cleaning with Black tea

L

LUXX26

Cathlete
For an inexpensive way to clean your hardwood floors....steep 1-2 black tea bags in a pot of water- (whatever size you would need to clean with- the bigger the pot the more tea bags) for 25 minutes then clean- you'll see dirt come off those floors like never before- black tea also helps clear the allergens away.
a friend told me about this trick and after trying it I have no need to buy those expensive commercial brands. just don't use any other kind of tea- only black tea
 
My whole house has hardwood floors and I don't like the commercial cleaners either (too many chemicals).

I've been using a mix of 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup of white vinegar on a gallon of water. The floors do not dry out and I feel better about the kids playing on the floors.

I'll try the black tea, I am always looking for good alternative cleaners.
 
Or toss in some spinach leaves and you'd have a salad!:p :p }( :p :p
 
That is really interesting! I have been trying to switch over to using mostly natural cleaners. I could use more suggestions if you have any. My biggest one is what do you use that will actually clean the tile in a shower without using chemicals?

Alison
 
If you make a search for 'natural cleaner', 'homemade cleaners' etc. you'll find a lot of suggestions on how to clean everything without any storebought cleaners.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8088/clngrn.html
http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/mod02/01500631.html

I haven't used any storebought cleaners in years and my family is very healthy - not even alergies. I am avoiding lysol, antibacterial handsoap etc. like the devil.

Everybody who thinks it's so funny to clean with natural stuff needs to go over their and their family's health - if there are alergies or chronic deseases, I'd drop the use of commercial cleaners.
 
With the exception of bleach (which is an irritant, not a toxin) I have eliminated all caustic chemicals from cleaning. There's an all natural line called Method and I was delighted to find our local Safeway carries them.

And for those lucky enough to have access to Trader Joe's http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/index.asp , you can get non-toxic, cruely-free products for you home and your body and very reasonably too. :)
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"
 
You can buy nontoxic stuff easily, but you can also make a lot of it. As to the mildew on the shower tiles question, that is the only thing I have not been able to solve nontoxically. You can use baking soda or Bon-Ami on the tiles, but to remove the stain, I get a tiny cup of diluted chlorine bleach and scrub it on with a tootbrush once or twice a year. Nothing else works. They claim that ammonia will prevent mildew from growing, but not if you use the shower!!

I live in the South, so humidity is the enemy.
 
Bleach is the only one I use, too.

I don't use a lot of things everbody else uses, e.g. a microwave, Jetdry (use vingar instead), dryer sheets (don't use them if anyone has astma or any breathing problem), bug spray - the good old fly swatter works well enough, for our garden pests we just use cayenne pepper, never used the baby wipes and I used disposable diapers after the first year, had two natural childbirths and went home the next day (refusing the painkillers), never used formular for the babies, and don't have lysol, douches (what is so bad with your own body fluids anyway?), don't use antibiodics, rubber bread, artificial sweeteners, air freshners (bad for your lungs especially the ones that kill the germs) etc.

The family side who lives like us, doesn't have any health problems - the ones who think we are crazy do have health problems.
 
When buying bleach, be sure to look for "sodium hypochlorite" mixed with other inert ingredients. Some of the so-called new and improved bleaches contain lye among other things. You want only about 5% of your household bleach to be sodium hypochlorite. In higher concetrations, it becomes very toxic. I dilute mine anyway and only use it for toilets regularly, cutting boards and sinks occasionally.

I also started buying packs of automotive towels, which are large terry wash clothes. I can go through them at an amazing rate but I know I never wipe my kitchen down with a germy rag. Scrubber sponges get one use and go into the laundry.
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"
 
I am also using one of the European mops - you basically put a large rag over a brush and after mopping you put the rag in the washer. I don't use sponges more than once either - a lot of times I use unbleached paper towels for the cleaning.

I usually buy regular bleach, I haven't checked the strength yet but it's the kind you could sanitize drinking water with if you had to. I am buying a gallon of bleach maybe twice a year, so I don't think I am using too much.

Our school doesn't offer soap and water in the bathrooms (they do have sinks but they don't offer soap or paper towels to go with it) and all kids have to use products like Germ-X several times a day. I already picked a fight with a principal but to no avail - now I just make sure that my kids wash their hands with soap and water after they get back from school.
 
Regular bleach should be what you want. Ultra bleaches are the trouble makers although Safeway's Ultra is a good one. I shop there when I cant't get to the health food store of Trader Joe's. I use those same automotive rags for mopping and I use my washer and continuously change out the rags so a dirty mop never touches my floor. You would not believe how filthy the rags get nor how many times I have to change them out until they come up clean! I use vinegar to clean it. We put in all white tile and I have an onging battle with the floor! :) We have carpeting upstairs but I try not to think about that! We are planning on building a house in the not too distant future and I want wood floors in the bedrooms. The husband wants tile. Either is fine. I couldn't believe how filthy the carpeting was when we pulled it. I don't use any paper products (except toilet paper) just to minmize our impact on the environment. I try to be careful about the way things are packaged too. It's pretty sad how over-packaged everthing is. I could problably post my recycling habits in the hobby thread because it's a passion of mine! LOL!
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"
 
RE: cleaning with Black tea((alison))

I just found a bunch of recipes for different things such as this and I went to the vitamin shop and bought a bottle of castile soap- it's natural and you can use it for a lot- I'll get those recipes and post them in here soon for everyone. There was just a big article on this in the free mag you get at the vitamin shop since chemicals are so harmful.....i'm glad you all are interested- I love sharing the info
Michelle
 
RE: cleaning with Black tea (((katerchen)))

thanks for posting those links Katerchen!! they are very helpful!!!!
 
RE: cleaning with Black tea (recycling)

We lived in Germany before moving to California a while back. Germany (Europe as a whole) is recycling everything, too just like California, so it felt like home.

Then we moved to Mississippi and there they only took aluminum cans, no glas, newspapers, batteries. We felt guilty for a while and collected the batteries separately and took them down to the dump after a year. The guy there told us not to collect them and to just throw them in the regular household garbage.

Then we moved to South Carolina, they didn't take glass there either but they accepted batteries.

Now we are living in Alabama and they do take paper, plastics but they always return the glass and batteries.

It amazes me that the U.S. is one country but every state is so different.
 
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