one green planet
one green planet

Eating fruits and vegetables is the best way to keep a clean, healthy body. But did you know you can use many common fruits and vegetables to keep a clean, healthy house too? Here are 10 ways to clean your home with the produce in your fridge:

1. Get Rid of Bugs

Nothing is more annoying or makes a house feel dirty even when it’s clean than a swarm of flies! Fortunately, there are many natural smells those pesky bugs just can’t stand. You can always keep them from getting into your house by planting herbs like basil, lavender, rosemary, mint, or bay leaf near entrances, but if that isn’t an option, deter them from sticking around by sticking cloves into cut lemons. The scent will repulse unsavory critters but create a pleasing scent for humans.

2. Disinfect and Scrub

Never buy toxic sprays and scrubs again! Use fruits and vegetables to make safe, clean-smelling, and disinfecting sprays. Combine vinegar with grapefruit juice and baking soda to make an all-purpose grapefruit cleaner. Toss citrus peels into vinegar and steep in a dark place for a few weeks to make a disinfecting citrus spray. Turmeric root has long been used in India to disinfect hospital floors (though turmeric is known for its staining properties, so be aware before trying this one.)

Rub half a lemon on soap scum, limescale, and hard water stains in the shower. Combine lemon juice and baking soda into a paste and use as a toilet bowl cleaner.

3. Remove Rust

Get rid of rust with a potato! Potatoes contain oxalic acid, which is also found in commercial cleaners but without all the additional chemicals and toxins. Use this natural alternative for knives, baking pans, cast iron cookware, and other rusty housewares.

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4. Polish Metal

You can use all kinds of produce to clean and polish various metals. Make copper, brass, and chrome sparkle with a little lemon and salt buff. Rub a little cucumber on stainless steel to make it shine. Polish silver with slices of lemon, potatoes, or banana peels.

5. Fight Odors

Set an open jar of your citrus juice of choice, muddled with your favorite smelling herbs and spices, on your countertop or simmer over a low flame for a fresh, clean-smelling room. You can also mix up a batch of Easy Breezy DIY Lime Air Freshener to spritz whenever you need a room revitalizing scent.

6. Erase Scuffs and Marks

While highly effective at removing scuff marks, there is some question about whether the various magic erasers on the market are safe and non-toxic. No need to worry! Be safe and eco-friendly by using the equally effective peel of cucumber to erase crayons and other marks on walls or floors!

7. Defog Mirrors

Speaking of cucumbers, cleaning mirrors in the bathroom with cucumber juice will keep them fog-proof during your next shower!

8. Clean Grills

Grill or oven caked with old, charred food? Use an onion to scrub burned-on leftovers. Heat the grill or oven, cut an onion in half, and stick it onto the tongs of a fork. Use the cut side to scrape away residue. Onions contain enzymes that, when combined with oxygen, turn into sulphenic acid, a powerful and non-toxic way to break down burned-on grime.

9. Dust and Polish Plants

Plants covered in dust or pet hair can’t get the oxygen and light they need to be strong and healthy. But you can clean their leaves with the pith side of banana peels! Banana peels act as a natural moisturizer for plants and keeps them clean, shiny, and healthy.

10. Polish and Clean Wood

Dull-looking wood floor or dinged-up wooden furniture? Clean wood with a banana! Mash up the fruit and rub it over the floor. Wipe clean and buff for a healthy shine. You can also use walnuts (not technically a fruit or vegetable, but so effective!) to fill in nicked-up wood or walnut oil to polish and protect cutting boards.

Free space in your cupboards and pocketbook while detoxifying your cleaning routine by tossing the chemical cleaners and cleaning your house with fruits and veggies!

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