One of the best places to start your green cleaning is in the kitchen, as it is one of the areas of your home that you need to clean on a daily basis, and also where we prepare and eat our meals. So, here are the top ten green kitchen cleaning tips to keep your kitchen sparkling clean without harming our health or the environment.
Tip 1 – Switch to a natural dish soap. Did you know that when you wash dishes every night with many types of commercial soaps, you are cleaning with a petroleum-based product? To avoid using these non-renewable resources and man-made chemicals, switch to a vegetable-based dish soap, like Castile soap, to wash your dishes.
Tip 2 – Use all natural, all-purpose cleaners. Most areas of your kitchen, such as spills and dirt on your counters and tables, can be cleaned with dish soap and water. For a more powerful cleaner, for areas that have been stained or heavily soiled, you can also use a baking soda and water paste, or for very stubborn stains try a hydrogen peroxide or hydrogen peroxide paste.
Tip 3: Switch to a natural dishwashing detergent. A great recipe to try is one tablespoon of this mix for each load: 1/4 cup citric acid and 1.5 cups borax, mixed together. This will keep your dishes clean without chlorine, strong alkalis or phosphates.
Tip 4: Clean your wooden cutting board with lemon and coarse salt. You can spot clean your cutting board by putting coarse salt all over it, then rubbing the salt into the board with a cut lemon. Then rinse well and lay the board on its side to dry. (You still need to use a non-porous raw meat cutting board, rather than a wooden one.)
Tip 5: Sanitize your sponges by boiling them. Sponges made from natural material are great to use in the kitchen for cleaning and scrubbing, but they can harbor bacteria and other germs. At least once a week, and more often if necessary, you should sanitize your sponges. An eco-friendly way to do this is by boiling them for five minutes, allowing the heat to kill all the germs.
Tip 6: Use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect kitchen surfaces. When doing green cleaning, you want to avoid using chlorine bleach, but you still need to sanitize food preparation surfaces in your kitchen to stop the spread of disease-causing bacteria. A natural way to do this is to make a spray bottle filled with 1 part hydrogen peroxide and 1 part water, and spray it on any surface that needs to be disinfected. Wait approximately five minutes, and then wipe off the solution. (Hydrogen peroxide needs to be protected from light to stay active, so keep the solution in an opaque bottle, or mix only the amount needed for one clean at a time.)
Tip 7 – Degrease your kitchen cabinets with dish soap. Have you ever noticed a dusty, sticky film on your kitchen cabinets, especially near the stove where you cook? This comes from a thin layer of grease that can easily coat your cabinets, making them look bad. To combat this, simply wipe down your cabinets with a damp sponge soaked in a solution of water and a small amount of dish soap. The soap will cut through and remove grease that would otherwise seem impossible to remove.
Tip 8: Clean your oven with baking soda paste. Cleaning ovens with nasty chemicals is definitely not green cleaning. Instead, make a paste of baking soda and water and spread it over the walls and bottom of your oven, and let it sit overnight. The next day, you should be able to scrape and clean your oven of all the accumulated grime.
Tip 9: You can use vinegar to clean your coffee maker. Over time, your coffee maker will begin to build up hard water and calcium. To get rid of this, fill the carafe with 1 part water and 1 part vinegar, and pour it into the machine as if you were making coffee. Let the machine run through a complete cycle, and then run another cycle using only water. The vinegar will remove this buildup, leaving a clean coffee pot for your use.
Tip 10: Soak burnt pots and pans in a baking soda solution. If you accidentally burn food on the bottom of your pot or pan, you can easily clean it up with a paste of baking soda and water. Spread the pasta in the bottom of the pan and let it rest for at least thirty minutes. This will loosen the debris and make cleaning the pot much easier.