Basic ingredients for the fight against grime, climate change and a dirge of domestic disasters!

If you’ve been following my natural cleaning tips, you may have noticed that there are a few ingredients which keep popping up. So I decided to make a shopping list of all the basic ingredients you need so you can get back to basics in your home and feel the lerv of simplicity, purity and more dollars in your purse. All the while making a small but significant contribution to saving the planet!

Have these simple ingredients at the ready for all your general cleaning needs and the occasional disaster.

Think globally – act locally! ( I love that line!)

Clean and Green Essentials

• White vinegar – A mildly acidic cleaner. Go for basic white vinegar at the super market. Don’t be fooled by “Cleaning Vinegar” in with the household cleaners. It’s twice the price and exactly the same thing!
• Bicarb Soda - Slightly salty and alkaline compound used in cooking and cleaning. Mildly abrasive, it can make great cleaning pastes when used with other ingredients. Do Not use on aluminium surfaces.
• Borax - A salt used as a component in detergents and numerous other uses. Easily dissolved addition to cleaning pastes. Also can be made into an insecticide for ants, cockroaches and fleas.
• Table Salt – A great abrasive for stubborn grime. Can be used with a combination of other ingredients or with lemon juice and a toothbrush for areas such as moldy grout in the shower etc.
• Lemon Juice - Awesome naturally occurring mild acid. Great addition to cleansing pastes, can remove lime scale from taps and sinks – and smells delicious! It can help to neutralise the smell of vinegar.

• Plant-Based Dishwash Liquid – Should NOT contain toxic petrochemicals, phosphates, nitrates, EDTA, sodium lauryl sulphate, synthetic dyes or perfumes. Much safer for you, your family and the planet!

• Eucalyptus Oil – Fabulously versatile oil used for removing stains and grease marks, added to the wash to clean heavily soiled clothes, added to the wash for woollens, removing chewing gum (even from clothes and carpets!), removing tar from motor cars, and a wonderful inhalant in an oil burner or a couple of drops on your pillow if you are suffering from a cold. Smells amazing!
• Tea Tree Oil – Wonderful natural disinfectant. Use full strength to assist in the management of scratches, minor cuts, minor wounds, minor skin infections, insect bites, stings, acne, pimples, ringworm and fungal infections. Use diluted 1:10 with boiled water to disinfect areas around the home. Smells great too.