More Homemade and Green Cleaning

I hope that you are making some changes, taking some baby steps, towards green cleaning this month! In fact, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in me hosting a round-up at the end of the month where you could post on your blog about the changes you have made over the month for the Change Challenge and then linking to it here with Mr. Linky, and then we can all read about others changes and growth and encourage each other.  If you're at all interested in that, please let me know in the comments.

So over the last week or so I've been thinking about some of the other green cleaning that I do and just wanted to share a few more tips with you. These might be kind of random and are in no particular order, but hopefully you get a new idea or two to use in your home.

• Baking soda is a cheap and easy carpet deodorizer and pet hair picker-upper.  I'll add a few drops of essential oil to my parmesan cheese container of baking soda and sprinkle it around on our rug (or carpets at our old house).  Let is sit for 5 -15 minutes and then when you vacuum it will freshen the rug, release the scent of the essential oil, and help to pull pet hair up out of the rug.

• Hydrogen Peroxide is a great disinfectant.  I bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a cheap small spray bottle from the travel section.  I put the spray nozzle from the spray bottle onto my bottle of hydrogen peroxide and use it to spray down my counters, sink and table after dinner is over and the dishes are done. You want to keep it in the dark brown container that it comes in, otherwise it will break down when it is exposed to light. It's not necessarily great for true cleaning, but it'll disinfect your counters and kill the germs that you don't want hanging out there.  I've also read you can mix it 50/50 with water which would make it stretch even farther. 
  

• Hydrogen Peroxide is also a great blood stain remover. I've only tried it on whites, it could bleach your colors so be careful.  
  

• Lemon juice in your load of whites helps to whiten and brighten - again, careful with colors. 
  

• If you have hard water stains on your toilet like we did when we moved into your house you can buy a pumice stone at the hardware store that with a little (or a lot, according to my hubby who actually did it, bless his heart!) elbow grease will take the stains off without any harsh chemicals. 
  

• Microfiber cloths are great for dusting!  Especially because you don't have to use any dusting spray or cleaners. 
  

• I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not, but white vinegar is great in the rise aid compartment of your dishwasher and also in place of fabric softener in your washing machine. 

 Check back on Thursday for some encouragement for your journey! 

Anything to add?  Have any homemade or green cleaning tips to share with us?