Cleaning without the chemicals.

There’s something you should know about me…. I do not like to clean my house. I do it, but I don’t like it. Ooooooh… the scrubbing. I cannot stand scrubbing. Gah. How many hours of my life have been wasted to scrubbing? Billions, I’m sure.

Something else you should know: I like to clean with as little chemicals as possible. I do have some special items for an occasional deep clean, but I mostly clean with a vinegar + water mixture. It’s a pretty awesome recipe, and it always surprises me how much greasy grime it can clean up. PLUS: it’s a cheap and natural cleaner. Interested? Here’s the recipe:

Vinegar + Water Natural Cleaner

– 1 part water

– 1 part vinegar

Blend in a spray bottle. Done. Clean away. Note: for tough spots, use more vinegar, or 100% vinegar, and warm the mixture a bit before cleaning. Letting the mixture sit on the spot your cleaning, for a bit, also helps.

There is a teensy downside: you’re cleaning with vinegar and that stuff smells like, well, vinegar. I barely smell it now, but I know if I JUST cleaned with it and someone came over, it would be noticeable. I haven’t tried this, but adding a bit of essential oil (maybe lemon juice) might help with the vinegar smell? Also, even though this stuff cleans really well, I still have to scrub a little (and it doesn’t get super stuck-on grease off).

A couple months ago this awesome company asked if I’d like to try out their steam cleaner. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to try one of these out. Cleaning with steam, no chemicals. Yeah, I’m in. They sent it over and the hubs and I were in heaven. First thing we hit: the stove top. There’s a part of our gas stove that builds up this grease and I can never get it off. Drives me nuts (plus, the scrubbing… I don’t want to scrub). We tried it on our stove and it was amazing. All that stuff I’ve scrubbed and scrubbed on: gone. Too bad someone wasn’t recording my reaction because it involved giggling/clapping/and jumping. Love.

We tried the steamer on our floor, kitchen sink, all the places in the bathroom, and…. yeah. Any and everywhere we could think to clean. It cleaned our linoleum floor pretty well, but it seems to do best on super slick surfaces (ie: metal and ceramic).

I could go on and on about how much I love this steam cleaner. It’s really great. Plusandalso: HomeRight is giving away one steamer to one of you, in my group giveaway for June. Check it out… here. Super easy to win this awesome thing.

Side note for vinegar cleaner: Vinegar is acidic and can break down grout if the mixture is heavy on the vinegar side.

Have you ever cleaned with vinegar?

– Chelsey

Note: I was not paid for this post. HomeRight provided me with a steamer to try out and share my experience with you.