Cleaning Agents: Who's Working for You?

Federal Invesitagtion Agents aka FBI appear hero in so many movies. Catching the bad guys, foiling the crime plot, freeing the oppressed, these are just some of the reasons we admire and romantize those agents who work so hard to keep us safe. But what about the agents under your sink? Have they been corrupted? Quick fix, short term gain, greed or avarice, these agents may or may not be just what the situation calls for. 

I Know Agents on Your Side

This post won't cover the range of developments in cleaning chemicals over the past two days let alone the past two years. While products and companies are getting hip to the green agenda, (& the need of the environmental imperative) quality solutions are already available today. 

This ain't your grandma's kitchen, but wait -maybe it should be. Since the dawn of time borax has been there to help people clean their toilets and sinks. In the days of Noah it was used to wash the ship's deck. Okay, well maybe that's not completely acurate, but sufice to say it's here now. Borax, Arm & Hammer, and vinager (white) are possibly all you need to keep your home sparkingly clean even in a 21st century kinda way. 

While you may not have Rosie, the Jetson's amiable, apron clad super cleaning robot to assit you, you do have solutions for all the house-hold areas that need cleaning. 

• Windows: treate them with an equal parts water to vinager (white does best) solution, put them in a spray bottle and wipe glass and window surfaces with old newspaper or some people like to use coffee filters. 
  

• Kitchen: including the sink, you can wipe, scrub and clean most kitchen surfaces with an Arm & Hammer + water solution. Test to see what ratio works best for you, but you can start with 3 tablespoons A&H to each 1/2 cup water; that's 6 tablespoons + 1 cup water; 12 tablespoons + 2 cups water; etc. *Don't forget to wipe down, inside and out, of the fridge. 
  

Floors: A&H + Water + Lime Juice 

• Pipes: send 1/2 cup baking soda, followed by a 1/2 cup vinegar, followed by a few cups (3-4) boiling water down your drains. This will break up the oily grime in the pipes and it should leave them smelling clean and fresh. 
  

• Tile: with an old toothbrush (*don't use your roomates; remember the golden rule?) and a nice pasty solution made of one part A&H and one part water you can clean that grime right out of your grout. 
  

• Toilet & tub: again with the A&H and water. By  now you should be an old pro, but essentially these items call for another solution of the wonder agent and some water. Also you can get the lime scale off of the shiny things by soaking them in the A&H and water solution. 

Some things not to do: nose pick in public - okay that's off topic; what I meant to say, don't continue to buy those nasty aerosol sprays. They're funky, they're junky, and here's the real scoop. 

*Aerosol sprays no longer contain chloroflurorcarbons which was the reason not to use them in the 90's, but they still contain hydrocarbon-based gases which, you guessed it, add to the overall amount of carbon in the air. 

These natural ingredient solutions can help you clean without worry of toxins, or environmental damage. Now if only you can get your spouse to pitch in.