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I ran into this set in real life the other day and thought, “Hmm, what a great idea! My Homies may just love this.” So I found it on Amazon for ya…
The Full Circle Come Clean Natural Cleaning Set helps you make your own natural cleaning solutions. The set contains two spray bottles, one mixing container, two lemon reamers for adding fresh lemon juice, one microfiber cleaning cloth, and an easy-to-follow recipe book full of natural cleaning solutions!
This is perfect for Homies like me, who want to a more sustainable, eco-friendly house, but have NO IDEA where to start when it comes to DIYing my own cleaning stuffs.
I can’t decide if this is a perfect example of greenwashing or actually a good idea to get people to switch from toxic cleaners. It just doesn’t seem that hard to me to reuse an old spray bottle, the reamer that you already have, and follow any of these recipes for free from the Queen of Green: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/resources/2011/green-cleaning-recipes/! Or use citrus rinds instead of the juice since those are usually considered waste. Doesn’t seem worth it to buy new plastic when you probably have some already…
So when I say “this is perfect for Homies like me,” I mean people who totally do not own a spray bottle (that’s not filled with store-bought cleaners) — like me! And who have no idea what a “reamer” even is, let alone own one — like me! And wouldn’t know the first thing about making their own cleaners — like me! This is a totally “Megan-simple” solution.
You can make it even simpler (and cheaper), though. Get a spray bottle from the dollar store, along with a big jug of white distilled vinegar. Fill the spray bottle up 50%, then fill the rest of the way with water. This will clean pretty much anything you throw at it. My thought is that’s even more Megan-simple.
If you wanted to go Megan-advanced, there are other things that you can do with baking soda and liquid castile soap that you can easily find on the Googles or Pinterests. Root Simple has a great post on such methods: http://www.rootsimple.com/2012/02/clean-your-bathroom-without-resorting-to-poison/
Lemon juice is a great alternative, though, if you can’t stand the smell of vinegar. Today I’m actually off to buy cheap vodka to use as a fabric deodorizer, another super useful easy DIY cleaning method (pour into spray bottle. spray 😉 )
I’m totally going to use this next time I go drinking… “I’m not drunk! I’m just deodorizing my shirt.” 😉
Really, that bottle of vodka in my desk drawer is just for freshening up! It has NOTHING AT ALL to do with relaxing after a particularly crazy day in an insane workplace!
I think if there’s a product that makes it easy and inspiring for people to go green, then go for it. Anything to get more people to think about it, and if that’s the first thing you do that then moves you towards making your own and reusing spray bottles, then AWESOME.
I don’t think “one-lowmanship” is helpful (“I’m SO much greener than you”) and any changes that people make towards it should be celebrated and encouraged. GO MEGAN!
We tend to call that particular kind of one-lowmanship, “eco-machismo”:
http://offbeathome.com/2011/02/eco-machismo
The elegance of this is in the fact that all the things fit together and are interchangeable. Like, the lemon-thingy (reamer? learned a new word today) fits inside the bottle. Also, a recipe book for cleaners is easier than looking that shit up online. Anything that gets people on board with greener cleaning is OK in my book, and sometimes that means you have to make it easy and pretty. Baby steps.
This and what @Erinnyes said up there is exactly what I was thinking: “Oh! This makes it easy and all in one convenient package? That’s totally something me and my clueless brethren can get our clueless heads around.” 😉
A fantastic cleaner to try making (with that kit or on your own) is orange multipurpose spray. take a jar (like an old peanutbutter jar) and add some orange peels (buy a couple of oranges and whenever you eat one that week add the peel to the jar, do not feel like you have to peel oranges just for this. Fill the jar the rest of the way with white vinegar, cap it, and let it sit in your cabinet for about two weeks. Use those two weeks to find a spray bottle (or reuse one), mix 1/2 water and 1/2 the vinegar form the orange stuffed bottle in the spray bottle. You now have an amazing multipurpose cleaner! It cuts grease very very well.
I have been doing this for months now and it is the BEST!! Super easy and economical for someone as lazy and cheap as I am. Cannot recommend this method enough!
I haven’t added citrus juice to a cleaner before–does it not leave things sticky?
I don’t know about adding citrus juice, but if you add just the peels there is no sticky residue.