The Trifecta of All-Natural Cleaning Agents

Calling all special agents, cleaning agents, that is. At the front of the non-toxic, all-natural line-up: baking soda, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol.

As of this morning, I might have to add Dr. Bronner’s bar of hand soap, too – a happy surprise – but more on that later.

Baking Soda, #1 among Cleaning Agents

Among cleaning agents, this may be my favorite, all-natural workhorse of cleaning wonder. The magic that really hooked me: how the paste of a blob of baking soda with a drop or two of water could wipe off coffee and tea stains with barely a flick of the wrist. Seriously, this is incredible. Where I used to lean into the stains with a pretty severe bristly sponge, hoping at least to diminish them, this combo, applied with two tiny fingers, erases them quick as morals on a politician.

All you need to do is knock a tablespoon or so from that peppy orange box of Arm&Hammer into the cup. Add only the tiniest smidgen of water – by “drop or two,” I mean it. And that’s it. Swirl around with a couple fingers, and you’ll see what I mean. Rinse, and you’re good to go.

I’ve used the same baking soda paste technique on some mysterious grunge (reconstituted drywall dust?) stuck to the new tile floor in work boot and other random patterns. So far, it’s resisted all other cleaners. Voila! The baking soda paste trick works there too. Trouble there, is the expanse – miles of floor versus inches of mug. If you’ve got an idea for that, bring it on.

Vinegar, could tie for #1 among Cleaning Agents

We’re talking a jug o’ white. I’ve heard of people using white vinegar for all sorts of things, from getting the underarm smell out of “dry-clean only” blouses to sprucing up the colors of old rugs. These I haven’t tried.

But for cleaning agents that can take on the fridge, microwave, and oven, I can say: equal parts vinegar and water work wonders.

Or this: together with equal parts alcohol and water with a droplet of eco-friendly dish soap, it makes a great all-purpose cleaner. I keep a spray bottle of this mixture on hand for general cleanup all over the house. (But I don’t use it on wood.)

Once you accept that vinegar’s smell is the smell of clean, it’s quite nice. I’d say addictive, if I were that sort of housekeeper. But I’m not. It’s a pretty good kitchen, after all. The occasional clean will do it for me.

Speaking of occasional, one of my favorite vinegar-as-cleaner uses is on glass. Specifically, glass smudged with the warm wet nose of a dog. Some years ago, I had a hound who let me know that he wanted to come back into the house not by scratching or whining. He’d lick the door. Here’s his pic. How could I be angry? 

Now we’ve got a big sliding glass door and a pup who’s always on the wrong side of it. Soooo, yup, smudge city. 

Who, me?

Here’s a solution that works GREAT! a combo of 1-2 parts vinegar to ten parts water. Spray it on, and the smudges wipe straight away. (You can put any used paper towels into the compost!) I learned that when I got new windows that I didn’t know at the time had a kind of film on them. The installer said to use this mixture. I am converted. And for that doggie graddoo? perfect.

Rubbing Alcohol – Cleaning Agents Assassin Class

We’re not talking beer, wine, or even spirits. We’re talking see-through, crystal-clear, get it in the drugstore alcohol. Its main benefit – best assassin of germs among cleaning agents. Which is why it goes into the daily all-purpose cleaner I mentioned above. Did I say “daily”? Sheesh. A daily cleaner I am not; but if I were,…

Anyway, here’s that recipe again: equal parts water, white vinegar, and rubbing alcohol, with a drop of dish soap for the suds, as much as anything. Use it in the kitchen, of course (a nice swipe across the countertop after handling raw meat, for example), or in the bathroom, and to give a quick swipe over door handles. With lots of tea (to drink), there’s no such thing as “cold and flu season.”

Dr. Bronner’s hand soap bar

This deserves its own post, of course (what a crazy, awesome dude); but in the meantime… I was trying to get wax out of glass candle holders. Scrape scrape scrape with my little finger nails; wipe, wipe, wipe with a paper towel. Slow going, my friends. I set the glass in the sink and proceeded to wash my hands with the cracked and stained bar of Dr. Bronner’s I happened to have at the sink. Before rinsing my hands, I rang their soapiness around the glass and can you believe it, the wax came off! Yes, it took a bit of working, but it was working! So – happy bonus surprise.

What are your favorite non-toxic, all-natural cleaning agents? I’d love to know!