My journey to saying “no” to single use plastic.
Janice H. Walker
Step 1: Looking for alternative sources for cleaning
products that did not use plastic.
Step 1B: For cleaning windows, pots and pans, toilets – this
is an easy one.
My mother would say an odor from a cleaning product was “taking
her breath away” that she “couldn’t breathe”. The older I get the more like my
mother I become. I too am bothered by the fumes of cleaning products and
aerosols.
For a while, I have been making my own cleaning products.
Make them and store them in a jar or a spray bottle (glass preferred). Some of
the products I have had to tweak the mixtures to work. I am still working on
the furniture polish; it is a little too oily for me. I even make my own bug
spray, for humans or plants.
How this all ties into the single use plastic? Making my own
cleaner, using safe products with no chemicals, storing them in glass jars and
using my own spray bottle, eliminates the purchase of a plastic bottle of let’s
say Windex or a can of Pledge, over and over again. I do admit I still have a
couple of heavy-duty plastic spray bottles that I have been using for a while
now. Eventually they will make their way into the recycling bin, but not after
a single use. Hopefully not until I have been able to get many uses out of them.
A recycled jar is perfect for storing the cleaners. Add a
label listing what it is and how to make it, keeps me organized and helps my
family find the right cleaner. Since I call all window and surface cleaners
“windex” and there isn’t a bottle of “Windex” to be found, this helps stop the
confusion. Heaven forbid I should need a q-tip or a kleenix. 😉
Windows
and Surface Cleaner White
Vinegar and Water
Pots and
Pans Lemon
Juice and Baking Soda
Toilets White
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Wood
Polish Olive
Oil, White Vinegar, Orange oil
Still working on a disinfectant. There are a lot of choices,
white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, vodka, sunshine. But for now I am going to
stick with “Clorox” aka “bleach”, even though it takes my breath away. 😊
Further reading:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a24885/make-at-home-cleaners/
https://wellnessmama.com/6244/natural-cleaning/
No comments:
Post a Comment