Yay! Tidy kitchens :)

My German grandmother would love you! Thanks for reminding us that many ideas from the good ole' days still work.

Gotta love clean lines... and kitchens. great as usual!

I have that book! Lots of useful recipes.

fabulous article! thank you~

This was a great tool for me today! I am going through the process of doing a deep cleaning in my house. Don't want to make it more dirty with harsh chemicals!

Excellent article! Great finds -love those kitchen brooms!

And don't forget the cleaning & deodorizing power of vinegar! Not only will it help with greasy messes, it removes soap scum and hard water stains. It's cheap, works great, and the "pickle-ish" smell evaporates and helps to deodorize, too.

my philosophy exactly. i love these sorts of articles in the storque.

These are great ideas! Cheap and safe...what could be better?!

All this talk of herbs, and lemons and such.... Those are some of my FAVORITE smells to have in the kitchen! They are good for cleaning too! How nice!! :-)

I agree with aimeesarmoire - I use vinegar to clean everything. I add a few drops of essential oils and my house smells wonderful after I clean.

Great advice! I think I may actually print this article and tack it to my fridge.

Love this!! I'm always using vinegar to clean, my hubby hates the smell of it :P

Excellent article! I only clean naturally because I have cats & I'm concerned about their health, my health, & the environment. Vinegar is probably the thing I use most!

Awesome! Perfect ideas :D

I concur! awesome tips. We should all live naturally wherever possible. It's better for the earth and your health and your wallet. Only caution with reusable plastic containers: Try not to microwave food in them!

Excellent tips, thanks!

Great tips!! I also use white vinegar to clean my water boiler.

OMG, what great ideas! I will have to try a few of these out ASAP!

Fantastic article!!!! I would like to add that I have found wine vinegar to be an excellent disinfectant, odour-remover and cleaner. It even gives a shiny look to all surfaces!

Thanks for the advice! My boyfriend and I were complaining about "apple blossom scented" detergents... this is just what we were looking for!

yaaay for line-art!!!

Tea tree oil is a good thing to have on hand as an antiseptic and lavender and geranium oils work well as insect repellents. stainless steel sinks can be rubbed with a lemon cut in two and you can eliminate odors in your dishwasher and washer if you run a hot cycle with a cup of vinegar.Green cleaning means a lot more scrubbing but is doable. I used and still use only natural recipes for cleaning for the last 5 years and I have to say there comes a day when you break down and get a bottle of Ajax so you can see the outside of your fridge white again for a change,other than that it's all good :).I'm still trying to find a natural dishwasher detergent that works

Thanks for these eco ideas. I try to use soft soaps and vinegar instead of smelly detergents too.

There is nothing better than using baking soda and hydrogen peroxide on a lot of "White" Cleaning. I also like to use vinegar and those 1 socks that you have that the dryer ate its mate on our windows! This is one of the best etsy articles EVER! Thanks!

Whatever the question, white vinegar is the answer.

Great article. When the kitchen is clean, the conscience is clean. My mantra is WASH YER HANDS!!!! Laksaware's kitchen scrubber is so neat and it's crocheted!

Thanks for the tips!

Wonderful article filled with great ideas that are easy to impliment.

Yay! I'm all about natural cleaning! I didn't know how useful essential oils could be, though - my favorite is lemongrass - and I can't wait to use it to clean!

I am going to try all those suggestions!

I just spent two hours deep cleaning my bathroom. Yuck! I can't believe I am know reading an article about cleaning. I should have done this in reverse order. Great tips for me to implement when I deep clean my kitchen tomorrow. No wonder I'm not getting lots of jewelry made.

guess I don't need the kitchen fairy anymore

Thanks for all these great tips in the comments! Keep 'em coming!

Thanks for all the great info. Anyone have a natural remedy for deodorizing smelling laundry in the wash??

Add a half cup of baking soda to the wash and it will remove odor and make your whites whiter!

great tips, can't wait to use the plastic container stain remedy

Thanks for great tips!

Wonderful ideas and tips...perfect for any household, but especially those with kids in them! Great collection!

i love this article!! i'm a total clean freak who has seen what rough commercial cleaners can do to your hands (yknow, take away your fingerprints... scary!) i finally made the transition to a 100% cotton napkin, towel, and placemat home. i use all of the samples from my shop-- buh bye paper waste!

My French grandmother... and mother... would love that subject, good old fashioned cleaning tools! ;) But I barely need any of this because my kitchen is SUPER tidy already ;) Love the brooms though!

love those clothepins!!!!!!

Glad to see this! As so many have already said, white vinegar is pretty much the answer plus baking soda and peroxide. All bio-degradable, non-toxic to environment & far more economical than essential oils, which are rather pricey. Since we're talking green, save energy by not using a dishwasher at all. Have never had one, don't want one and raised a family just fine w/out one. Besides, it's good for kids to have chores and help out w/ dishes. Watch your elec. bill shrink, too.

It's amazing what you can clean with some baking soda & vinegar!! Nice article!

Great tips! I'd like to add that glass storage containers are a great alternative to those cheap, plastic tupperware containers that seem to collect grime. And they are safer for your food, too! They also look a prettier sitting on the shelf in your fridge.

Thanks for all of the great tips!

Does anyone have a suggestion for shower mildew? The cleaners are so toxic, and bad for the lungs.

to clean polished (sealed) wooden floors, Brown vinegar is best. About a cup in a bucket of warm water.

Great article ~ I've been returning to basics as well. Borax & vinegar have become my new favorites!

Thanks for the tips! Love the dish scrubb!

Bookmarking this one! I love these sorts of tips :)

This is a great article, I would love to see more articles here that emphasize a green lifestyle. It's very important.

great tips , something that everyone can use!

TipsyTimeMachine... Baking soda mixed to a paste with white vinegar & left to soak on bathroom mildew will remove it. You may need to do it twice though, if your shower gets as mouldy as mine does! :-0

another awesome how Tuesday!

Essential oils with antibacterial and antiseptic qualities that you can use in the kitchen are the essential oils of Tea Tree, Lemon, Oregano, Thyme, Lavender, Lemongrass, Juniper,Rosemary. Avoid direct contact full strength of these oils on your body-despite being natural does not mean they cannot be harmful! shower cleaner-fill a bottle with half vinegar/half water add lemon essential oil. i also add some rubbing alcohol. avoid chrome fixtures. Half a lemon and baking soda make a nice scouring scrubbie!

Some great tips! Thanks for selecting my dishwasher buddies too!

We save empty wrappers and bags from other items, like chips and tortilla wraps and use them for repacking opened food items. It saves us from buying plastic wrap and sandwich bags. We don't buy tinfoil, but if a piece makes it into the house it's gold! We treat it like the last piece on earth, wiping it clean and reusing it over and over. Pretty damn pathetic really, but i love the game of it all.

i grew up in a family that used all of the harsh cleaners (more chemicals = more clean) & never really thought anything of it until i had kids. we pretty much only clean our home w/water & baking soda now. it's super cost effective and works..... wow.

This is a brilliant article. Thank you!

This book looks interesting! Great ideas, safe for the kitchen and the environment!

Thanks for the great eco tips! Love the clothespins with words!

I have this book and I love, love, love it! In fact, I used it to whip up a batch of eucalyptus laundry stain spray yesterday. It smells so good and keeps my sensitive skin happy. :)

What great ideas! I'm checking out that book!

great tips!!

Thanks for the tips!

Such a bonus... feeling good about being clean and being green at the same time. Thanks for the great ideas.

great picksss:-)very useful for meee

great glass cleaner for bathroom...white vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing detergent.

These are all good ideas, another one is a spray bottle, and a thick white hand towel. Most stuff you are wiping just needs some friction, and water is the trick, when the towel looks dirty wash it. It will dry between wipes, will not smell like a washcloth, which just spreads germs anyway. I like to use plain water, that way you can always spray a little on your food, in helps in reheating it for leftovers, think macaroni and cheese. You can freak out a luncheon guest this way.

Baking soda, lemon, cinnamon oil and vinegar have been my best friends in the kitchen for several years now. Once you go natural, you'll never go back! Such a wonderful article-way to spread the word!!!

SweetwaterGifts Thanks for all the great info. Anyone have a natural remedy for deodorizing smelling laundry in the wash?? ----------------- While baking soda does work great for minor odors, for really strong odors, i.e. guy's stinky work clothes, etal, I use ammonia (the lemon scent is a bit easier on the nose). 1/2 cup or so per large load should remove stench. NEVER, EVER COMBINE ammonia & bleach. Scars lungs. TipsyTimeMachine - Bleach is the only substance that will eliminate mold. If on shower stall ceiling, you may need to treat w/ bleach, let dry thoroughly then paint w/ Binz, a mold stain concealing paint. Try to do when kids, pets are out of house. Really old houses, like ours built pre-indoor plumbing, have this problem. Run fan to get more ventilation & dry paint quicker. Not as green as we'd like, but black mold is worse.

Nice article! Right up my alley of interest. Bread and Roses try adding a drop or 2 of Tea Tree Oil in your wash, it helps to introduce antibacterial properties and that might help with the smell. I've seen some great eco friendly dryer sheets on etsy, I plan on buying one soon

Great tips!

This is coming from a girl raised by a mom who owns two Health Food stores in Indiana since 1977: YES! YES! YES! Thank you Etsy! Let the education continue!

Great article. I never realized how harsh evil, chemical cleaners actually were until my body had detoxed from using commercial laundry soap and I suffered an allergic reaction to them. WHY would these companies do these things?$? It's as if they just don't care and to me it's a slap in the face and an insult to my intelegence :-) yes I know it's spelled wrong, just being silly. Laundry Soap Recipe: 1 Bar Castile Soap 4 oz. Borax 4 oz. Washing Soda 1/2 tsp. essential oil (optional) Grate the castile into small shreds and add your dry ingredients and essentials/fragrance if you'd like. I wear gloves and stir, stir, mash, mash, stir. The longer you work and smash it together like a madman the more consistent it will become. Enjoy!

these are great we make our own laundry detergent and abrasive soap. we also don't use a dryer because it is wasteful to the environment and hanging clothes on a line can be a fun family time too;)

Great article. I definitely want to check out this book! And thank you for featuring my drawing!

Wonderful suggestions! Thanks for sharing

It's amazing the simple changes that we can make that will impact our lives and our environment in such positive ways!

Very useful tips for having a tidy kitchen! I think I might be following some of them very soon...cheers!

Great article. I just started making my owm laundry detergent,fabric softner, and glass cleaner. Not only it working the best part is when I go to the store and walk past the cleaning aisle. I love being self-sufficent.

Great tips! I love that Etsy shops have so much to offer in the naturally clean home department!

Oh, you are singing my song! I have always used natural cleaners and (EGADS!) refused apartment pesticide services. Also, a tip for pet owners, we grow lots of plants and use organic fertilizers. my dogs ate some, and after a tearful night at the emergency vet, I found that it saved their life! They weren't even sick! Other fertilizers are toxic to animals (and they WILL eat it!) so it was a real red alert. So buy some clean stuff from these hard working etsy people and save a life! :)

Thank you!

Great article! Thanks!:)

Great article

Amen! Here's another fun tip... Fill an ice cube tray with equal parts of vinegar & lemon juice (and drop in some cut up lemon rind bits if you've just used a lemon) and throw the tray in your freezer. Whenever your garbage disposal gets a little stinky, feed it one or two of your new ice cubes and voila! The "ice" will sharpen the disposal blades and the lemon juice/vinegar combo will clean & get rid of smells.

looks like lemon is going to be my best friend in the kitchen! :)

we also have a suger green, natural cleaning home. thanks for the tips, always appreciated

Fabulous article! love using basic household products to green clean...it's so much better for your home and the environment. tips: white vinager is wonderful for cleaning mildew and preventing meldew from coming back in the bathroom. hydrogen peroxide is great for stainless steel sinks and disinfecting your kitchen sponge. club soda is a fantastic stain remover and polisher

Great tips! I'll have to try the stove cleaning tip of using my favorite essential oil to remove stains, I never would have thought of trying oil. Thanks!

Hmmm... the salt in the oven thing & lemons on the cuttingboards are definitely worth a try. Thanks!

great ideas! We are trying to become a mostly paper free house. And I have helped my office to become GREEN, no more printing, paper coffee cups or paper plates (it was a huge improvement in a design agency, we often waste way to much paper) Salt/Lemons and Ice are great trick for removing any unpleasant smells from a garbage disposal.

i seriously need this book.

Yay for clean kitchens!

great article! we already use a lot of green cleaning techniques and don't use the dryer. Haven't found a homemade dishwasher detergent that works with hard water though so still use the pricey Seventh Generation.

Thanks for the green tips!

MMmm sometimes I just get in the mood to clean and organize!

Wonderful article, I love the bit about the garbage disposal. But I have to caution everyone about lining your oven and electric cooking elements with foil. The oven says "SPANG!" when the active elements touch the foil, creating a short circuit in the currents. The element then catches fire. (Yes, it happened to my oven.) Don't use foil just because you want to avoid a little elbow grease. What you really need is a plastic scraping tool to plane off any build-up. I use half an expired credit card. (The credit card usually has to be tossed after this.) Soften build-up with water or a dish detergent/water mixture if you need to. After scraping, the gunk is then reduced to a manageable scrub with baking soda and water paste. There is nothing baking soda can't do. :-) Above, someone said: "Thanks for all the great info. Anyone have a natural remedy for deodorizing smelling laundry in the wash??" Borax and washing soda. Washing soda is sodium carbonate, and sold in the laundry aisle or section of your preferred grocery shopping venue. The musty smell comes from mildew. Borax and washing soda will help get that out. It also helps, if you have a front-loader, to take a holey sock for a rag and wipe out the inside of the rubber sealing ring. Mildew thrives there. Also, I may get shouted out of the comments, but a 1/4c of plain bleach on a linen load will do it, too, with minimal environmental and health impact. If you're really anti-chlorine bleach (which degrades into sodium chloride in the environment, or table salt), get industrial-strength vinegar (acetic acid, about 25%) for cleaning power. Table vinegar is only 10%. Good luck. I HATE cleaning. But baking soda and snipped credit cards make it perversely subversively fun. Ish.

After working a few years as a project monitor for HAZMAT-I am not surprised what I read about industrial household cleaning agents. Yikes!!! I have this book, too and it is wonderful. Great DIY ideas for gift giving. Especially those with kids and pets. As for plastic storage containers, I opt for good 'ole pyrex. I hear too much bad press about plastic. Plus pyrex can go from your fridge to the microwave without any scary toxins getting cooked into your food. I also use the bigger pyrex dishes to bake dinners, then when they come out of the oven and cool down, can be covered with their respective cover and popped on the fridge. Sure saves on dishes. And those suckers are tough! Havent broken them yet-even when dropped and countless trips to and from the house with school lunches and food outings.

Thanks for this storque article and for everyone who added such fantastic tips!!! I love conserving and repurposing and recycling.... my tip....dump the electric can opener all together and go back to the old fashioned hand-held. Doesn't require electricity, easier to clean and store. I've tried them all and the best for durability and ease is the good old SwingAway brand.

Loving the dirty/clean magnets! Great idea. Can't wait to check out the book. Thanks for this article!

::janssendesigns:: Try Method's Smarty Dish tablets for the dishwasher. I've tried EVERY kind of natural dishwashing detergent (even tried making my own) and this is the ONLY one that has worked! They were recommended to me by a friend and I've been hooked since.

I'm amazed no one's mentioned the old method of cleaning windows with half a bucket of water with a cup of distilled (white) vinegar added. If they're really dirty just add a cup of soft soap or a squeeze of washing up liquid as well. Wash with a cloth & dry with old newspaper that then gets recycled. I NEVER dry my laundry anywhere other than outside. I'm lucky enough to have a lean-to for storing logs & I put up a washing line in the roof so it can be used in all weathers. Also, I wash my car with regular shampoo, the same as I use on my hair. It gets rid of the dirt but leaves the wax intact, so the car needs polishing less often! (I hasten to add, I ONLY wash & polish the car regularly because it's a taxi!) Lastly, for red wine spills on the carpet, sprinkle with a good layer of table salt, Leave till the salt goes red then vacuum up. Repeat until the salt no longer changes colour. One last thing, antifreeze for cars is something there seems no way of avoiding, but keep it well out of harm's way. Cats just LOVE the stuff & it poisons them.

Thanks so much for consistently including green articles on Etsy!

KITCHEN BROOM --like Harry Potter's BROOM! HOHOHO~~~~

Thank you! I learned a lot from this article.

do people really still have electric can openers?

thank you for all the wonderful hints :)

awesome, great post!

I love this article! As a kid, it was painful to my sinuses to walk down the detergent aisle. I could smell the over-fragranced laundry detergent and my eyes would water...same goes for the perfume area in department stores. It's better now that I'm grown, but I still get a little wonky at the thought of cleaning with bleach and harsh chemicals. Thanks for all the natural oil tips- I just bought some tea tree oil and now I know so many more ways that I can put it to good use!

I have a "Euro-Pro" steamvac and I love it! I feel like a ghostbuster with the little vac strapped over my shoulder and the best part is it disenfects with NO CHEMICALS! Which is especially great for places like in the tub and on the counters. It does take a few minutes for the water to heat up and you have to pause after using all the steam for it to heat again, but it's not a huge inconvenience and a small price to pay. I really recommend it, it's got attachments for floors and everything. Great for babies who like to crawl around. Thanks for all the other tips!!!

Hi. After all the reading I'm amazed no one wrote about just washing your plastic containers and sticking them in the sun. It naturally bleaches out most stains. I bought some old tupperware 9 years ago and the only reason I've kept them is because I stick them in the sun and bleach them. Please note that you may have to rewash becaue of bugs if you do it outside.

i love these tips! i've been using natural products for my kitchen and have been thinking about making the change to all natural laundry detergents as well.

Excellent article with some great tips! We all need to be aware. Thank you.

I find vinegar inexpensive and a great way to sanitize and yet not soil(bleach out) the sleeves of a top you are wearing. Instead of using bleach to clean up a spot Fido made, or cleanse the sponge at the kitchen sink, use a tablespoon of white vinegar.(It is much less toxic to breathe) Also put that wet sponge in the micro for 30 secs. to maintain freshness and avoid spreading germs between uses. Thanks for your wholesome article! hcg

Manual can opener is the best, moves wherever you go. Just wipe it off with a soapy sponge or vinegar, and put it away. It doen't like dish water as eventually the blade rusts then you have a bigger problem. Love all your inputs, sooo helpful!hcg

Great Article. I'm allergic to many chemicals and use the most natural cleaners etc. I can find. I use vinegar for so many things INCLUDING cleaning my copper wire straight out of the kiln after it's room temp. It comes out all black and scaly on the part not encased in glass and I make a pickle of vinegar and salt, and Shazam, beautifully cleaned copper wire again.

Plastic containers are not good for you, either-- especially if you're microwaving them. Use glass storage containers instead-- they look great and they last even longer. Plus, they don't get stained! They're easy to find in any store and usually cost the same.

I have to admit, I'm on the fence with the paper napkins due to the water shortage we are often in. Sometimes it's so bad here (Piedmont region of NC) that restaurants will not serve water unless requested by the customer. I'm not sure to conserve on waste or water. Anyone have any thoughts on this topic?

Love the idea of the cloth wipes. Now I have a use for all of the old sheets and tee shirts I've been saving.

many thanks, always good to read about more natural and ethical and non-animal-tested products :)

Really great tips - I've been working on creating my own handmade cleaning solutions recently. To add on to the tip about putting lemon or lime peels in the garbage disposal, clementine peels make your disposal smell AMAZING!

These are great tips! I think vinegar is a surefire winner when cleaning pretty much anything, and you can always add a bit of lemon juice to give a nice lemony smell.

Great tips and just in time to do some major spring cleaning! No matter what I seem to do with the cutting boards they always seem gross, I will definitely be trying the half of a lemon trick :)

Such great ideas! I'm always looking for more ways to do things naturally around my home. Thanks so much for sharing this! :)

The Naturally Clean Home is a wonderful book - I highly recommend it!

Thank you for the great ideas. It has given me some ideas of my own.