By mid-April, it's well into spring cleaning time. But with the grey, rainy weather we've had so far, it's no wonder if you haven't had the energy to get started. Now's the perfect time, the weather's finally nice enough! What's more, with the ingredients you have in your kitchen, you can clean your home perfectly and even tick the environmental box? In this article, we'll give you some useful tips on how you can make your home perfectly clean using vinegar, baking soda and citric acid.
What can you use vinegar and baking soda for?
To be honest, one article is not even enough to list all the things these two miracle ingredients are good for (we've already dedicated a whole article to the multifunctional effects of vinegar ), so let's look at our favourite tips:
Use them to clean your fridge!
When cleaning the fridge, there's an extra argument in favour of natural cleaning products: you don't want to contaminate the surface where you store your food with chemicals, do you? Vinegar is a great solution thanks to its natural disinfectant properties! Just pour a little into a spray bottle, spray it on your fridge shelves and wipe it clean. When you're done, add a small bowl of baking soda to neutralise any unpleasant odours in the fridge.
Use to clean mattresses, carpets
First vacuum the surface to be cleaned thoroughly, then take the vinegar from the spray bottle mentioned above and spray it on, and finally sprinkle with baking soda. Leave to stand for a few hours, it's best to cover it up. Finally, vacuum thoroughly again and you're done.
Clean the drain!
You can prevent not only clogging but also unpleasant odours with the following tip. Start by pouring half a packet of baking soda down the drain, followed by 3-4 decilitres of vinegar. Wait until the mixture has stopped bubbling, then pour a litre of hot water down it. After a quarter of an hour, rinse with cold water.
Windows cannot be left out either
Window cleaning is an almost obligatory part of spring cleaning. You can easily do this with vinegar, just mix equal parts vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spray it on the glass. You can use a microfibre cloth (or old newspaper if you have it at home) to wipe it streak-free. You can also add a few drops of essential oil to the mixture, so as well as removing dirt, you can also make it smell nice in one go.
Get to know citric acid too!
Get all the dirt out of the microwave!
All you need is one lemon to completely clean your microwave. Cut your lemons in half, squeeze them slightly into a bowl, then pop them in and microwave for a minute. Once it's expired, leave the door closed for another 3-4 minutes - and by the time you open it, you can wipe the inside perfectly clean with a damp sponge. When the process is finished, it's a good idea to leave the door open for a short time to let the citric acid air out before heating food in it.
Make a descaler with it!
There are few more hated tasks in cleaning than descaling. And as long as the world is still a world, there will be scale in your home. Luckily, citric acid (in powder form) is a great way to combat it! To descale your washing machine, simply start an empty wash with a few spoonfuls of citric acid in the drum. And for descaling kitchen and bathroom surfaces, make a mixture: take a 100ml spray bottle, put two teaspoons of citric acid in it and pour warm water over it. Shake well and spray the surface to be treated.
Scrub with lemon!
A mixture of lemon and salt makes an effective scrub. Try it on a cutting board, for example: sprinkle a little salt on it, then rub it thoroughly with half a lemon and rinse. This will not only get rid of visible stains, but also of embedded food residue.
Make it an effective floor cleaner
Mix a little olive oil with half a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice and hot water and you have your floor cleaning liquid. This super chemical-free mop will even give your hardwood floors a new lease of life!
Make sure the cleanliness of your home doesn't come at too high a price
....at a cost to the planet and your own health. Because the cleaning products you buy in the shops usually come in single-use plastic packaging, you are unwittingly contributing to plastic pollution by buying them regularly.
Moreover, traditional cleaning products contain a lot of chemicals. They go down the drain when you clean your home and poison the environment. Not to mention the fact that you're in direct contact with them, breathing them in.
In our last article, we discussed at length the harmful effects these cleaning products have on your health, especially your skin and lungs. If you haven't read it yet, catch up quickly: that's how you pay the price for a clean home if you're not careful about what you clean with.
For your spring cleaning, switch to natural cleaning products that will give you just as much sparkling cleanliness at home without all the harmful side effects! If you're new to eco-friendly solutions, it'll take some time to learn about the best ones. But you can save yourself some time by buying ready-to-use natural cleaning products.
The innovative CYCLE cleaning products are all of them, and the much talked about acetic acid is one of their main ingredients. They can help you get the whole spring clean done while protecting the planet.
