Comments on: 5 Natural Ways to Clean and Sanitize Kitchen Surfaces

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:08:00 +0000

I use these great tea tree oil based cleaners from Melaleuca, and it’s super safe, you could drink it if you wanted!

By: Lalala

Lalala — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:39:00 +0000

I can prove that vinegar just DOES NOT work to clean bacteria on countertops. I helped my daughter with a science fair project on cleaning bacteria and discovered that after incubating vinegar on the bacteria for 24 hours at our local hospitals lab, we found the vinegar killed hardly any bacteria at all. It left behind 53 colonies. If you want to go green, try lemon juice. it killed almost all the bacteria only left 1 colony behind. We use it now because it’s effective and great for the environment. Smells good too. :)

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:02:00 +0000

Oh, I also learned that thyme has some disinfecting properties.

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Excellent article! Don’t forget that plain soap (without sodium lauryl sulfate, of course) and water is fine for most simple kitchen cleaning. Though it doesn’t kill germs as effectively, it lifts the microbes off of the surfaces, so that they can be washed away. I spray my sponge with the natural disinfectants and allow it to dry out completely, in order to keep it more sanitary. Wooden cutting boards hold microbes more, but I confess to loving my wooden cutting board (don’t like plastics) so I use it anyway and scrub it well. I don’t have meat much, either, but I always make sure to wash hands before/after handling and to clean surfaces well after handling it.

By: MaryLois

MaryLois — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:39:55 +0000

Great article. I use Shaklee Get Clean. It is safe, chemical free and “Green” great for our environment; best of all… It works!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:18:41 +0000

Ive read about how GSE isnt all that safe/natural? Im not sure what to think! I still imagine its much better than chemicals though! I loved the rest you listed, and use many of them already. Im so glad to be nearly chem free :) and working my way towards completely free!

By: shulie

shulie — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:14:51 +0000

Which of these can be used on granite counters? I used to use homemade vinegar solution with lemon, but recently read that the acid can damage granite. Thanks!

By: smilinggreenmom

smilinggreenmom — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:27:24 +0000

Love these suggestions! We use vinegar and baking soda but I am going to try some of these others now too since I was not always sure that it killed harmful kitchen germs! Going now to read your carpet cleaning recipe -we have been using water only since our son’s Eczema. He has been greatly helped by taking the totally natural Bellyboost probiotics but we are still very careful about what we use for all of our health!

By: sheri

sheri — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:17:02 +0000

I use vinegar but I think the GSE sounds great! I will definitely look for that. It will put my husbands mind at ease about the germs.

By: Summer

Summer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:05:48 +0000

I thought I knew all of the natural cleaners, but I did not know about Grapefruit seed extract! Thanks for sharing it!

By: Melynda

Melynda — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:43 +0000

Great post. We try to go as natural as possible with the cleaning at our house. There are a couple on here that I hadn’t heard of. I’m going to try the grapefruit extract. Doe it smell like grapefruit? I LOVE citrusy-smelling things!

By: Jackie @ Lilolu

Jackie @ Lilolu — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:08:10 +0000

We use Four Thieves all the time but never for cleaning. We use a lot of homemade cleaners but a couple you suggested are new to us. Thanks for sharing.