Creating a chemical-free life is a core strategy of my healthy living plan. I switched from toxic household cleaners to brands with safer ingredients. I make a lot of cleaners myself. It's one of the practical priorities that helped me recover from fibromyalgia. I know. I know. Fibro is considered an incurable chronic illness. Nevertheless, I persisted, and I recovered anyway.
I have quarry tile floors in my foyer, kitchen, sunroom, and den. I love the natural swirly look of the tile and the feel of walking across smooth stones on a creek bed. I don't love that the floors need heavy-duty cleaning because this area gets a lot of foot traffic.I experimented with various combinations of ingredients and the one I settled on keeps my floors cleaner than any commercial product I have ever used. And it contains just four ingredients: water, white vinegar, liquid soap, and baking soda.
Buy an inexpensive one gallon pitcher with a lid. Fill it half full with warm water. Add 1 Tbs of mild nontoxic liquid dish detergent or Castille liquid soap and 1/2 c baking soda and stir. Add 1/2 c of plain white vinegar. Fizz alert: foaming will occur! I put my pitcher in the laundry room sink while I'm making this so if it bubbles over, no problem. When the foaming subsides,slowly add more warm water to finish filling the pitcher. Stir as you add the rest of the water. Use your favorite mop and just pour a little of the solution on the floor and mop away. My mop has a pump sprayer, a reservoir to add the cleaning solution, and a micro fiber cleaning pad that can be tossed in the washing machine after each use.It is easy to fill the mop reservoir with the solution since my pitcher has a handy pouring spout. .
After you mop the floor with this solution, go over the floor again with a clean damp mop using plain water.Your floors will be sparkling clean and fresh. Sit back and enjoy the view.
Find more recipes for homemade nontoxic cleaners, healthy living tips, effective strategies to improve fibromyalgia symptoms, methods to reduce toxic chemical exposure from common household products, and recipes and resources for creating a personalized healthy living plan in my new book, Practical Priorities for Fibromyalgia Recovery. Now available in paperback and eBook versions at amazon.com. Buy your favorite version today. Buy Kindle eBook. Buy Paperback.
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