(Photo by elycefeliz)
With sheer surfaces like mirrors and glass, they’re only as attractive as we keep them. The downside of transparent material like glass is its propensity for gathering handprints, grease, and dust. Fortunately, they’re easy to keep clean, and there’s no reason to go with potentially toxic cleaning products.
These recipes require only safe, non-toxic ingredients you will already have around your home.
Having a multi-purpose glass cleaner around the house is handy. But what about having a non-toxic multi-purpose glass cleaner, you created yourself! That’s what we’re going to accomplish.
Ingredients:
(Photos by cathyse97; absolved)
- 1/2 cup Rubbing Alcohol
- 1/2 cup White Vinegar(disinfects and breaks up dirt)
- 1/2 liter Water
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice(cuts grease)
- Empty Spray-Bottle
Directions:
- Add 1/4 liter of water into bottle
- Add 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol
- Add 1/2 cup of white vinegar
- Add 1/4 liter of water
- Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- Seal bottle and shake to mix ingredients
This will produce a safe and green non-toxic glass cleaner. These natural cleaners rival manufactured cleaning solutions. You will have saved money and kept chemicals out of your house, while helping protect the planet.
Once you have your brand new, non-toxic glass cleaner ready, you may want to take advantage of this helpful green tip: cleaning your glass and windows with crumpled up newspaper will help disperse all of the cleaning liquid and will save on both paper waste and money.
(Photo by Groovnick)
Creating Your Own Home Made Baby Wipes
Another green and completely safe recipe you may want to consider making are your own baby wipes. This recipe also works with organic baby lotion. Replacing any listed ingredient with its organic counterpart is usually a good idea.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Water
- 1 tablespoon of Baby Shampoo
- 1 tablespoon of Baby Lotion(organic optional)
- 1 tablespoon of Vinegar
- 2 drops of Tea Tree Oil
- 1 Paper Towel Roll (use high quality brand)
- Large Bowl with Lid
Directions:
- Add 2 cups of water to bowl
- Add 1 tablespoon of baby shampoo
- Add 1 tablespoon of baby lotion
- Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar
- Add 2 drops of tea tree oil
- Stir all ingredients with the water
- Cut paper towel roll in half
- Place (half) paper towel roll into bowl
- Cover with lid
- Soak for 5 minutes
- Flip bowl over
- Soak for 5 minutes upside-down
- Remove lid and use
- Reseal lid after use
With this do-it-yourself method, you may also consider using a “pick a size” roll of paper towel, which allows you to choose the size of the sheet of paper towel (or baby wipe) you want to tear off. This can give you an average of 150 sheets per half roll!
This is another environmentally friendly, cost-cutting, do-it-yourself method of creating your own cleaning product.
About the Author
Bahram Nasehi is a Vice President and partner at Dulles Glass and Mirror. He is instrumental in the developement and manufacturing of commercial and residential glass products including custom mirrors, frameless shower doors, glass table tops, shelves and replacement glass.
Marie Trelstad
I’ve made these! They are not only easy, but much less expensive and more gentle on baby skin. Plus, the smell is nice and not overpowering like store bought.