You don’t have to spend a dime on cleaners and solvents to do your Spring cleaning.  There are products in your kitchen or pantry right now that will do the job nicely and in an earth friendly way.

Most household cleaners fall into the acid or alkaline region on a pH scale.  The scale ranges from 1-14, with 7 being the pure or neutral (like water) region.  Acidic solutions fall below 7, while the alkaline solutions are on the up side of the scale.  Cleaners that rank on the high end of the alkaline scale are considered caustic, and the very acidic cleaners are corrosive.  Usually, areas that are soiled with grease and oil are best treated with alkaline cleaners.  This is because alkaline cleaners work by separating heavy soil and grease from surfaces and fabric, so they can be easily blotted up or rinsed away.  The most common alkline cleaners are sudsy ammonia, borax, chlorine bleach, detergents and soaps, TSP (trisodium phosphate) and washing soda.

Common acidic cleaners are white vinegar, lemon juice, commercial rust removing products, and metal cleaners that remove tarnish and corrosion.  These cleaners work best on particulates (such as smoke) and in hard water areas where lime scales are formed by calcium and magnesium deposits.

For kitchen clean-up nothing more than 2 Tablespoons of Bleach to a gallon of  water and a few drops of your dish washing detergent is all that is needed for sparkle and dis infecting.  For your copper bottomed pans, take half of a lemon dipped in table salt and work it like a scrubber on the pan.  Ketchup and table salt also works well.  Wash and dry and your pans will look like new.

My favorite around the house cleaners are white vinegar and baking soda. White vinegar is great for cleaning anything from your coffee pot to windows, sinks, bathrooms and chrome fixtures.  It works well at removing mineral deposits and stains. When paired with baking soda it will bubble, but works wonderfully well for cleaning out your oven and drip pans, if you don’t have a self cleaning oven.  Just let sit over night for best results.  Its much better than the fumes from oven cleaning products.  Baking soda has many uses like removing odors and fruit juice stains, and as a mild abrasive in other cleaning applications.

If you prefer to buy ready made cleaners, look for brands such as Ecos, Simple Green, and the new line of green cleaners from Clorox, just to name a few earth friendly alternatives.