The Naturally Clean Home: 150 Super-Easy Herbal Formulas for Green Cleaning [Paperback]

Karyn Siegel-Maier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2008

You don't need to pay a fortune for expensive "green" commercial cleaning products. It's easy and inexpensive to mix up effective, nontoxic alternatives using basic kitchen staples — baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, herbs, and borax — plus a handful of easy-to-find essential oils. Karyn Siegel-Maier offers 150 all-natural recipes for cleaning everything in your home — from bathrooms to bedding, carpets to cabinetry. The formulas are so simple that anyone can make them, but they are at least as effective as the commercial options. Try making your own Rosemary-Geranium Floor Wipes for electrostatic floor mops, Weekend Warrior Wicker Wash, Telephone Dirty Talk Tamer, Clear the Air Room Spritzer, or Lavender Lift Automatic Dishwasher Soap.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Save money...Save your health...Save the planet...With natural cleaning power!

Did you know that the air in your home might have chemical contamination levels 70 times greater than outdoor air? And the culprits are lurking right under your kitchen sink. It's time to clean up your act!

Learn how easy it is to make your own safe, nontoxic, effective alternatives to commercial cleaning products by combining the antibacterial and antiseptic properties of herbs and essential oils with other natural ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, borax, and lemon juice. The Naturally Clean Home includes tips and formulas for freshening every room in the house:

--Wash the dishes with eucalyptus

--Restore the rug with rosemary

--Soften fabrics with lemon

--Clean the oven with orange

--Scrub the sink with lavender

--Polish wood with raspberry leaves

--Flush the toilet clean with tea tree oil

--Wax the car with beeswax

About the Author

Karyn Siegel-Maier is a health writer, the mother of three, and the author of The Naturally Clean Home. She contributes articles about herbal health and alternative medicine to magazines including Natural Living Today and Mother Earth News.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; Original edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603420851
• ISBN-13: 978-1603420853
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Allergies
  • #9 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Home Improvement & Design > How-to & Home Improvements > Green Housecleaning
  • #16 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Home Improvement & Design > How-to & Home Improvements > Cleaning, Caretaking & Relocating

More About the Author

Karyn Siegel-Maier is a freelance writer specializing in herbs, alternative medicine, and health. She has written for many magazines, including Let's Live, Natural Living Today, Real Woman, Mother Earth News, Delicious!, and Better Nutrition. Visit her at www.herbmusings.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Some of these work great, some not so much.. November 11, 2011

By SuriKatta

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this book in order to make my own natural cleaners rather than buying the commercial ones at the healthfood stores in order to save money. Initially you'll have to spend some money on buying essential oils(these cost the most) and so forth.
I have tried several of the recipes. The Tough Dirt & Grease floor cleaner works great. I've also tried a couple of the different copper cleaners on my Revereware pots and both worked great.
The castille based dish soap, I'm not too crazy about for several reasons, 1. the water turns white 2. it doesn't suds up much and 3. if you don't towel dry your glasses they look cloudy. I used Desert Essence castile soap with tea tree oil the first time and the second time I use Dr Bronners and both had the same results. My hands don't dry out but that didn't really balance out having to towel dry every dish. So I guess I'll be using BioKleens' dish soap again.
The overnight toilet bowl cleaner was just the same as adding plain borax, letting it sit for an hour or overnight and scrubing with a brush it just smelled nicer due to the essential oils.
Basically it came down to this: borax, washing soda, baking soda, white vinegar and castile soap, which all of us green cleaners keep on hand this book just tells you what essential oils to add to the mixture.
The author also has a section about drying your own herbs to make scouring powders and such. Baking soda is a fairly good scouring powder on it's own.
It does have very handy tips on how to clean everything in your house except for leather furniture.
You can find almost all of these recipes online on different green sites, but it is nice to have handy in a little book that tucks nicely away in the cleaning cabinet.
The index is rather confusing, if you are looking for say scouring powder it won't be listed under scouring powders, you would have to look under bathroom cleaners for them.
Overall the book is okay, but I guess I was hoping for more than just adding essential oils to everything.

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book! July 7, 2009

By T. Smith

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book contains recipes for any cleaning product a person could ever want to use around their home, including carpet shampoo, laundry soap, garden and pest control (even deer), potpourri and sachets, tarnish remover, wood cleaners and polishes, computers and office equipment, oven cleaner, BBQ grills, wicker, cars, exterior siding (including stone and brick), and garden tools! And all of the ingredients are completely nontoxic. Not only that, it teaches you HOW to do the jobs and properly care for your home and items you own. It is an excellent all-around instruction book for green housekeeping in every sense.

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!!! August 25, 2009

By Jessica L. Sroka

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this book. Super helpful without being over the top. Easy to find ingredients and the cleaners really work!! Every recipe that I've followed in this book has worked better than anything I find in the store, and they're a ton cheaper too. I would highly recommened this book to anyone who wants to save money and not give up quality cleaning products.