Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products (53 page)

HOW TO

1.
Put the vodka in your spray bottle.

2.
Add the distilled water, leaving 1½ inches at the top of the bottle.

3.
Add the essential oils.

The Bathroom

Toilet Cleaner

Make this unpleasant task bearable by making a sweet-smelling cleaner of your own. The key is to find a squirt bottle like the ones used for commercial toilet bowl cleaners. You need to be able to squirt under the rim. I had a couple left over from eco-friendly bowl cleaners that I had purchased. If you don’t have any, ask your friends to hang onto these precious bottles when they’re done (they’ll really think you’ve lost your marbles!).

HOW TO

1.
Mix all the ingredients together in a large measuring cup. Be very careful when you add the vinegar, as the whole thing will fizz up.

2.
Pour into the squirt bottle and use for the toilet bowl, rim, and seat.

TILE AND TUB

The best cleaner you can use for your shower, tiles, and tub is white vinegar. It dissolves grime and helps keep mildew and mold at bay. If you don’t love
the smell, know that a few minutes after application, the odor will completely disappear.

Always keep a sprayer full of white vinegar in your bathroom to:

• Spray the grime ring around the bathtub. This will make your weekly cleaning a lot easier.
  
• Clean shower doors by spraying with the vinegar after each shower (it’s best to use after you have already squeegeed off most of the moisture).
  
• Spray generously into the shower door tracks to prevent hard-water buildup.
  
• Spray into the corner of your shower and along the grouting to prevent mold and mildew.
  
• Spray around the base of your faucets to prevent hard-water deposits.
  

For stubborn stains, use Green Scouring Paste (see “Thrifty and Nifty”) once a week.

SHOWER CURTAIN

I don’t recommend using a vinyl shower curtain, as vinyl is an eco-nightmare and can continue to off-gas toxic chemicals while hanging in your bathroom. Instead, use hemp, nylon, or polyester curtains. Hemp is great, as it’s mold and mildew resistant.

However, soap scum and mildew can build up on any of the materials I have recommended. Once a month, I recommend putting your shower curtain with a towel or two in your washing machine. Add 1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide to your regular detergent, and that should do the trick.

Cleaning Silver

I stopped buying jewelry cleaners when I realized that the baking soda method was by far the best.

1. Cover the bottom of a large glass baking dish (Pyrex is perfect) with a sheet of aluminum foil.
   
2. Lay out your pieces of tarnished silver on the foil, taking care that none of the pieces overlap.
   
3. Generously sprinkle baking soda all over the pieces.
   
4. Add boiling water, so that all the pieces are submerged.
   
5. Leave for 15 minutes.
   
6. Rinse your silver under cold water and polish dry with a clean rag.
   

If you have a piece of silver that’s difficult to submerge in water (a photo frame, a box, or candlesticks), you may want to try one of the following tricks.

• Cut a potato in half, dip the cut side in baking soda, and use it to polish your silver.
  
• Use regular toothpaste and a rag. Work the toothpaste into the silver and buff off with a clean rag. Toothpaste is also great for polishing gold.
  

Computer Screen Cleaner

We buy a lot of little cleaners that are extremely expensive, because we don’t think there’s an alternative. One such item is a computer screen cleaner. I used to buy very pricey little foil packets containing moistened paper cloth. I thought I’d ruin my LCD (liquid-crystal display) by using anything else—at least, that’s what they told me in the store! Now I know different. Here’s how to do it.