Natural Alternatives to Cleaning Products etc. - Page 6

bluecurlygirl · **Posted: 13-10-2008 , 10:42 PM** #76

Anyone boiled their spuds dry? Hard scrubbing after isn't it? Well 3/4 fill the saucepan with water and put it on the heat. When it starts to steam put in a good dollop of baking soda, it should fizz up immediately and let it work away on the heat for a few minutes. The burn marks come off easy. I too am going to print off these pages and keep them as my bible from now on. I've been looking for tips like these for ages. The two women on "how clean is your house" are great believers in natural cleaning products too - they use vinegar to clean nearly everything! Thanks a million everyone.

smokeyeyes · **Posted: 14-10-2008 , 12:15 AM** #77

I too use bread soda/vinegar for lots of things.

To clean your oven use very hot water a good dollop of bread soda and cheap brown vinegar. Using a pot scourer use to clean oven, if there are stubborn stains on floor of oven make a paste of bread soda and water cover floor of oven with this and leave (cover with wet kitchen paper ) You can also use this solution to clean glass door of oven. After a while use wet kitchen paper to remove grime from oven. Once you have your oven nice and clean and sparkling cover the floor of oven with sprinkling of bread soda and leave there. When it comes to cleaning your oven the next time simply use a flat lifter/turner to remove dry bread soda and use solution of bread soda/vinegar to freshen your oven. Your oven will now only take minutes to clean as any spillages are absorbed by bread soda and are easily removed.

Bread soda/vinegar also good for cleaning insides of ceramic teapots, flasks stained teacups and brilliant for windows. Also use this solution for washing tiled/laminate floors, disinfects and cleans at same time!

Never go on holidays abroad without a couple of packs of bread soda. If anyone suffers from bad sunburn, run a tepid bath and lots of bread soda and this will alleviate the sunburn/pain. Alternatively, make a paste of bread soda/water and paint onto burnt area and leave on as long as possible. It will dry to a powder and you rinse off, never fails to cure bad sunburn, better than any aftersun creams/medications you can buy. Have used this cure on daughters several times and it never fails.

For cleaning around taps in bathroom, keep an old toothbrush handy and use either the bread soda paste above or toothpaste on brush to get to awkward parts of taps.

mammasboys · **Posted: 14-10-2008 , 12:08 PM** #78

I got a great book called Natural Cleaning Products & Methods by Sarah Green, printed by Kandour Ltd. The ISBN is 1-904756-39-5.
It gives hints and tips room by room and the garden too.
Your local library will order it for you, if you don't want to buy it, and it may spread the word better in the library too!
By the way, just wanted to say, what a bunch of night owls on this site!

corker · **Posted: 14-10-2008 , 07:50 PM** #79

thanks for all the tips on the cleaning. Can someone please advise on where/how to get quantities of white vinegar for cleaning around the house?? I take it we're not talking cider/ white wine vinegar, ?!?!?
Corker

TheBear · **Posted: 15-10-2008 , 09:02 AM** #80

Quote:

Originally Posted by corker

thanks for all the tips on the cleaning. Can someone please advise on where/how to get quantities of white vinegar for cleaning around the house?? I take it we're not talking cider/ white wine vinegar, ?!?!?
Corker

You can get regular white vinegar (the type of stuff they use in the local chipper) in the supermarket.

Also, I think I found this site with natural cleaning recipes via a link on another thread, but I thought I'd post it up here as it's topical.

Another way of getting rid of black and green fly in the garden is to use a spray made out of rhubarb leaves. Boil the leaves in some water for a while, allow the liquid to cool, put in a spray bottle and spray the flies with impunity. No nasty chemicals on your plants, just the natural nasty chemicals from the rhubarb leaves. Make sure to clean the pot you use for the boiling afterwards, as rhubarb leaves are poisonous to humans.

LadyA · **Posted: 19-10-2008 , 08:56 PM** #81

Just joined yesterday, and flicking through this thread. Go for it guys! The way things are going, it's definitely worth it, ecologically as well as economically, to produce as much as you can - not to mention the sheer sense of satisfaction you get as you bypass the over-packaged fruit and veg in the supermarket! Earlier this year, the price of leeks caught my eye, and I stood and gaped! Can't figure out the justification for that price, for something which seems so easy to grow, and doesn't need a lot of space - so if anyone has a few feet of flower bed to spare, shove a few leek plants in in spring!

For cleaning, including laundry, I'm relying more and more on old fashioned Washing Soda. I use it for cleaning the cooker, toilet, tiles, in-wash stain removing, keeping the drains clear, washing floors, countertops etc. etc.
And I get Ecover laundry liquid and washing up liquid bottles re-filled, so cutting down on all those plastic bottles, even if they were going into the recycling.

bluecurlygirl · **Posted: 20-10-2008 , 11:25 AM** #82

Well done LadyA and welcome to JT too! It's a great site with very friendly members who are always more than welcome to impart advice and accept it too. Where do you get your ecover from? Do you order it online or is it sold near you? I don't have any local suppliers unfortunately.

LadyA · **Posted: 20-10-2008 , 02:08 PM** #83

I get it in Tesco, but most of the supermarkets around here sell it. The Health Food shops sell it too, and then there's a sort of bulk food shop in Waterford, where you can buy things like oatmeal, flour, beans, dried fruit - all sorts of stuff - in bulk, just in big plain plastic bags. Or on the other hand, if you just want a small amount of something, they will sell you a small amount. And they have enormous drums of the ecover liquids, from which they refill your original bottles. Saves you sending empty plastic bottles to wherever they end up!

TheBear · **Posted: 20-10-2008 , 02:36 PM** #84

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyA

I get it in Tesco, but most of the supermarkets around here sell it. The Health Food shops sell it too, and then there's a sort of bulk food shop in Waterford, where you can buy things like oatmeal, flour, beans, dried fruit - all sorts of stuff - in bulk, just in big plain plastic bags. Or on the other hand, if you just want a small amount of something, they will sell you a small amount. And they have enormous drums of the ecover liquids, from which they refill your original bottles. Saves you sending empty plastic bottles to wherever they end up!

That's a great idea (the drums of detergent to refill the small bottles). I wonder if there's anywhere in Dublin that provides the same service?

LadyA · **Posted: 20-10-2008 , 03:20 PM** #85

There has to be! Ask at some of the health food shops - I know some of them refill them - or check ecover's website and ask them if they know of anywhere, cos I know it's something they are keen to promote.
http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/WhereToBuy/

corker · **Posted: 21-10-2008 , 07:40 PM** #86

Yes, I've seen that but there only teensie bottles. i was hoping for a 2.5 litres bottle of it. I have a lot of cleaning to catch up on, seen I have boycotted those chemical cleaners for so long!!!
That site looks good.
thanks for all the tips, am enjoying this thread. Regards to all.
Corker

LadyA · **Posted: 22-10-2008 , 08:05 AM** #87

Quote:

Originally Posted by corker

Yes, I've seen that but there only teensie bottles. i was hoping for a 2.5 litres bottle of it. I have a lot of cleaning to catch up on, seen I have boycotted those chemical cleaners for so long!!!

Corker

Maybe they'd sell you the whole big drum of it?! ;) ;D

Berlinn · **Posted: 23-10-2008 , 10:05 PM** #88

Quote:

Originally Posted by corker

Yes, I've seen that but there only teensie bottles. i was hoping for a 2.5 litres bottle of it. I have a lot of cleaning to catch up on, seen I have boycotted those chemical cleaners for so long!!!
That site looks good.
thanks for all the tips, am enjoying this thread. Regards to all.
Corker

I asked in our local Spar, and they ordered me a 5 litre bottle of white vinegar. Cost €6.95, but I reckon its cheaper than all the other chemical stuff.

unapam · **Posted: 23-10-2008 , 11:47 PM** #89

If we all ordered it at our local Spar...then they would order it and ....we could start a trend? Worth a try...yes????...So...ask at your local Spar or LIdl or Centra or Superquinn or whatever.... Nothing to lose - right?

cascais · **Posted: 27-10-2008 , 08:49 PM** #90

hi marie,
another tip for the slugs : used coffee powder from coffee maker , the egg shells work great too as carissa was saying also, but the coffee powder mixes in with the earth after while so you need to put some more at the base of the veggies . anything that is hard to crawl onto, so anything grindy does the trick perfect.
wont get rid of the slugs completely but will keep them away for a while.

also the flower marygold is supposed to be great for insects, but caution, one insect loves it, so you get rid of some but attract others with it...

hope that helps

cascais

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	Posted: 13-10-2008 , 10:42 PM #76
bluecurlygirl Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Big city of Belturbet Posts: 506	Burnt saucepans Anyone boiled their spuds dry? Hard scrubbing after isn't it? Well 3/4 fill the saucepan with water and put it on the heat. When it starts to steam put in a good dollop of baking soda, it should fizz up immediately and let it work away on the heat for a few minutes. The burn marks come off easy. I too am going to print off these pages and keep them as my bible from now on. I've been looking for tips like these for ages. The two women on "how clean is your house" are great believers in natural cleaning products too - they use vinegar to clean nearly everything! Thanks a million everyone.

	Posted: 14-10-2008 , 12:15 AM #77
smokeyeyes Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Greystones, Co. Wicklow Posts: 725	I too use bread soda/vinegar for lots of things. To clean your oven use very hot water a good dollop of bread soda and cheap brown vinegar. Using a pot scourer use to clean oven, if there are stubborn stains on floor of oven make a paste of bread soda and water cover floor of oven with this and leave (cover with wet kitchen paper ) You can also use this solution to clean glass door of oven. After a while use wet kitchen paper to remove grime from oven. Once you have your oven nice and clean and sparkling cover the floor of oven with sprinkling of bread soda and leave there. When it comes to cleaning your oven the next time simply use a flat lifter/turner to remove dry bread soda and use solution of bread soda/vinegar to freshen your oven. Your oven will now only take minutes to clean as any spillages are absorbed by bread soda and are easily removed. Bread soda/vinegar also good for cleaning insides of ceramic teapots, flasks stained teacups and brilliant for windows. Also use this solution for washing tiled/laminate floors, disinfects and cleans at same time! Never go on holidays abroad without a couple of packs of bread soda. If anyone suffers from bad sunburn, run a tepid bath and lots of bread soda and this will alleviate the sunburn/pain. Alternatively, make a paste of bread soda/water and paint onto burnt area and leave on as long as possible. It will dry to a powder and you rinse off, never fails to cure bad sunburn, better than any aftersun creams/medications you can buy. Have used this cure on daughters several times and it never fails. For cleaning around taps in bathroom, keep an old toothbrush handy and use either the bread soda paste above or toothpaste on brush to get to awkward parts of taps.

	Posted: 14-10-2008 , 12:08 PM #78
mammasboys Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 114	Natural cleaning I got a great book called Natural Cleaning Products & Methods by Sarah Green, printed by Kandour Ltd. The ISBN is 1-904756-39-5. It gives hints and tips room by room and the garden too. Your local library will order it for you, if you don't want to buy it, and it may spread the word better in the library too! By the way, just wanted to say, what a bunch of night owls on this site!

	Posted: 14-10-2008 , 07:50 PM #79
corker Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cork Posts: 247	Vinegar, white thanks for all the tips on the cleaning. Can someone please advise on where/how to get quantities of white vinegar for cleaning around the house?? I take it we're not talking cider/ white wine vinegar, ?!?!? Corker

	Posted: 19-10-2008 , 08:56 PM #81
LadyA Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 11	Hi! Just joined yesterday, and flicking through this thread. Go for it guys! The way things are going, it's definitely worth it, ecologically as well as economically, to produce as much as you can - not to mention the sheer sense of satisfaction you get as you bypass the over-packaged fruit and veg in the supermarket! Earlier this year, the price of leeks caught my eye, and I stood and gaped! Can't figure out the justification for that price, for something which seems so easy to grow, and doesn't need a lot of space - so if anyone has a few feet of flower bed to spare, shove a few leek plants in in spring! For cleaning, including laundry, I'm relying more and more on old fashioned Washing Soda. I use it for cleaning the cooker, toilet, tiles, in-wash stain removing, keeping the drains clear, washing floors, countertops etc. etc. And I get Ecover laundry liquid and washing up liquid bottles re-filled, so cutting down on all those plastic bottles, even if they were going into the recycling.

	Posted: 20-10-2008 , 11:25 AM #82
bluecurlygirl Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Big city of Belturbet Posts: 506	Good on ya Well done LadyA and welcome to JT too! It's a great site with very friendly members who are always more than welcome to impart advice and accept it too. Where do you get your ecover from? Do you order it online or is it sold near you? I don't have any local suppliers unfortunately.

	Posted: 20-10-2008 , 02:08 PM #83
LadyA Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 11	ecover I get it in Tesco, but most of the supermarkets around here sell it. The Health Food shops sell it too, and then there's a sort of bulk food shop in Waterford, where you can buy things like oatmeal, flour, beans, dried fruit - all sorts of stuff - in bulk, just in big plain plastic bags. Or on the other hand, if you just want a small amount of something, they will sell you a small amount. And they have enormous drums of the ecover liquids, from which they refill your original bottles. Saves you sending empty plastic bottles to wherever they end up!

	Posted: 20-10-2008 , 03:20 PM #85
LadyA Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 11	ecover There has to be! Ask at some of the health food shops - I know some of them refill them - or check ecover's website and ask them if they know of anywhere, cos I know it's something they are keen to promote. http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/WhereToBuy/

	Posted: 21-10-2008 , 07:40 PM #86
corker Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cork Posts: 247	Vinegar, white Yes, I've seen that but there only teensie bottles. i was hoping for a 2.5 litres bottle of it. I have a lot of cleaning to catch up on, seen I have boycotted those chemical cleaners for so long!!! That site looks good. thanks for all the tips, am enjoying this thread. Regards to all. Corker

	Posted: 23-10-2008 , 11:47 PM #89
unapam Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Dublin Posts: 1,280	vinegar If we all ordered it at our local Spar...then they would order it and ....we could start a trend? Worth a try...yes????...So...ask at your local Spar or LIdl or Centra or Superquinn or whatever.... Nothing to lose - right?

	Posted: 27-10-2008 , 08:49 PM #90
cascais Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Leixlip, Co. Kildare Posts: 2,392	slugs hi marie, another tip for the slugs : used coffee powder from coffee maker , the egg shells work great too as carissa was saying also, but the coffee powder mixes in with the earth after while so you need to put some more at the base of the veggies . anything that is hard to crawl onto, so anything grindy does the trick perfect. wont get rid of the slugs completely but will keep them away for a while. also the flower marygold is supposed to be great for insects, but caution, one insect loves it, so you get rid of some but attract others with it... hope that helps cascais