By Lisa Van Orman Hadley

What’s better than non-toxic cleaners that are gentle on the earth? Homemade cleaners that are gentle on your wallet so you can save your pennies for more exciting things.

You’ll only need five ingredients for these recipes and you probably have most of them in your kitchen already: baking soda, Castile or other liquid soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s), lemon, white vinegar and oil. If you want to make them smell nice, try adding essential oils to these concoctions. Lavendar, eucalyptus and tea tree are particularly good choices not only because of their fragrance, but because they are natural disinfectants and antifungals.

Natural All-Purpose Scrub:

1/2 c. baking soda
Plant-based liquid soap
1/2 of a lemon

Directions: Pour baking soda into a bowl. Add just enough liquid saop to make a creamy paste. Spread mixtrue on the flat side of lemon and scrub. The lemon acts as a sponge and leaves a natural citrus scent. Use a damp rag or sponge to wipe away excess residue. The paste will stay moist for a few hours.

Furniture Polish:

1/4 c. distilled white vinegar
A few drops olive oil

Directions: Pour vinegar and olive oil into spray bottle and shake. Spray onto furniture and wipe clean.

Window Cleaner:

1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 cups water

Directions: Pour all ingredients into a spray bottle and shake. Spray onto window and wipe clean.

Floor Cleaner:

1/8 cup liquid soap
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1 gallon water
10 drops essential oil (scent of your choice)

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a bucket and mop as usual. For ceramic and stone floors, eliminate soap (which leaves a film) and use 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1 gallon of water. Don’t use water on unsealed wood floors. Instead, combine 2 cups of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of olive or jojoba oil in a bucket. Spread a thin coat over the floor with a mop or soft cloth. Let it soak in for 20 minutes; dry mop to absorb excess liquid. Open windows to air out the vinegar smell.

Mold & Mildew Spray:

2 cups distilled white vinegar

Directions: Pour vinegar into a spray bottle and spray on infected area. The smell will dissipate in a few hours (open a window to speed up the process). For areas with persistent mold problems, use tea tree oil instead of vinegar, combining 2 drops of tea tree oil with 1 cup of water in a spray bottle.

Recipes from marthastewart.com

The expected sunshine this weekend might have you ready to pull out your picnic blanket or flip flops, but we recommend you stay inside and reach for your less-exciting Eureka. Throw open the windows, shake out your rugs—embrace your inner rubber-glove god/goddess to rid your place of all its winter skeletons (or spiderwebs).

Crank up the iPod, tie up your hair, and with your dust mop at your side, prepare to wage war on winter dust with any or all of these usually-skipped-over tasks:

• Dust/vacuum your baseboards, heating vents, windows sills and bookshelves.
• Get serious about cleaning out your piles of saved magazines and newspapers. Make an inspiration folder for ideas and looks you plan on getting around to, and a keepsake folder for snippets of things you can’t throw out. Then toss your winter stack in the recycling bin.
• Polish your drawer pulls and doorhandles—a quick and easily-overlooked spreader of germs. Make them twinkle. You should also wipe down your light switches and spot-clean your walls.
• Remove each trinket from its proper place and dust everything: shelves, coffee tables, nightstands, mantles, and don’t forget your light fixtures.
• Clean out your closet—know when enough is enough. Donate older items to the Deseret Industries, and put other still-kinda-cute pieces on eBay, or tote them to a new-for-someone-else store like Name Droppers (2350 E. Parleys Way) to see if you can’t rake in a little extra dough for spring shopping.
• Put new sheets on the bed; wash your linens. Pull off your blankets, mattress pads and pillows and run them through the dryer on the “air fluff” cycle. You can also do this with your curtains or drapes.
• Windex everything: all glass surfaces including interior windows and mirrors.
• Clean out the fridge; get rid of all those un-used jars of scary-looking syrups.
• Vacuum, and of course, mop. And then give your sink a good, hard cleaning.
• Replace your furnace filters.

Here are some of our favorite cleaning products for the day-to-day and seasonal scrub-down–the kind that might have even the crankiest cleaner whistling while he/she works:

Lemon oil: The typical furniture-polisher is also great for cleaning tiled bathroom showers and bathroom fixtures.

Method’s Tub and Tile Spray: A tough everyday cleaner with a fresh eucalyptus scent you won’t have to worry about washing off your skin.

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes: Great for occasional bathroom and toilet wipe-ups.

Clorox Clean-Up Spray: Deep down cleaner is the ultimate germ-killer; it is the smell of super clean.

Greased Lightning: Use this for de-greasing appliances, stoves and countertops. We prefer the “Lemon Blast” scent.

Bar Keepers Friend: Especially great for porcelain and stainless steel sinks as well as cast-iron cookware, this product scrubs without scratching unlike powder-form cleansers. Williams Sonoma Kitchen Scrub is also a good option.

Mr. Clean Magic Reach: Great for a day-to-day wipe up, this little guy gets behind awkward and hard-to-reach areas. Though Mr. Clean provides his own wipes, a Clorox wipe will usually do the job, too.

Sprayway Class Cleaner: A truly streak-free cleaner; its foamier consistency makes it easy to see where you’ve scrubbed and what spots you might have missed.

Now, tell us, what are some of your favorite tricks and cleaning products?