Clean Green

One of my biggest OCD needs is to have a good cleaner! I have to have a good-smelling, great-cleaning, well-working cleaner on hand daily! I love to clean!! I love the way the counters look when they are clean and shiny. I hate the way TVs and glass doors look covered in fingerprints! If we are watching a movie or a TV program at night and I can see finger/hand prints on the screen, I will get up, grab the bottle of cleaner and a paper towel and clean the TV during the show! I just have to get it clean!!!!
So this was a big thing for me when I decided to go Green.
Would I buy those outrageously expensive "green" household cleaners?
Would I clean the whole house with vinegar? and somehow get over the smell?
Would I just go on cleaning with my regular chemical-based cleaners and turn my head when I clean?
And then I read a recipe on a web site . . . . for cleaning products!
WOW! I can do that?
After a lot of research and a lot of back-and-forth questions to friends who Green-Clean, I found that Homemade All-Natural Cleaners work well, are inexpensive, are safe for your family and pets (yay Wennie!) and can smell as nice as you'd like them to! I'm in heaven right now!!
The main ingredient I had trouble with was Essential Oils - because they have to be pure. And you cannot find them in Wally World!
Please! Why can't everything in the world just be found there?!? LOL
But I found a great web site that had them for very cheap and for the first time in years, I bought something online. I got 3 bottles of EOs for less than $20, including shipping! And to make me really smile, they send a free gift as well! WOOHOO!! A friend online even tells me they always send a free gift! Loving this!!
The EOs are what makes the cleaners smell good, but they also have antibacterial and antiviral  properties, depending on which ones you buy. Another great thing about this company is that they mailed my order out so fast! I think I ordered on Tuesday evening - after 5 - and the oils came in Friday morning's mail! Now that's fast work.
By Friday afternoon, I was mixing my first batch of Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner! I was so happy with that very first spray! And it smelled. So. Good. **deep sigh of pure happiness**
OK, here is the first recipe I used:

All-Purpose Cleaner

• 2 teaspoons Borax
• 1/2 cup Vinegar
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 30 drops Essential Oil (15 Lavender, 15 Lemon) 

Boil water. Pour into glass measuring bowl.
Mix in Borax.
Mix in Vinegar.
Let Cool.
Pour into spray bottle.
Add oils.
Shake well before each use to mix ingredients.

**I played around with the oils a little here and there, but this is what was best for me, i.e. when I could smell the oils better than the vinegar :-)
**I bought a pack of cloth rags to clean with - the kind you find in the automotive section of Walmart and the Dollar Store. They are lint-free, soft as a cloud, and come in pretty colors! Perfect for this type of cleaning.

From the first time I used this I was happy! It smells so good! It smells clean and fresh and when you know it's safe and Green, it's just that much better! It gives me a fantastic feeling every time I use it! I find excuses to use it during the day! LOL I just love it so much!!
I'll post more recipes later, so be on the look-out! I made more cleaners today and want to try them out good before I post them here, but you'll know when I give them my stamp of approval!