These Are the Only “natural” Cleaning Products That Really Work.
In theory, making your own cleaning products is a great way to save money without sacrificing efficiency. In practice, many DIY “natural” cleaning products work just as well as regular water. If you want to avoid annoying and potentially costly disruptions, stick with baking soda , vinegar, and borax (also known as sodium tetraborate). They are cheap and will never fail.
To understand why some “natural” cleaning products work so badly, it’s helpful to know why baking soda, vinegar, and borax don’t work. First, they all dissolve easily in water, which seems obvious, but is actually very important. (You can’t clean anything without water!) They are acidic or alkaline enough to destroy dirt, but too weak to damage fabric, most surfaces, or human skin. We know exactly what active ingredients they contain and in what quantity, because it is indicated on the label. And most importantly, they are safe and economical to use at concentrations that actually do something.
This combination of functions is less common than it seems, which is why most household cleaning products are not suitable. Lemon juice is a great example because it comes very close to that. Although it is acidic and water-soluble, it is impossible to tell how much citric acid is in it and therefore how much you should dilute it. Given that citric acid is corrosive to natural stone surfaces, you probably want to do this before spraying it on granite countertops, but how much water should you add? Impossible to say. (Plus it will eventually go rancid at room temperature.)
Essential oils are often added to DIY recipes because of their purported antibacterial properties, which some do take full advantage of. But a few drops of tea tree oil will not magically turn water into a broad-spectrum disinfectant, and wiping the counters with a clean substance is just plain stupid, let alone a great way to irritate your skin . Liquid Castile soap like Dr. Bronner’s is a rare DIY ingredient that really works as intended as long as you don’t water too much and remember to wash. Soap cannot kill germs or dissolve debris by itself; it requires little friction.
After all, it doesn’t really matter what you use to clean your home as long as it gets the job done and no one is allergic to it. All cleaning products are made up of chemicals, even so-called “natural” chemicals, so you can also use chemicals that work.