My "go to" green products

Since we started living our clean, green, organic lifestyle I have been on the hunt for clean, green, easy AND frugal ways to do things. It's true that, if you want to buy all the products that you usually use in your house, in an organic form, you will pay a lot more money. In all honesty, most of those natural products you will end up spending a fortune on, are made of ingredients that you can find in your own kitchen. You could make them yourself if you really wanted to save money.



There are several things that I honestly cannot do without in my house. I call them my "go to" things and there is seldom a time that I don't have them in my kitchen because I don't ever want to get caught without something like deodorant, for example. Which is pretty essential to our lives! Because I make our deodorant, it's important that I have all the ingredients on hand so I'm not even tempted to go and buy a conventional deodorant from Dischem. Honestly, I'd rather sweat than use those but GLM isn't nearly as strict as me when it comes to chemicals in her body. That means I need to make sure she doesn't run out and head off to dischem! I need to pip her at the post;)

So, what are my "go to" things in my kitchen:

Vinegar

• General cleaning and disinfectant: Mix equal parts water and white vinegar in a spray bottle for an easy and effective surface cleaner (don't use it on granite or marble as they are quite porous and it can damage the surface)
• Fabric softener: Instead of Stasoft, just add vinegar to the softener dispenser. Your clothes won't smell like vinegar, I promise!
• Cleaning drains: Pour bicarb into a drain and follow it with vinegar. When it's finished foaming and bubbling, follow it with boiling water
• Carpet cleaner: Mix equal parts vinegar and water, pour onto the stain, leave for a few minutes, then scrub with a brush or cloth. This works really well for pet stains as well.
• Remove water rings from furniture: Mix equal parts vinegar and olive oil and rub on the stain. Full strength vinegar will remove white water stains from leather furniture.
• Weed killer: Spray weeds with full strength vinegar or just pour it into cracks where weeds often grow.
• De-greasing: Vinegar is excellent at de-greasing very greasy dishes. Just add it to your dishwater and do a wash cycle
• Fruit and vegetable cleaner: Most organic fruits and veggies aren't washed when you buy them. It makes them last longer. Fill a bowl with water, add 1/4 cup vinegar and let them soak a while before you scrub. This will kill any germs from the hands that have touched them and also any insects that are along for the ride! Dip a brush in the vinegar water and scrub everything to remove sand and insects, rinse and refrigerate. It also helps leafy greens to last longer in your fridge.
• Clean the dishwasher: pour a cup of vinegar into your dishwasher and put it through an empty cycle to clean it.

Lemons (or lemon juice)

• General cleaning and disinfectant: Lemon juice is similar to vinegar in that it cleans and disinfects while also leaving a lovely fresh smell.
• Remove bad smells in your fridge: soak a cotton wool ball in lemon juice and leave it in the door of your fridge for a few hours. Also be sure to get rid of whatever is causing the offending odour!
• Disinfect and clean chopping boards and surfaces: cut a lemon into quarters and rub it over the area thoroughly.
• Prevent cauliflower and avo from turning brown: Pour a teaspoon of lemon juice over the cauliflower before cooking it and over the avo after you've cut it open.
• Keep insects out of the kitchen: Pour lemon juice along your window sills and door thresholds and into any cracks that might contain ants or other insects. Also leave lemon rind in various areas of the kitchen. If you juice 4 lemons with their skins, mix it with 2 litres of water and wash your floors with it, it will chase off fleas and cockroaches as well as most other insects.
• Fruit and vegetable cleaner: Like vinegar, you can add lemon juice to your bowl of water and wash your fresh produce. It cleans and disinfects them.
• Lemon is anti-bacterial: gargle with warm water and lemon juice to help a sore throat
• Lemon is an antioxidant: add a few drops of lemon juice to your water when you drink it. It makes it taste so refreshing and is anti-aging and calorie free
• Remove bad smells in rubbish bins: place a few lemon rinds under your rubbish bag in your bin to make it smell fresh.
• Treat dandruff: Massage your scalp with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. You can also make a rinse of 1 teaspoon of lemon juice mixed in a cup of water. Used daily on your hair, it will cure dandruff.
• Cure headaches: lemon juice in a warm cup of tea is great for getting rid of a hangover headache, or any other type of headache.
• Deter moths: Forget the stinky, poisonous moth balls! Take ripe lemons and stick them with cloves all over the skin. Let them dry out naturally in your cupboards. They leave a delicious smell and chase away moths.
• Wound disinfectant: pour lemon juice onto a cut to stop it bleeding and disinfect it. The sting will only be brief!
• Bleach delicate fabrics: Swap ordinary bleach, which is bad for you and the environment, for lemon juice. Soak fabrics in a mixture of lemon juice and bicarb for at least half an hour before washing. You can also boost your washing powder by adding a cup of lemon juice to the dispenser during a wash.
• Polish metals: Mix lemon juice and salt into a paste, rub it onto the metal, leave for a few minutes, wash with warm water and polish dry.
• Reduce cat box odour: cut a lemon in half and place them in the room where the cat box is. They make the room smell much better!

Bicarbonate of Soda

• Baking: Most recipes require at least a teaspoon of bicarb
• Homemade deodorant: I make our deodorant to avoid chemicals in conventional ones
• Drain cleaner: Pour bicarb into a drain and follow it with vinegar. When it's finished foaming and bubbling, follow it with boiling water.
• Odour absorber in fridge: Place some in a container and stick it in your fridge to absorb smells
• Surface cleaner: Bicarb works really well as an abrasive to clean stubborn stains off surfaces. Just shake it over the surface and use a cloth to scrub it, then wipe away the residue
• Carpet deodoriser: Instead of buying shake n vac, consider adding a few drops of essential oil to a container of bicarb, shake it up, sprinkle over your carpet and vacuum up as normal. The bicarb helps lift pet hair and other dirt and the oils leave a lovely smell.
• Bath salts: add some bicarb to your bath to detox your body and ease aching muscles
• Shoe deodoriser: sprinkle some bicarb into the offending shoes and leave overnight, then shake out in the morning.
• Flower food: add a tablespoon of bicarb to a jug of water and water your plants with it. They will love it!

Coconut oil

Aside for the post I did on coconut oil which you can read here, I also use it for a few other things in our house:

• Cooking and baking: coconut oil is so incredibly good for you but it is also great to cook with because it doesn't overheat and become carcinogenic. It adds a lovely flavour to baked goods.
• Oil pulling
• Homemade deodorant:  I make our deodorant to avoid chemicals in conventional ones
• Sunscreen: coconut oil has a natural spf of 15. It protects your skin, while nourishing it and it contains no harmful chemicals. It's also great for an aftersun soother.
• Moisturiser: I make our own moisturisers and coconut oil is one of the main ingredients.
• Nappy rash: coconut oil makes a great, natural, nappy rash cream because it has natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties

Essential oils

Essential oils can make anything smell good! Add them to the vinegar you use as a fabric softener, add them to your homemade mouthwash and add them to your carpet cleaner. You can add then to anything really and the beauty of essential oils is that they are so concentrated they last forever. You only ever need to add a few drops to get the benefits of them.

Glass jars and other containers

I save, and use, all the glass jars that I have in my cupboards at one time or another. If I'm not lacto-fermenting food, I'm soaking grains or making apple cider vinegar or just storing food or liquid. Glass is the safest when it comes to storing anything so I use it as much as possible. I also keep other containers because they always come in handy for storage and it prevents more plastic being put back into the environment. If you have kids, containers come in especially handy for projects or for making toys to keep them busy!

A container in the freezer filled with bones

We collect all the bones from whatever meat we eat over the course of a few weeks so that if, at any time, I need stock for a soup or a stew or a curry, I have the option of making my own bone broth. All of the bones are from free-range animals to ensure the best nutritional value for us.

Raw Apple cider vinegar

This is separate to normal vinegar because it has very specific uses. Apple cider vinegar is a great tonic which we drink daily. I also use it to soak all my grains and seeds and to make my bone broth.

Spices

I use spices for medicinal purposes as well as for food flavour and couldn't survive without them in the house.

Raw honey

For so many reasons, honey is the only sweetener we use.

Himalayan Salt

For all the reasons listed here as well to rinse our mouths and throats to avoid, or cure, infections.

That's my short list. I could go on and on but I think these are the essentials. Check out your kitchen cupboards and see what you have in there. I bet you could make a few of these suggestions using the ingredients you have in your own cupboards;)