Natural solutions for cleaning tough stuff
Just in time for my massive house cleaning day tomorrow (before I go on vacation, I always like to try to leave my house spic and span, because it's just so much more restful to come home to!), the perfect Green Guide newsletter dropped into my inbox.
Their article on Furry Foes offered a natural solution for cleaning mold and mildew, which I find to be one of the more challenging aspects of green cleaning. I've found that baking soda isn't too bad, and my Bac-Out enzyme cleaner is somewhat better, but neither do the job as well as I would like. While I use white vinegar for many of my other cleaning needs, I've never tried it full strength on mold, but I am eager to give it a shot tomorrow. I also liked their suggestion to add tea tree oil for really tough jobs. Has anyone tried this? Did it work?
On a similar note, I have a question for you all:
What do you use to get rid of stains on clothing, without resorting to toxic or conventional products?
Since ditching Shout almost two years ago, I have been hard pressed to find any alternatives that I am truly satisfied with. Kids food stains (and art stains, etc.) are so challenging, and I have lost a few of Abbie's really nice shirts due to stains that set in and just never came out, no matter how hard I tried. It just kills me to throw out clothes that were otherwise in great shape, especially if they're her (or my) favorites.
So please, share all of your natural mold and stain removal wisdom with me! I'm all ears!
Hi, Stephanie –
For clothes, I usually just put my Bac-Out in a spray bottle and spray some on and use a scrub brush to work it into the stain. Works well for me!
If you find a good solution to the mold & mildew problem, let me know! I’ve yet to find a good natural way to get rid of the stuff to my satisfaction. Also, I’ve found that using vinegar just leaves a funky smell lingering in the air. Do you know of any ways to make a room actually smell clean and fresh after using vinegar? That’s the only thing that really bothers me about using it. Thanks so much!
The clothes! I have a solution for you, I hope. I put lemon juice dilluted with water and hang the clothes out to dry on the line for several hours. The sun does the job of bleaching for you naturally. Sometimes it takes a few times to really get the stains out. I especially use this for diapers and it is quite effective. I haven’t tried this on colors though, it might bleach them out. For whites and lights this works great. Usually for colors I just leave them in the sun all day and they fade significantly and after a few times of doing this the stain is gone. I also find that soaking the item in water as soon as the stain is applied is very effective to pull it out as well. Although this isn’t always possible with little ones.
I use a spray spot and stain remover from Simply Clean (www.simplyclean.ca) that I can get from my local grocery store. It works well on collars and cuffs as well as spots on my table cloths. I also use liquid dish detergent on stubborn stains and on those grease spots that sometimes appear on clothing after washing. It works every time!
For stains, try spreading a paste of vinegar and salt on the spot and laying it out in the sun for several hours. The sun, along with the vinegar/salt mixture does a great job of bleaching out stains. Then you can just wash as usual to remove the paste. I Tried this on some vintage baby dresses of my mom’s with 50+ year old yellowed spit-up stains around the neck (after trying a BUNCH of other things!) and it almost completely removed the stains. I was quite impressed! The dresses were white with colored flowers, and this didn’t seem to fade the flowers any (of course, as old as they are, they are already pretty faded). You might try it on a colored item that you don’t care as much about first to make sure it doesn’t fade colors too bad.
Pure white vineger works wonders for me. So does the veggie cleaner FIT.
God Bless
For my laundry stains, I use Biokleen’s All-Purpose Cleaner.
Hope you have a good trip!
Blessings,
Michele
That is very helpful. Just yesterday I was trying to figure out a natural solution for getting the mold off my tile counter tops in my kitchen. It is getting bad. I will have to add this tip in my list of things to try. Thanks for sharing dear!
I have tried “simply clean” stain remover and another bar stain remover without good results. The only thing I find “simply clean” to be good for is to remove the dark marks I used to get from nursing spit up or leaks. I found that on especially cottons, and dark coloured cottons, that wherever I got spit-up I would get dark marks. I would simply spray the simply clean stuff on the mark right before washing and let it sit a minute or so and then wash. I think it removed the fatty part of the stain.
As far as other stains go, I haven’t had much success with using the clothesline (other than on exlusive breastfed poopy diaper stains…doesn’t work so well once the child starts solids). But I gave up caring about diaper stains a long time ago. For clothes, I also searched and searched and asked around. The best thing I have found is using powdered non-chlorine bleach. I found some at the Bulk Barn (not sure if you have that where you live) called “safe bleach” and it is, I believe, powdered hydrogen peroxide and washing soda. Its colour safe. Another one I tried with also good results is the Ecover powdered non-chlorine bleach, which states it is the most ecological form of “bleaching”. Its something else other than the hydrogen peroxide. Neither have any smell at all. I would imagine ANY powdered non-chlorine bleach would work. Regardless, its not chlorine bleach. I put about 1-2 tsp in a bucket (I use a rubbermaid dish pan that is in my laundry tub for soaking things) and then add about 1-2 tsp of my laundry detergent (I also use a natural one for that) and then add as hot as water that is safe for the fabric. The hotter the better. I swish it all around a bit until most of the powder dissolves. Then I immerse the item with the stain into the solution and let it soak. Depending on the stain, sometimes it takes a few hours and I pull it out and its gone. Other times it has taken 1-2 days of soaking. I just leave it be and check on it periodically. Don’t try to jam too many things into one bucket or else the stain won’t get covered with the solution to “bleach” it out. If you want to do more than say 1-3 items (just one if its adult stuff) at once, increase the bucket size a bit and increase the other amounts a tiny bit and it works well. I would imagine it might work well to soak stuff right in the washing machine as well if you have a bunch of stained stuff.
As for mold/mildew…where you do have a problem? I used to get pink mildew along the bottom of the shower curtain. I ended up getting a new one it got so bad. Its fabric. I spray it each time I clean the bathtub with my vinegar/water solution I clean with. So far no problems. I think it keeps those pink stains at bay. I also don’t have much of a problem with my tiles and I also spray them…maybe it works or maybe I am just blessed to not have to deal with that right now.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need clarification on the stain thing or whatever. 🙂
Oh I forgot to mention (I think…) that using the sun to bleach stuff out didn’t work well for me also because it bleached the colour right out, too. Especially on greens, blues and darks like black. Whites its not a problem for. I now turn everything I hang on the line inside out to lessen the problem with colours fading since I often don’t get to the laundry right when its ready to come in and so its out there longer than needed sometimes. Even then sometimes the sun is really strong.
I haven’t tried this yet, luckily, I don’t have any mold or mildew to clean up right now, but I’ve heard that heat does wonders to kill mold. For example, if you have mold on the ceiling over your shower, simply plug in your blow dryer, stand on a chair and aim right at the mold. It will kill it, and then you just wipe it up with whatever cleaning supply you prefer. I’m thinking it might work just as well for mildew . . . If you have a large area of mold or mildew, use a portable electric heater in the enclosed room (doors and windows closed, while you’re home of course) for a few hours.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Sarah
I have tried adding tea tree oil to my homemade cleaners, but I’m not sure how well it works. I’d say my results were so-so. As far as stains go, I usually use a stain remover by Ecover, and it works quite nicely. For really stubborn stains, I use fragrance-free OxyClean, which *supposedly* is a lot healthier for people and the environment than bleach. It works great! I’ve also heard of people using hydrogen peroxide as a natural bleach.
Okay, I am totally coming out of lurking for this one because it is near and dear. This is the one big area where our family struggles with natural stuff. Because the stains usually aren’t natural. We still keep Shout or Zout on hand, but only pull it out is we have to. Greased Lightening is a much loved stain getter outer, as well. The most natural thing we have been able to use and still get really good results is Basic H by Shakley (check it their dot com if you aren’t familiar with them). And that is all I have to say. I am glad you brought this up and am so happy to read the other comments!
i don’t know how natural these are, but the stain removal methods that work for me are either to soak the garment in a bowl with a liiiiitttle bit of basic h and a lot of water or use a homemade stain remover that has ammonia in it. i forget the other ingredients, but i’m pretty sure it’s just water and baking soda and maybe one other thing. if ammonia is natural (can you tell i have NO idea?), i’ll give you the recipe.
as for using full-strength vinegar on mold and mildew….it doesn’t seem to work for me, but maybe that’s because i live in coastal florida and our showers aren’t well-ventilated. i find once a week or so, maybe every other week, i have to get a toothbrush out and use full-strength vinegar to scrub the mold and mildew out. nothing lasts longer than a couple weeks, though. tedious! 🙂
Hi the only way to kill.mould for good is to regrout once done the vinegar plus dish washing liquid always works the vinegar is an avid so mould won’t grow and dish liquid kills the fatty grease build up once it has a hold the spores just keep coming back! Gail
I use environmentally friendly laundry and cleaning products from Melaleuca, and they work wonders!
My favourite remover for blood stains is peroxide. My surgeon told me this initially – I guess he would know! I usually pour it on capful by capful. I would recommend rinsing the item afterwards so that you don’t just move the stain from one location to another. The blood disolves right before your eyes.
For laundry stains I love Fels-Naptha. I wet the bar and rub it on stains with a little water added for lather…magic! Works on grease, blood and all my boy’s food stains.
where I bought it:
http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/Fels_Naptha_Soap_p/d1001.htm
I try to get a stain wet as soon as a spill happens (if possible, but I try not to stress my children about stains so…) and that will get most of it out.
I second the Fels Naptha. I’m also able to buy olive oil soap from our local Arabic market. I don’t know that it’s all natural (because I don’t read arabic), but I think it is (it smells about like you might imagine olive oil soap would). It comes in bars, I just rub the stain with the bar until is seems pretty much gone, then wash it like normal. It works on cloth diapers, even after starting solids, and on dirt/mud stains, and most everything else.
I personally make all my own cleaners and use a mix of peroxide, club soda, vinegar, and tea tree oil to make a very impressive disinfectant spray….. The key is to leave on surface for about 3-5 minutes to kill mold and mildew or other bacteria if using as an all purpose spray, which I do for my kitchen and bathroom… The club soda really helps with shine on surfaces…Don’t leave it out, as it just isn’t the same….. I put a spray nozzle directly on my partially used peroxide bottle and add the other ingredients…. I use a 32 oz peroxide bottle (brown, of course) about half peroxide, 1/4 club soda, 1/4 vinegar and 8-10 drops tea tree oil, adding lavender with this smells nice and gives added benefits, as well. ALWAYS STORE PEROXIDE AND ESSENTIAL OIL CLEANERS IN DARK BOTTLE, as to not break down their very important qualities…………. On very tough mold and mildew stains spray on mixture liberally and let set for 2 minutes, then sprinkle on borax and/ or washing soda liberally to make a paste, let set for 10-30 minutes, not letting it completely dry out (spritz with your cleaner, keeping moist) and clean off. This is an excellent way to clean and now you have a wonderful spray for all your kitchen and bathroom needs. Hope this blesses someone, as it has me.
I forgot to add that I also keep a spray bottle of just club soda around to do windows and glass, just excellent at cleaning these. I also use this on clothes stains, works great for me when I am concerned about bleaching from lemon juice, peroxide and such. Really tough stains, I also use a laundry bar and lather up with the club soda. Club soda is just another great must have in my home and it dosn’t affect my cleaning at all when it looses its fizz…. I buy the generic bottles at Wal-Mart for 0.58 a bottle. I buy the Borax at Wal-Mart. I buy my Washing Soda at Homeland, since I can find no other store in my area of Oklahoma that sells Washing Soda. (I sure hope this doesn’t leave the market, as soap flakes have done) I buy the peroxide bottles at my local Sam’s Club. I make my own laundry soap, powdered. For any recipes or questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I would also appreciate any cleaning tips that have worked for any of you, as well. I have used so many tips I have found on sites like this. that it has helped me immensely. Blessings to all of you.
Stephanie:
I love reading your blogs! Thank you!
I wanted to share with you something that works for stains in the laundry, although I do not know how natural, is “Goop Hand Cleaner” (that I find in the automotive section at walmart). You rub some on the stain, fold it over on itself and let it sit….up to 24 hrs, then wash and check again. This is especially good for greasy stains. There have been times I have done this 3 and 4 times to get a stain out, but it usually works. I have even gotten stains out this way after said clothes have been dried! (Now that is something!)
The other thing is that my dad and brothers used to work for the Highway Dept and would often get oil/tar on their clothes while building or resurfacing roads. My Mom always put Pine Sol in the wash with their jeans and it would come out…reason being, oil attracts oil. Again, not perfect, sometimes took more than one wash, but usually worked.
Hope these help. And thank you again for all you share!