Spring Cleaning Naturally (part one): the bathroom

This is one of my favorite times of year.

Spring cleaning is da bomb. It's the time that I get to let my OCD-cleaning-ness (love my made up word?) come out in full swing. 

Back in December I told Richard I wanted one thing when he finished the MCAT.

I wanted him to take the kids for a couple hours a day so I could super deep clean the house. It needed it and I needed it (have I ever mentioned that I function 100% times better in a clean and organized house? well i do).

So today, 4 months later, my dream came true.

Unexpectedly Richard came home from school at 1:30 and told me he was done for the day and I could start my super-duper spring cleaning. After celebrating for awhile, I started.

But here is the thing.

A couple Saturday's ago I taught a Relief Society activity on cleaning "Naturally".

I have become intrigued by it, and after finding several "Recipes" for cleaning naturally, I decided to give myself a challenge.

I wanted to test the effectiveness of the "natural" cleaners and
  do my entire spring cleaning with as many natural cleaners as I can. 
Put them to the test. 

Now some of them aren't entirely natural, but so much better than all the other cleaners that require the use of a hazmat suit (ok not really, but it feels like that sometimes).

Here is why I wanted to try it:

--It is SOOOO much cheaper to clean naturally (the cost of the "ingredients" like baking soda, vinegar, lemons, dish soap, Borax etc. are so small)

--It's better for those with allergies

--Other cleaners can leave your house incredibly polluted
--I don't have to worry about rushing my kids to the hospital to get their stomachs pumped if they somehow got into my locket cabinet with my cleaning supplies
etc. etc.

So today I started with the bathroom and I was so incredibly surprised! I cleaned the bathroom for almost 3 hours, cleaning every surface and the only thing I used that wasn't "natural" was the pinsol on the floor ( and only because I used up all the natural cleaning ingredients on everything else).
So here is the lowdown:
On most of the bathroom surfaces I used only these two cleaners:

On the left is the "tough" cleaner that is comparable to comet. I used it on the bathtub and was blown away by the result! I used a really harsh cleaner from Walmart on the bathtub last time I cleaned it and while it worked really well, I had a throbbing headache from all the chemicals. So this cleaner. worked even better and it was totally natural. And so cheap. Here is the "recipe":

1 cup HOT vinegar (microwaved for 2 minutes)

1 cup blue Dawn dish-soap (specifically that kind of dish-soap...I bought it at Walmart for $1.44)

--I put it in a spray bottle, sprayed it all over the bath tub and left it to sit while I organized our bathroom things under the sink (So about an hour). Then I used a sponge that was covered in Borax and a little water to scrub off the cleaner. The tub was amazingly clean and everything on the tub came off right away. It's amazing. I also used it on the sink and in the toilet to get off the hard water marks. Let it sit where ever you want it to clean and then scrub off.

On the right is the all-purpose, disinfectant that also deodorizes whatever it cleans. It works on all surfaces, including mirrors. Here is how to make it.

2 cup HOT water

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. dish soap (I used the blue dawn I talked about earlier)

2 tsp. Borax

4 tsp. Vinegar

--Mix together and put it in a spray bottle. You can use it on anything you want to clean. If you used it on mirrors, wash it and then use a dry, clean cloth to buff away any marks. I used it on the toilet, the sink and all the mirrors.

For the toilet I used both cleaners and then I also used a solution at the bottom of the toilet to clean and deodorize. I mixed together baking soda and lemon juice enough so it was the consistency similar to pancake batter. I put that on the bottom of the toilet and let it sit for about an hour while I cleaned the sink. When the time was over, I poured on vinegar and after it finished fizzing, wipe it away with a damp cloth. 

So I cleaned the whole bathroom with as natural cleaners as I could, and the result...

It has never been so clean

and I clean it a lot.
Hubby walked in and said it was cleaner than a hotel bathroom!

In regards to the bathroom, natural cleaners worked amazingly and I won't use anything else in the future.

Tomorrow is the kids bathroom. Stay tuned.

p.s. two posts in one day? Crazy! You should check out my post from earlier where I caught up on my April Challenge