7 Natural Cleaning Hacks. Without the DIY recipes.

Here’s the thing. I hate using chemicals around the home… well everywhere to be honest but practically when cleaning. I think once you stop using smelly, strong cleaning products you get so used to not having them now just one whiff is enough to bring on an instant headache for me. I know I’m not the only one.

Here’s the other thing, I hate doing all the DIY natural cleaning recipes. I mean I wish I was the type of person who measured out 2 tea spoons of this, 3 cups of that bla bla bla but I’m just not. It’s why I don’t bake either. I’m more of a pop an odd amount of chili’s in a curry and see what happens kinda girl.

I don’t like buying expensive eco cleaning products either. They still come in plastic, their probably green washing us, I don’t know I just want it to be easy.

Can I tell you a secret…

Natural cleaning can be done without the DIY recipes using the easy basics on their own. Baking soda, citric acid, castile soap, soda crystals and vinegar all have brilliant cleaning qualities that can be used together or on their own.

I’ve figure out which works best on what through learning from others, trail and error and using them on their own when I never got around to making that brilliant recipe I’d been saying I’ll do forever.

7 all natural, easy cleaning hacks.

1.use citric acid to delimescale your kettle.

It sounds like a harsh chemical but citric acid is really just the stuff you find in sweets like Haribo. It can be brought cheaply from your local everything shop. An everything shop is my term for places like Wilko’s. They sell everything from kids arts and crafts to kettles and mugs, always having a cleaning section.

This is brilliant if like me you live in a hard water area.

Simply add 1 table spoon of citric acid, (or there about's, a rough sprinkle is fine) into a full kettle. Boil kettle and leave to sit for an hour or so. Pour out, rinse, wipe down any access limescale left behind.

You can use the used citric acid water from the kettle for other limescale jobs after, like to soak your shower head in.

2.Use citric acid in the toilet.

Again we live in a hard water area. So much so I find limescale can build up in our toilet and collect grim making it hard to clean. Throwing a table spoon or two of citric acid in and leaving it to sit for as long as possible works a treat on this. You can then clean your toilet as normal after.

3.Washing up liquid to clean your bath.

For tough dirt something abrasive like bicarbonate soda really does wonders, but for the rest of the cleaning in and around the bath and sink, hot soapy water from washing up liquid really is the best for everything. It foams up and spreads well, leaving a nice shine afterwards. Lets face it if it can bring up your greasy pot and pans good enough to eat off there’s not a lot it can’t get clean.

We like to buy our washing up liquid in bulk, making it cheaper and involving much less plastic.

4.Use Soda crystals to clean your oven shelves.

A simple tip that came from my mother-in-law. Soak your oven trays and shelves in hot water with a cup of soda crystals'. Leave to soak for as long as possible, over night if you can, a couple of hours at a minimum. Then lightly scrub away the dirt.

5.Bi-carb and castile soap the perfect mix for your sink.

You can make the perfect cream cleaner with these two. Emma over at emmareed.net has a brilliant recipe here but as I never make proper recipes here’s the lazy way. Find a small container, half fill with bicarbonate soda, add a squirt of castile soap (washing up liquid would also work), mix with a little water until it looks paste like. Use to clean your bath but it works best for sinks, taps and stainless steel.

If I’m feeling extra lazy just sprinkling bicarb straight into your sink, rubbing around with a cloth also works amazingly at getting off the grim. A squirt of washing up liquid and warm water will make it look extra squeaky clean afterwards.

6.use vinegar to shine.

1/3 white vinegar (the cheapest you can find in the shop), and 2/3’s water in a spray bottle will clean and shine anything you need. Windows, mirrors, taps and sinks. It does smell of vinegar of course but the smell quickly disappears once it’s dry. You could also add any essential oils to make it smell nice, but remember I do the bare minimum of extras.

7.use soapy water for everything else.

As I said above if something can cut through grease and be good enough to be eat off that’s pretty good for me. Plus I work in catering, food hygiene standards say we cannot use bleach or harsh chemicals in the kitchen or near food prep areas, we are advised the best thing for cleaning is hot soapy water. If it’s good enough for food hygiene it’s good enough for my house me says.

I use a cloth dipped in hot soapy water (washing up liquid) to wash everything in my kitchen, fridge, damp dust around the house, even wash the floors. I do of course add in a mop of the latter one.

I hope this has made you realise that “making” your own natural cleaners can be just as easy as picking up a bottle of something harsh from the supermarket. And really they clean so well.