How to Clean (Almost) Everything in Your Home with Vinegar and Baking Soda

The Green Cleaning Team: Baking Soda & Vinegar!

One of the first “greening” projects I took on was household cleaners. All 3 of us have asthma in this household, and I had long-noticed how the conventional cleaners would set mine off like crazy (especially when cleaning smaller rooms, like the bathroom).

I also didn’t like the thought that I was cooking and preparing food on countertops using chemicals we could not safely ingest. And… the big capper for me was the thought of my little girl taking her bath in heavily chemical-laced water.

Eureka: DIY Dishwasher Detergent… a new and improved recipe!

Over the holidays, I managed to finally put together a batch of homemade dishwasher detergent that works perfectly with my new dishwasher!

As you may have already read, the old version worked great with my old washer… but every machine is different, and so I had to come up with a slightly altered formula to yield better performance now that our kitchen remodel is complete.

DIY Dishwasher Rinse Aid Recipe: How to Make Your Own Citrus Vinegar

Figuring out how to de-chemical-ize our automatic dishwasher detergent has been one of the most difficult transitions thus far. In some ways, personal care products are so much easier to finagle. And it’s very easy to go more natural for hand-washing (I’ll post more on that another time)… but the automatic dishwasher has driven us a bit nuts.

Later in the week, I’ll give you the actual saga of our search for an effective detergent, but today I wanted to focus on a great rinse aid trick.