You know you want to. You’ve been meaning to for ages. Everybody’s doing it. It’s so easy!
Today is the day you will finally swap out your conventional cleaning products and put together your Green Cleaning Starter Kit.
The tenets of a Green Cleaning Starter Kit are simple: versatile, effective, safe. Your Kit will contain three Green-It-Yourself (GIY) recipes. With just these three, you’ll be able to clean the vast majority of surfaces in your house. The ingredients are common things, most of which you probably already have in your pantry. Each component cleans a variety of surfaces, poses little to no risk to the user even in cases of accidental exposure, and is fume-free and residue-free. As an extra perk, your Kit will also save you time, space, and money.
Here’s a demonstration video to get you started:
What supplies are needed for green cleaning?
- 2 – 16oz (550 mL) or quart-sized (1 L) spray bottles – good heavy-duty ones
- Distilled white vinegar
- Water – Distilled, reverse osmosis, or filtered water will give you the clearest solutions, but tap water works as well
- 1 shaker jar with holes in the lid – such as an old spice jar or a mason jar
- Baking soda – Same stuff as you cook with, but best to buy in a big bulk bag
- Optional: Essential oils– tea tree for an extra cleaning punch, and any other essential oil that makes you happy
- Microfiber cloths – durable ones from the auto care section are my go-to, but old t-shirts or towels are great options too. They must be absorbent and lint-free
- Good sturdy brushes – for grout and other nooks and crannies
- My Cheat Sheets for Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap and Sal Suds
To keep things simple in the video, I use the Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap for the All-Purpose Spray. However, if you have snooped around my blog, you know that you can also make an All-Purpose Spray with Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds.
The three green cleaners at the heart of a Green Cleaning Starter Kit
These 3 GIY (Green-It-Yourself) recipes make up the core of the Green Cleaning Kit and replace a multitude of conventional cleaners. Use these simple and versatile cleaners to clean nearly every surface, corner, and crevice of your home.
GIY* All-Purpose Spray
2 Tbsp. (15mL) Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap or ½ Tbsp. (7.5mL) Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds in 2 c (500mL). water. Swirl these together in a spray bottle.
Uses: Spray and wipe with a damp cloth to clean bathroom and kitchen surfaces, including stone & tile, stainless steel, painted wood, doorknobs & light switches. Also great for painted walls, most wood, spot cleaning carpets and upholstery, outdoor furniture, and any large object like high chairs. Read more about the GIY All-Purpose Spray here. This is the workhorse of your green cleaning kit.
GIY Glass Cleaner
In a spray bottle, combine distilled white vinegar with water in equal parts.
Uses: Windows, mirrors, other glass surfaces. Read more about the GIY Glass Cleaner here.
GIY Scouring Powder
2 cups (500mL) Baking soda, optionally scented with essential oils. I keep mine in a mason jar with a shaker lid.
Uses: Scouring sinks, tubs, showers, toilets, and other hard surfaces that need extra scouring. Spot test, though, to be sure the surface is scratch resistant. Also, deodorize carpets by sprinkling this on, brushing it in, letting it sit 10 minutes, and vacuuming it out.
Green cleaning FAQs
Over the years, quite a few FAQs have come my way from folks who are just getting started. Perhaps these may help you:
What is green cleaning?
I realize this is a subjective phrase, and unfortunately trendy, so let me share what I mean by green cleaning. Going green is about leaving the world better than we found it. This holds true whether we’re talking about the world inside our bodies, the world inside our houses, or the great big world out there and beyond. When it comes to green cleaning practices, they must promote the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment. They must do no harm. This is the opposite of many conventional cleaners, which may deliver on the promise to kill germs or cut crud, but with profound side effects to people, pets, and planet. These sorts of cleaners are not necessary. We can do better.
Where do you start green cleaning?
The very first step of green cleaning has nothing to do with sprays or solutions. It begins with a good dusting and vacuuming. Use soft, lint-free cloths dampened only with water to dust all surfaces thoroughly. Then, vacuum all flooring and upholstery, using a machine with a HEPA filter.
After this comes the cleaning of surfaces. If you want to take this one step at a time, start with the glass cleaner. It’s an easy win. Swap out what you’re buying and just use the vinegar/water combo. Grab an absorbent cloth and go clean your bathroom mirrors, shower doors, and that spot at the front window that your dog always puts her nose on. This will be super motivating to keep going. You’ll be looking for other things to clean, and you’ll almost be disappointed when you can’t think of anything else!
Why is soap the center of the Green Cleaning Starter Kit?
Although soap has been around for millennia, we have yet to come up with anything better. Don’t diss it simply because it’s old. Washing hands with soap and water is still unequivocally the first and best defense against illness. Washing surfaces with soap and water is the first and best step per every health organization when keeping homes, offices, and any spaces clean.
Soap cleans by removing, not by killing. But once all debris, including bacteria, viruses, and other microbes—have been removed from surfaces, there is nothing there that needs killing. This is why disinfecting should not be a regular part of cleaning, despite what advertising tells you. Soap-cleaned surfaces are already cleaned, and disinfectants expose us to a wealth of hazards with no arguable advantage. Soap and water is all you need.
Do green cleaning products work as well as conventional?
Yes, and better. Soap, water, vinegar, and baking soda leave surfaces clean, shiny, fresh-smelling, and beautiful. They remove all manner of debris from dirt and stains to germs and microbes. However, they work differently, so take a moment to learn how to use them.
How will natural cleaning products save me time?
Green cleaners are simpler and necessitate fewer steps in your cleaning routine. The promised convenience of conventional cleaners to “spray and go” doesn’t actually remove debris from surfaces. Plus, to be healthful, you have to remove in a second step all the residues left behind, especially for the sake of vulnerable occupants of your spaces such as children, pets, and anyone with sensitivities. Then you have to take care to store conventional cleaners in hard-to-reach places, whereas green cleaners can be kept wherever is handiest. The last time-saving factor is long term – you won’t have the impact to your health of regularly breathing in hazardous fumes that can cost you your energy and your health.
How will green cleaners save me money?
As I’ve covered, you need to purchase so much less with natural cleaning products. All of these ingredients are available in bulk, which is good for packaging-reduction as well as cost savings. Check out this cost breakdown I made for green cleaning and you’ll see the savings.
What’s the biggest advantage of green cleaning?
Personally, I strongly believe that the lack of airborne contaminants present in conventional cleaning products is the greatest advantage of green cleaning. The more I have worked and researched in this realm of household chemicals, the more convinced I am that we do ourselves the most harm by what we put into our air. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other airborne particles found in harsh cleaners are serious threats to the health of anyone, not just the young, old, furry, feathered, or otherwise sensitive.
We may take great care to wear gloves when we clean, or even masks; we may store cleaners carefully to avoid accidental exposure. But none of that protects us from what is left in our air via highly evaporative cleaners such as those containing bleach, ammonia, and potent artificial fragrances. Anyone who enters the space afterwards will take in the fumes. The first step to clean air is minimizing the use of volatile compounds, and the second is opening our windows.
How can green cleaning really be that simple?
Once you look over this list, your reaction might well be, “Is that all?” It doesn’t seem like these few ingredients can tackle all your household surfaces. It’s the exact opposite of what advertising tells us, which is that we need a whole closet full of different supplies. But don’t believe it. They’re just trying to get you to buy more products. When you’ve gathered simple, versatile ingredients, there is no need for the great jumble of bottles.
What tools will I need for green cleaning?
We all need to take my mom’s advice: When you buy quality, you only cry once.
Get yourself some durable, reusable tools. While you don’t need to get fancy brand names, you do need them to be durable. They need to last without falling apart or breaking easily. I recommend heading to a home improvement store rather than a home decorating store to get your cleaning tools. Get your cleaning cloths in bulk from the automotive store for the most absorbent, lint-free, washable/reusable options.
Save up for a good vacuum with a HEPA filter, and keep it well maintained by emptying its collection system regularly and washing filters. Your vacuum is your best friend when it comes to cleaning.
Anything else I need to know?
Print out my Cheat Sheets for the Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds and Castile Soap to have the dilutions handy for all your household needs. For best results, laminate them so they don’t get messed up with all the spattering, sloshing, dripping that might happen around the cleaning cabinet.
No side effects. No funny business. No fancy gimmicks. Just clean. Now go get started!
Further reading
- Gift Idea: Green Cleaning Starter Kit
- The Low Cost of Green Cleaning
- GIY All-Purpose Cleaning Spray
- Green Cleaning Mirrors, Windows & Screens
- Soap & Soul Book – My book with more than 85 tips for green home & body care.
*GIY=Green-It-Yourself
Sal Suds cleaner shows >60% biodegradation after 28 days per ISO 14593.
The post How to Build a Green Cleaning Starter Kit first appeared on Going Green with Lisa Bronner.