Grapefruit and Salt who would have thought?

I have a really great 17 year old son named Alex. Alex, like a lot of teens these days, likes to dye his hair. I am not thrilled with the colors he chooses so we compromise; he can color his hair if he uses gel that easily washes out. A couple of weeks ago Alex colored his spikes blue but failed to clean his comb when he was done, just left it on the porcelain sink. The gel washes out of hair all right, but failed to wash off the sink! When I went into his bathroom a couple of days later the stain had set and I was stumped on how to get it out. I tried my favorite cleaner baking soda, vinegar and water but even that left a faded blue stain. It then dawned on me this was a good time to try something I had seen on the BBC show How Clean is your house. If you have not seen this show you are missing a treat!

The show stars Aggie Mackenzie and Kim Woodburn two clean queens of England. Each episode they visit a filthy home to show the owner cleaning tips and lesson on hygiene and germs. Some of the homes are horrid; once such home was owned by a woman who claimed to be super sensitive to cleaners so therefore she refuses to clean. I have to admit as much as I hate my chemical induced migraines, I would gladly suffer them over living in filth. One of the cleaning tips for this sensitive woman involved a grapefruit and salt.

Kim took a grapefruit, cut it in half poured salt on one half and used it to scrub the woman’s long suffering porcelain sink. Off came years and years of grime. It was almost too good to be true; after all what is more natural and inexpensive than a grapefruit and some table salt?

I took one of our last grapefruits, grabbed some salt, put on my gloves and set out to test this tip out. Wow was I amazed! Not only did the grapefruit and salt take the blue stain right off it put a real shine on the sink. I don’t think the sink had looked this good in years! The grapefruit left such a clean fresh fragrance I went around trying it on everything! Itried it on fiberglass as I have an old worn fiberglass tub, no luck it did not work. It does however work on hard water stains on stainless steel. The acid in the grapefruit breaks down the grime ,kills germs and viruses while the salt acts as a safe scrubbing agent.

Aggie and Kim came through again; grapefruit and salt, who would have thought?

Intro to Chemical Free Cleaning

If you are anything like me you love a clean house but hate the idea of lugging out the chemical spray bottles to get the job done. The thought of having multiple plastic bottles containing expensive toxins in my cupboards used to bother me. I longed for a way to have a clean home without using chemicals. Once I realized a lot of my headaches came right after I cleaned with certain chemical cleaners I started experimenting with chemical free cleaning. This blog is a result of my experiments. Some things I recommend using may have traces of chemicals, but nothing that will spew out, give off fumes or get in the ground water.

I love getting cleaning recipes and look for them in various places. When I do see a natural recipe I first check to see if any of the ingredients help kill bacteria; no use in “cleaning” when in fact all you are doing is making the germs smell good! The second thing I do is look at how easy it is to make; I don’t have time to lug out every pot and pan I own to make a few ounces of cleaning solution, I doubt you do too. The next thing I do is try the recipe. If it does not work for me, it won’t be on this blog.

I need to point out to you that although I am not a professional cleaner (meaning no one pays me to clean my house) I am a well educated germaphobe! I will never recommend you use or do something that will spread germs around your house. I cringe every time I see a “professional” (or paid TV self professed cleaning guru) recommend something that will only lead to poor hygiene and ensure germs flourish in your kitchen and bath. I can get on quite the soap box about these idiots and the people who let them get away with it. I will address these no no’s in an upcoming blog.

If you follow my blog I promise you a cleaner/germ free house without the use of all those chemical spray bottles. You will breathe better and spend less money! Let’s get started; here is an easy everyday cleaning tip;

Small spray bottle (I get mine at the dollar store)
Roughly two cups water
½ cup White Vinegar (if you do not like the smell, use less but then be sure to use tea tree oil to kill the germs)
10 drops of your favorite essential oil if you like. I use extract of grapefruit or peppermint depending on my mood. The picture shows lavender as I use this in my spring cleaning ritual.
Mix then shake; it is that easy! Now you have a everyday kitchen counter spray. I use this when I am cleaning up after dinner or after I have prepared some chicken.


Enjoy!!