Clean and Green

One of my Pinterest Boards is entitled Clean and Green. It was one of the motivations behind this blog.

I can't tell you how many times I have vowed to be done with environmentally toxic household cleaners. Then the bathroom mirror gets painted in window crayon and mom is visiting and "notices you didn't have any window cleaner". Or your husband goes out on the nightly Oreo run (what?) and returns with grout and tile cleaner. Or there is this really, really big sale and you can buy 13 bottles of Brand XYQ Laundry Detergent for 72 cents each and, really, how can you say no to that?

Meanwhile the bottles accumulate. Each one filled with its own questionable list of ingredients. And each one in its own, brand new plastic container. Which you may or may not remember to recycle.

So that brings me to today's post. Homemade window cleaner! Which, if I'm being honest, I made yesterday. Yes. Technically I squeezed 2 Pinterest activities in on my first day of blogging. What can I say? It was a Sunday. A family day. Perfect for Pinterest Projects. And I'm working 11 hours tomorrow, so I want to be prepared with a post, even if I don't carry out a project!



While at Lowe's (picking out the previously mentioned drill) the kids each picked a colorful spray bottle for about $2.75 at Lowe's. We filled with 2 cups water, 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 tsp dishwashing detergent (7th generation ... yay!), and 15 drops peppermint essential oil. This was the recipe for glass cleaner and it worked well, but it also worked well on the linoleum floor and the base board (which is covered in more dog hair than I care to admit).

The best part? The kids were begging to clean. Usually I'm reluctant to let them use window cleaner and other chemicals, but I had no reservations about this. I turned them loose and simply wiped behind if they left too many streaks or too much spray.