AWOL

I had no idea that so many of my family read my blog. As far as I knew it was only read by the people who's blog is linked to mine. However, I have been reprimanded by my Mother over the phone and by my Sister-in-Law via comment to my last post.

Things have been a little crazy around here. Kids have been sick on and off, I've been sick on and off, Rock's in the middle of tax season, homeschooling, the little boy I babysit is back after a sabatical, and I am in conquest of keeping my house and myself clean using only natural cleaners. So needless to say, something had to go by the wayside.

The cleaning stuff is pretty cool. I first made my way to my local library and checked out a book called Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck. It was very helpful, although I had to be convinced to actually read a housekeeping book. There was a lot of scientific information that is way cool, but at the time, all I really wanted was a recipe for an all purpose cleaner. Well once I finally got over my expectations and read the thing I really got interested. I mean, who knew that vinegar is pretty much the best thing to clean anything.

Right now in my cleaning arsenal I have baking soda, borax, vinegar, a small piece of copper wire, Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap and hydrogen peroxide. To tell you the truth I was expecting it to clean. But, I was not expecting it to clean as well as it did. Not only did it remove the regular every day dirt, but it also cleaned off the residue left by the chemical cleaners I had ben using. I even made up some of my all-purpose cleaner for the church nursery, because the nursery coordinator and we mothers didn't like the idea of washing the toys that go in our children's mouths with chemicals that they would again put in their mouths.

So, here is the recipe that I use.

Sarah's Natural All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp castile liquid soap - like Dr. Bronner's - or dish soap if you don't have the latter
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
2 cups hot water
spray bottle

Combine the baking soda, soap, and vinegar in the bottle. Allow the baking soda and vinegar to react and some of the bubbles to subside before pouring in the water. It is important to allow the bubbles to subside before adding the water as this little amount of soda and vinegar fill my 24 oz spray bottle with bubbles. Adding the water to early will give you a nice pile of bubbles flowing out of your bottle.

To use simply spray on surfaces and wipe with a cloth. Then let your house smell like you have been coloring Easter eggs until the vinegar does it's job. Then once the vinegar has dried completely you will be left with fresh smelling house because after all, vinegar is a natural air freshener as well.