a slow, sometimes tedious process and we often like to resort to the easiest methods possible to get it done as quickly as possible.
It’s hard to fault anyone for doing this, but the problem with the easiest route is that it does tend to be the least healthy one.
It’s a lot more convenient to tackle your house using all of the common store-bought cleaning products. And that stuff is packed with chemicals and ambiguous ingredients.
And the same applies to washing your clothes, cleaning dishes and spraying scented substances to enhance the aroma of your house.
You never know what kind of potentially harmful material you are releasing into the air when you clean like that. It’s detrimental to your health and the environment.
Green cleaning is the way to go. And with the right blends of essential oils, you can put together your own cleaning products that are way more healthy.
Here’s five essential oils that are great for green cleaning:
- Lavender
People have been using lavender for a lot of different reasons for many, many years now. It’s one of the most popular essential oils.
It’s good for your skin and hair, and it’s also good for fighting against nausea as well as things like the common cold.
It works against these because it’s antibacterial and antiviral. This makes it a great choice for cleaning your bathroom or your kitchen.
You want to use it in places where bacteria is prone to build up and also where people eat. If you mix it in a spray bottle with water and white vinegar it makes a great cleaning solution.
It’s also useful as an insect repellent as well as an air freshener that you can spray around your house.
- Peppermint
Much like lavender, peppermint is a popular way to deal with headaches and nausea, but many people don’t realize that it’s also a powerful disinfectant.
It makes for a great surface cleaner. If you mix this with some vinegar and water in a spray bottle you can use it to clean countertops.
You’ve probably noticed by this stage that vinegar, white vinegar specifically is something that you will need to have for a lot of these blends.
I know that the smell of vinegar isn’t necessarily popular but it’s useful in cleaning solutions and the oils will usually mask the smell anyway.
You can also use this particular mixture to clean the floors too. If you mix it with water in your mop bucket it should do the trick.
- Lemon
Lemon is a terrific oil for cleaning around the house because it’s got antibacterial properties but is also a low pH.
It won’t do any damage to your surfaces but is still effective in killing bacteria and disinfecting things.
Lemon is actually something that you could use to clean all of your appliances, and also ceiling fans and trash cans.
You could clean the microwave with it by just microwaving a cup filled with water and lemon oil and then wiping down the inside of the machine.
And if you want to treat the dishwasher with it, mix distilled vinegar with a few drops of lemon oil and place it in an empty dishwasher.
These are notoriously hard to clean but lemon oil gets the job done with minimal hassle.
- Eucalyptus
This is yet another oil that has antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties so you can use it in a lot of the ways that you can the others we discussed.
But it’s also very good at getting rid of grease and grime. Areas like the oven top, the kitchen sink and the microwave are places where this could be a problem.
Mix eucalyptus with water and, you guessed it, white vinegar in a spray bottle and then use that on these surfaces to get rid of all that grease.
It’s a good way to remove adhesive too so if there is any sticky residue stuck to countertops or windows then the eucalyptus mix will deal with that.
And on top of all that it’s good for keeping away pests and dust mites.
- Tea Tree
We can sing the praises of tea tree oil all day. It doesn’t smell particularly strong, it’s minimally invasive in terms of leaving stains or causing damage and there’s many uses.
You can use it to put together a multi-purpose, disinfectant cleaning spray which you can use on pretty much any surface.
And it makes for a very strong bathroom scrub because it’s a natural mold fighter. So it would also be great for cleaning the kitchen sink too.
Because it’s a disinfectant, you could put it to good use cleaning things like yoga mats or other pieces of exercise equipment too.
Conclusion
Put the days of letting all of those nasty fumes pollute your home and your body behind you. Give green cleaning a try, you won’t regret it.
If you want to find out more about green cleaning and how to implement it into your routine, check out this article from Groom & Style.
Make Your Life Green: Declutter and Free Yourself
• Clean Green: Use eco-friendly products or kitchen items for cleaning, and purchase a quality vacuum for the task.
• Recycle Large Goods: List large goods online for sale or free collection; send electronics and metal to scrap dealers; donate furniture to thrift stores and charity shops.
• Upcycle Clothes: Repurpose garments into quilts or modern clothing with tutorials found online.
• Repurpose Furniture: Refresh old items with a new coat of paint or transform them into something totally different with video guides.
Green Living: Creating A Cozy, Eco-Friendly Home
Written by Tony M.
With sustainability being at the forefront of everyone’s minds in recent years, doing your part to contribute to a healthy environment is more important than ever. Luckily, going green has a wealth of advantages to offer every homeowner who makes the switch. From insulation to flooring (and everything in between), here are a few ways you can upgrade your living spaces to contribute to that bright, green future.
Beautiful Bamboo Flooring
One of the major problems facing our planet is deforestation; with demand so high and growth so slow, bamboo provides an excellent, sustainable alternative to traditional hardwood floors. It can grow at incredible rates without the use of fertilizers or pesticides: a bamboo grove can yield 20 times more timber than trees in the same location, and they release 35% more oxygen into the air than similar-sized trees. If you simply must have that hardwood floor look, consider ecological bamboo in place of expensive mahogany.
Wonderful Windows
A home’s windows are its first line of defense against cold and heat; they can also be its largest energy leech — if you suffer from extreme monthly energy bills, it may be due to your windows’ U-factor. Defined as the measure of how well a window insulates (and therefore how well it prevents heat from escaping), the U-factor rating system uses a scale of 0.20 to 1.20. The lower the number, the better insulated your window. Since energy leeches contribute to the size of your carbon footprint, installing well-insulated windows with low U-factors can help the environment and your wallet.
Laudable Lighting
With technology advancing every day, the emergence of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has had a huge impact on modern society. And, best of all, they’re remarkably green! Residential LED light bulbs use at least 75% less energy and last an astounding 25 times longer than incandescent lights. Though the initial cost might be higher, they pay themselves off dozens of times over and reduce energy waste.
Impressive Insulation
After your windows, your attic is a home’s largest offender for heat and energy loss: the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 44% of home energy use goes toward heating and cooling. Since an attic with poor insulation could be leaking air — and insulated buildings in the U.S. have been proven to reduce CO2 emissions by 780 million tons — one of the best ways to minimize your carbon footprint and save money on those energy bills is to ensure your attic is well-insulated.
Powerful Plumbing
Your toilet is the main source of water use in your home, sometimes using (and wasting) six gallons per flush. Making the switch to efficient, low-flush models can reduce your water usage by 20 to 60%. A toilet that uses less water will still provide equal or superior performance, and it goes a long way towards reducing pollution.
Best of all, you are not alone in these efforts: nearly 84% of respondents in a 2017 survey stated that living in a sustainable, eco-friendly home is important to them. If we are all able to commit to a greener future, both our personal lives and the environment will grow and blossom as a result.
5 Organizing Techniques to Get on Top of Your Home’s Clutter
• Set up three boxes for items to keep, donate, and throw away.
• Install shelves and storage containers for organizing.
• Label everything to make it easy to remember where items belong.
• Make a daily routine of putting everything back in its place.
• Have everyone living in the home on board with the plan together.
Running an Eco-Friendly Household Is Not as Hard as It Seems
There's a guy on social media who takes plastics out of the ocean and makes them into useful things to sell for operating money. Many people read this and decide they'll go green. Need to know how to begin? You can start in your own home.
In the Beginning
Having an eco-friendly household isn't as hard as it seems. Take cloth shopping bags to the grocery. Take a Mason jar when you want a soft drink or a ceramic mug or thermos for coffee. If you do, you won't be using foam cups and plastic lids. Use glass storage bowls in place of plastics and Tupperware.
Beyond these simple changes, you can also take steps to invest in eco-friendly technology and renewable energy. Switching to solar power reduces greenhouse gases, which will also minimize your home's carbon footprint. If possible, see what your options are for installing residential solar panels and using other energy efficient methods of powering your home. You can also look for ways to minimize water usage in your home. One option is to install energy-efficient plumbing on your property. Even switching to a submersible pump can help reduce energy usage in your home.
Reduce Plastic Use
You can make an effort to reduce plastic waste in your home by recycling and using other materials. Instead of plastic, try using glass. We know it's difficult to find glass bottles, but they're out there. Use your own glass containers to buy from the bulk section at the grocery. Bypass bottled water and instead use your own in a glass container.
If there simply is no way to use glass, then reuse your plastic. Use your plastic containers for organizing the paper clips and rubber bands on your desk or your hairpins and ponytail holders on your vanity table. You can also use plastic containers to hold change or organize the nails, screws and bolts in the tool chest. There are so many reusable plastic items that can be recycled and end up in landfills instead. If you cannot find the time to recycle these items yourself, see if you have friends or a local volunteer group that can help out with this.
Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
As you make an effort to reduce and recycle plastics in your home, you can go green by using natural cleaning products. White vinegar makes a good fabric softener, and it can be used for cleaning the kitchen counters and the toilet. Baking soda cleans teeth, the toilet and sink drains, and it freshens carpets. Lemon mixed with baking soda cleans the garbage disposal as well as windows.
Decluttering Your Home
Decluttering your home is the first step to creating an eco-friendly home. It allows you to sort through your things and get rid of what you never use. You can either donate what you don't use to a goodwill store or if you want to keep it for future use you can put it in storage. Either way, removing the clutter from your home will streamline your organization efforts and it will prevent you from buying things you don't need. Instead of buying new furniture, repurpose what you have and recycle whatever you can. It will not only move you along the eco-friendly path but it will save you money in the long run.
Other Green Habits
Other means of going green include incorporating these habits:
- Using LED light bulbs, which last up to 13 years
- Doing the wash in cold water
- Drying clothes on a clothesline, which helps garments last longer and smell great
- Compost leftovers past their use-by date for garden fertilizer
- Walk or bike instead of driving
Living an eco-friendly life isn't hard to do. Once you begin, you'll wonder how you ever lived any other way. You'll have lots of fun finding ways to lower your carbon footprint and save the Earth.
How to Make Minimalism Part of Your Lifestyle
In today's consumer-oriented world, it can be easy to forget the adage that “less is more.” But the truth is that you might be happier with having (and wanting) fewer material goods. Whether you don't have a lot of money to spend or you want to feel free from material constraints, here are some ways to incorporate the philosophy of minimalism into your lifestyle.
Don't Buy Excess Goods
Going through the process of decluttering your home can be hard work. But the last thing you want to do is get rid of all your excess goods only to add more! Once you get rid of extra material goods, make a habit of buying fewer unnecessary goods and products. Trust us, your life and lifestyle will be the better for it.
Now is an excellent time to ask yourself whether you “want” or “need” certain things. If you just moved from California to Maine, for instance, it makes sense to buy winter clothing. But if you're buying another scarf just to keep up with the latest trends, you might want to remember your priorities.
Get Rid of Superfluous Items
Credit: https://www.movingcompanyreviews.com/
If you're looking to adopt a minimalist lifestyle, one great way to start is by getting rid of excess material “things” that you don't need. Remember your shoe craze in college or the time your daughter collected all those Barbie dolls? The odds are good that these items are now collecting dust somewhere in your home.
Ideally, you should go through every room in your house (including every closet and drawer) and get rid of things you don't need. Getting rid of clutter from your storage unit, which is probably one of the last places you ever want to check, can be especially rewarding.
Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle
Recycling has grown in popularity in recent years. These days, many consumer products, from tires to blue jeans, come from recycled goods! While you might not work at the recycling plant, you can still do your part by recycling items that are permissible where you live. Recycling is also a great way to clean up the environment, save energy, and conserve materials for future use.
Eat Home-Grown Food
Credit: Legion Landscaping
It may be tempting to eat out at restaurants, but one aspect of adopting a minimalist lifestyle is eating more foods at home. Besides adjusting your lifestyle, there are many other advantages to growing fruits and vegetables.
For starters, it's a cheaper and more nutritious alternative to buying products at the store that have been shipped from far away. It’s also more environmentally-friendly to do your part. Caring for our planet is part of what we’re all about here at Mama Suds. We know that gardening–and especially getting your kids involved in it–fosters a greater sense of appreciation for your food and where it comes from.
Stress from your material goods can become overwhelming. If you're moving and need to downsize, or if you just can't afford to adopt the latest trends, you can always benefit by adopting minimalist living techniques. Luckily, it's quite easy to live by the philosophy that “less is more.” With a change in mindset and a reduced desire for material goods, you can quickly start living a more relaxing and fulfilling life.
Can Toxins in Your Environment Cause Chronic Illness?
• Exposure to environmental toxins can occur through skin contact, inhalation, ingestion, or injection.
• Short-term exposure to environmental toxins may cause symptoms such as throat or nose irritation, skin irritation, loss of consciousness, eye damage, nausea and vomiting, coughing or sneezing, headaches and more.
• Long-term exposure can cause permanent physical effects and chronic diseases including obesity and hormone-dependent cancers.
• One way to reduce toxin exposure is to use green cleaning products; replace candles with essential oils; purify water for cooking and drinking; avoid Teflon cookware; leave shoes outside; reduce single-use plastics; use a dehumidifier; and invest in an air purifier.
• To reduce toxin exposure in food it is important to avoid refined seed/vegetable oils; foods in plastic containers; trans fats; red meat; added sugar; high mercury fish; use organic produce/herbs when possible/cook at home whenever possible.
• A detox diet - usually involving a short juice fast - can
Don’t Forget to Clean These 3 Areas After You Move In
According to On The Move, "Becoming a homeowner can be one of the most exciting milestones you can achieve in your life. Although you should be proud of what you've accomplished, caution should also be heeded before you move into the home." Below are four things you should check before you move, as noted by professional home cleaners.
Don’t Forget About the Nails
The family who lived in your home before you likely felt the desire to decorate the walls with pictures, certificates, and other sentimental items. These items had to be secured to the wall by hanging on a nail. When you move in, those nails may still be in the walls. So few people think to remove them. When professional cleaners are hired to clean a home, they are not obligated to remove leftover nails from the walls. Before you move into your new house, it would be a good idea to do a cursory inspection of the rooms to remove any remaining nails and fill the holes with spackling.
Furniture Hides Dust
One of the most neglected areas of a home are the corners. Furniture that never moves from corners allows dust and dirt to accumulate in the carpet and on the baseboards. This dust can become difficult to clean after years of accumulation, so before you move into your new home, do a thorough cleaning of all corners and baseboards with warm soapy water and a microfiber cloth. While you're going through and dusting all the baseboards, you should take the opportunity to also inspect the outlets for underlying electrical issues. That way, if there are any issues, you can solve them before any more dangerous problems can arise.
Under Refrigerators Is No Man's Land
Refrigerators are heavy and are rarely moved unless something falls behind it or the person is moving out. Layers of grime, crumbs, and old food can collect under a fridge, and when a person moves out, they rarely clean that area. Going into a home you've recently purchased with some cleaning supplies to tackle cleaning the floor where your refrigerator will sit is always a good idea.
You Don’t Have to Do Everything
It can be incredibly overwhelming to try and do everything by yourself when you are moving. You may think that you have to get everything packed and cleaned on your own, but you don’t! Even if you aren’t using their services to move, you can hire a moving company to help you pack everything up. Packing and moving can be stressful work, and a good moving company can help you take that burden off your shoulders.
When it comes to preparing for your move, there are a lot of things to do, but packing and cleaning are probably the ones that are at the forefront of your mind. Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you are getting overwhelmed.
Start off life in your new home on the right foot — get all the healthy, chemical-free cleaning supplies you’ll need in our shop!4 Tips to Living a Lean, Clean, Green Life
• Make small lifestyle changes such as cutting a couple minutes out of your daily shower or wearing a sweater instead of turning on the heater to save both water and energy.
• Be energy efficient by installing renewable energy sources such as solar panels which can help reduce your dependency on coal or other fossil fuels, leading to significant savings over time.
• Buy less items that you don't need in order to reduce the demand for new products and save resources from having to manufacture new items.
• Use green cleaning products to take care of messes and protect your health, the people living in your home, and the environment.
• Transiting towards a simple, green lifestyle can lead to improved mental health and cost savings over time.