Clean green Natural Cleaning Solutions
By Edythe Preet
 Spring
is in the air and summer is a-coming in! The clocks have been set ahead,
the days are longer, and the light is brighter. But with the drapes pulled
back, and sunshine illuminating the corners of every room, suddenly everything
looks a little dingy.
The windows could benefit from a good washing. The chandelier has lost
its gleam. Ditto the furniture. And while everything outdoors smells fresh
and green, everything indoors seems a bit musty from being cooped up for
the past six months.
There is a good reason why housekeepers have always dived into springtime
cleaning frenzies, airing out clothing that has hung in closets all winter
long, washing and waxing furniture, and hauling rugs outdoors and beating
them mercilessly. If you’ve ever seen one of those commercials that
magnify microbes a million times, you’ve learned that dust has teeth,
and those voracious little motes will gnaw away at your prize possessions
forever unless you break up the party.
Most of the modern methods to renew a home’s sparkle and shine rely
on ammonia for their cleaning potency. Even though it has been used since
the days of the Egyptian dynasties when it was extracted from camel dung,
ammonia is terribly dangerous stuff. Poisonous if swallowed and supremely
caustic to bare skin and eyes, if accidentally mixed with bleach the combination
will release chlorine gas that can kill in an instant.
Aside from the fact that ammonia is deadly and its fumes literally take
my breath away, other harsh and hazardous commercial cleaning agents with
labels covered in usage warnings make me nervous. What if they leave a
residue that my cats might pick up on their paws? Or worse, what if a
child might somehow access a container of toxic fluids? Call me old-fashioned,
but I’ll stick with safer methods, even though a bit more elbow
grease may be required.
Surprisingly, some of the best cleaning agents are also food! The first
cleaning trick I ever learned was how to remove tea stains from china.
Unlike most Americans, my Irish father drank more tea than coffee, and
the day I watched my mother magically remove the brown tea residue from
our bone china teacups by rubbing it with a baking soda-water paste is
engraved in memory.
Mother wasn’t Irish, but with the battery of natural solutions in
her cleaning arsenal she was certainly ‘green.’ Windows, venetian
blinds, and the crystal chandelier were always washed with a mixture of
hot water and plain white vinegar. I’ve added the techno-touch of
using a pump spray bottle, which diminishes drips and eliminates the need
to dismantle any light fixture.
When I was a child, clothing was almost always made of cloth woven from
organic fibers. Polyester and nylon are both manmade fibers spun from
coal and petroleum derivatives respectively. Once nylon turns gray or
yellow, it’s gray or yellow for life. Poly-blends don’t wrinkle,
but they also don’t clean very well. Stains are practically impossible
to remove except by dry cleaning, and that just exposes the wearer to
yet another batch of chemicals. Stains can usually be removed from linen
and cotton, however, especially if the fabric is white. The miracle whitening
agent is not harsh chlorine bleach, which can damage fibers, but lemon!
Not too long ago, every home owned a large enamel or porcelain laundry
tub. In it, soiled white clothing and linen were first soaked overnight.
The following day, sliced lemons were added to the pot, which was then
put over heat, and the water was brought to a boil. After boiling for
a while, the linens were removed, allowed to cool, wrung out, and hung
on a line outdoors where the sun finished the bleaching process.
Lemon juice will even successfully remove rust stains. Moisten the stain
with water, squeeze lemon juice onto it, hold the stained area in the
steam from a boiling teakettle for a few minutes, and the stain will disappear
before your eyes. This may sound like some arcane alchemy formula, but
it works like a charm! Another rust-removing method, though not as rapid,
calls for salt. Sprinkle salt on the stain, moisten with lemon juice,
and dry the item in full sun.
In researching this article, I discovered that salt and lemon can also
be used to clean mildly tarnished copper and brass, which is actually
a copper alloy. Cut a lemon in half, sprinkle it liberally with salt,
and rub the tarnish away. Alternatively, use a heated mixture of vinegar
and salt. When I told a pal about these truly strange metal-cleaning methods,
she not only had already heard about them, but swore that copper also
responds well to being rubbed with ketchup! She added that the ketchup
will turn green as it cleans the metal and must not be left on too long
or it will eat away at the metallic finish.
Products of the beehive have been made use of for centuries. Honey, of
course, is the primary product. Aside from its value as a sweetener, pure
honey has been used for soothing lotions and as a healer for wounds and
sore skin for centuries because its high potassium level does not allow
bacteria to survive. Some of the finest beauty products are made with
honey, and a lip salve composed of honey and beeswax not only heals chapped
lips in a trice but tastes good too.
Several years ago while visiting Delphi Lodge, a fabulous Edwardian fishing
lodge on the far edge of the wild Connemara peninsula, I learned another
valuable beeswax use. When I commented on the soft luster of all the wood
furniture and floors, the owner shared with me the secret to keeping wood
clean, and more importantly, dry in a damp environment. The lodge’s
wooden surfaces were always polished with beeswax, which when melted down
with turpentine makes the best furniture polish. Over time, it builds
up into a soft patina protecting and enhancing wood’s grain and
beauty.
So this year, why not experiment with using natural ingredients for your
annual spring cleaning? By making ecologically sound choices, you’ll
be eliminating a few hazardous chemicals from your personal environment.
Not only have these homespun methods been used by generations of Irish
homemakers, they’re as ‘green’ as it gets. Sláinte! |
