I got up close and personal with a pumice stone at a recent green cleaning workshop taught by a remarkable woman, Reenie Rogers, owner of Maureen Rogers Green Cleaning Services in Tallahassee.
Based upon the principles in Karen Logan's book, Clean House, Clean Planet, and others, Reenie assured a small group of us that the pumice stone would get the black off the underside of the toilet bowl rim and would not scratch the porcelain. She brought procelain buttons and let us test drive a huge version of a pumice stone that many of us, to this point had only used on our feet. No scratches!
Each of us left with our own bottle of "green cleaner" made from distilled vinegar and a couple of drops of earth-friendly dishwashing liquid and a container of "earth cleanser" made from baking soda and a few drops of peppermint essential oil. (Smelled great, cleaned even better!)
I learning about baking soda from my grandmother who taught me how to easily remove rings from coffee or tea on cups with a little, barely damp baking soda. I've brought a box to every office I've ever worked in and extolled the virtues of cleaning those nasty, dark stained cups. Who knew Granny was a green?
Reenie told me that the green cleaner would most likely take a stain out of my carpet. I was skeptical, but the next day, I followed her instructions and as they say in TV: the stain is gone!
I was pleased to learn that New York and Illinois have recently passed laws requiring schools to be cleaned using green cleaning methods and products.
If you want to try the magic pumice, invest in gloves and clean without further polluting our water supply.
Co-Op America recently had an online article that suggested the basic top ten to have in your cupboard:
- white vinegar
- baking soda
- borax (also works on ant hills)
- hydrogen peroxide
- club soda
- lemon juice
- liquid castile soap
- corn meal
- olive oil
- organic essential oils
More on green cleaning and the green clean book at green clean blog
1 comments:
Thanks. In our next workshop we'll make the All-Purpose Green Cleaner like we did last workshop. But instead of the Earth Cleanser (baking soda & essential oil), we're going to make a green furniture polish. New Leaf Market has the August workshop date if you want to and can attend.
Green Wishes~Reenie
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