Eco-Friendly Cleaning: Spray Cleaner
On January 1st, as people are prone to do, I set a few New Year resolutions and made a bullet list of attainable goals to get me where I wanted to be. My top priority was to continue working towards to a “zero-waste” life-style. Sustainable practices that I had been sorely slacking on. I would garden more, really get on top of bringing my reusable shopping bags with me to the store, and use as little “single use” plastics as I could manage.
But that isn’t all I wanted to do. On the wonderful Facebook group Sustainable Living I found a graphic braking down sustainable goals to a separate category each month. Month one being cleaning.
Will & I have been holding on to old multi-purpose spray bottles to use for other purposes for a while now. So when it came time to change my cleaning habits I felt like I was already a little ahead of the game. I started doing research into DIY Spray cleaners first.
Hoard of Spray Bottles used as multi-purpose spray, floor cleaner, & bleach spray.
Devising ways to reuse different objects is something my little squirrel brain loves. While I wanted the pretty glass spray bottles that I saw at places like The Herbiary in downtown Asheville, I knew that my hoard of plastic bottles would be just fine. After all it is: Reduce, REUSE, Recycle.
One of the things that threw me off and throws a lot of new sustainability practitioners was that most recipes for DIY solutions call for essential oils . $10 for a bottle the size of your thumb?! What's the point? I get it; essential oils can be expensive, but that tiny bottle will last you a lot longer than you’d think. One .5 fl. oz bottle of essential oil will last up to a year or even longer depending on how it is stored, but if you cant afford them its not a big deal!
Shortly after switching over to DIY cleaning solutions, I discovered the glory that is Citrasolv Concentrated Cleaner & Degreaser. This versatile cleaner found at any grocery store, is made of orange essential oil, which has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and antiseptic properties. Plus due to its concentrated nature it will last you forever! (at least 6-12 months). Any essential oil you add to the mix will enhance the cleaner, but Citrasolv on its own is enough to keep your surfaces clean.
I’m not going to lie, we were skeptical at first. Will didn’t believe that cleaner you make yourself would work as well as cleaner that was engineered to get the job done. But aside from the occasional need for a bleach-down, these cleaners have been working above all our expectations. I have been using this cleaner (plus some added essential oils) in my floor cleaner & my multi-purpose spray for 2 months now and I just adore it. The multi-purpose spray smells like Christmas and cleans any food cooked to our electric stove with ease. The floor cleaner sprays on & wipes off clean, giving your floors a nourishing glow without leaving any slimy residue. Did I mention they both smell amazing? Try them out for yourself!
Drooling over that gorgeous glass bottle like I did? William got me this set for Valentine’s day and I cried. He got them on Amazon, though there are other places you can buy them if you are looking to get your hands on them asap or want to support a local business. Search your local herb or health food store!
This month by month journey has been much less overwhelming for me than my usual all-or-nothing method. Here on the Hometree Flow blog I will be taking the same journey with you. A slow, focused, imperfect climb towards a better future. Next week I will be giving a little glimpse into my dish washing practices & the changes I have made to limit the impact our habits have on our planet.
Join me.
Sending all my love,
K. Ezzell
"One individual cannot possibly make difference alone. It is the individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference- all the difference in the world." -Jane Goodall
