Eco-Friendly Kitchen Cleaning Tips

Eco-friendly cleaning is easier than ever before. Environmentally friendly, natural cleaning solutions are widely available, but making your own cleaning products saves the environment and saves money. Vinegar, baking soda, and lemons are natural ingredients that can be combined to clean and disinfect most surfaces and appliances in the kitchen.

Natural Cleaning Ingredients for the Kitchen

White vinegar, baking soda, essential oils, and lemons are affordable and active ingredients for homemade cleaning products. White vinegar fights bacteria gets rid of grease and removes many types of stains. It also helps to prevent and eliminate odors. Vinegar is a versatile product that you can use to clean many surfaces (except granite or marble).

Baking soda removes odors, cleans stains and is a natural scrubbing powder and oven cleaner. Sea salt is useful for scrubbing. Lemons are antibacterial and ideal for keeping germs away from kitchen surfaces. They also remove bad odors from the fridge. Essential oils (such as tea tree, rosemary, pine or lemon) are disinfectant and add a natural fragrance to homemade cleaning products.

Here are some tips for natural kitchen cleaning:

• Vinegar removes coffee and tea stains from mugs and cups. Use a clean sponge and white vinegar, and scrub or wipe the stains away.
• A paste made with water and baking soda can also be used to remove stains from most types of cookware.
• Clean a cutting board by scrubbing it with a pasted made from water and baking soda. Sea salt mixed with lemon juice works too.
• Rub a slice of lemon against your chopping board to disinfect it.
• Clean your dishwasher naturally and remove bad odors with vinegar. Place a bowl of white vinegar on the top rack, do not put any other dishes in the washer, and run the dishwasher on a hot cycle.
• Baking soda is an effective oven cleaner. Make a paste with baking soda and water, and spread it on the bottom of the oven. Leave it overnight. In the morning spray a small amount of white vinegar on the areas where you can see baking soda. That creates a foaming reaction. Use a damp cloth and wipe the foam away. Sprinkle more water or vinegar if needed, and keep rubbing until you have removed all the baking soda and the oven is clean and shiny.
• Use vinegar to clean the water kettle and to remove limescale. Pour two cups of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar in the kettle, bring it to boil and let it simmer for few minutes. Pour the vinegar and water blend out, and rinse the kettle with plain water. The same solution works for cleaning coffee makers.
• Vinegar even cleans kitchen floors. Mix approximately half a cup of vinegar to a bucket of warm water and add 10 to 20 drops of essential oils. Lemon essential oil is antibacterial, and its fresh citrus fragrance gets rid of any unpleasant odors. Tea tree oil is a natural disinfectant, and it is also effective against mold and mildew.

These natural eco-friendly kitchen cleaning solutions are safer for your home, for the kids, and for the pets than the harsh chemicals used in many commercial products. Homemade cleaning products save money and the environment, and they are just as capable as chemical products. If you clean the kitchen regularly with natural ingredients, you will not need to buy a vast range of commercial cleaning products or use toxic chemicals in the kitchen.

At All American Environmental, we are happy to share these “Eco-Friendly Kitchen Cleaning Tips” with you.  We hope you enjoyed reading and can put some of these tips to work in your own home.  If you are ever in need of environmental services regarding oil tanks, soil and groundwater contamination issues, vac truck services and monitoring wells please feel free to contact us.