You could start with a simple paste of baking soda and water to remove stains from your kitchen counter and to clean your stainless steel sink — or a paste of cream of tartar and water to remove stains from fabric. You'll be amazed at how effective it is.
Many recipes for organic cleaners include small quantities of essential oils. Not only do these oils add perfume to your mixes, but they are also effective in their own right. For example, lemon oil and the other citrus oils will cut grease, and lavender oil has antifungal and antibacterial properties.
Try out the recipes in this book. They may well change your approach to cleaning. Once you test their effectiveness for yourself, you may want to expand the experience. Before long you may find yourself buying baking soda and other such organic cleaning products in bulk, rather than spending time in front of the enormous range of brightly packaged cleaners, trying to decide which to choose.
Good-bye to hazardous household products
The problem of storage - The use of nonorganic chemical cleaners is concerning enough, but compounding the problem is the extent to which the average home accumulates and stores them. Around your home you could find a great deal of dangerous waste materials, some of which are cleaning agents, and the rest an accumulation of paints, chemicals and pesticides.
Disposting of toxic products safely - Be sure to dispose thoughtfully of products you no longer want to use. Those with hazard symbols should not be poured down the drain or put into the garbage. Leave them at a hazardous-waste facility. Contact your local municipal authorities for details of the nearest facility.