I am allergic to just about every chemical out there that promises to sterilize surfaces. I also find that they do NOT in fact sterilize surfaces, they just kill the friendlies and leave the resistant nasties to grow. So if you are frantically bleaching every surface in your home in a fevered effort to keep things clean, you’ve defeated yourself.
There is, in fact, no such thing as truly sterile except at very high heat and only while objects STAY at very high heat. Once they cool off, germs inevitably collect again.
The most important thing about cleaning is to simply remove the stuff in which microbes grow. The yucky visible stuff. Water, then, is our most important cleaning substance!
Some things just come OFF a bit better with a cleaner. And a good cleaner can help reduce grease, dry more evenly on smooth surfaces (like glass), and leave a pleasant smell behind.
What if the cleaner also left behind a nice complement of friendly microbes? Even better than a sterile kitchen or bathroom – one that naturally fights harmful microbial lifeforms.
The natural solution then, is a Probiotic Cleaner, hop over to this site and learn its effects on home cleaning. A quick web search shows that this is not at all a new idea. Many companies produce cleaners into which they have dumped a concentration of specific bacterial strains. They usually suspend them in substances in which they cannot possibly survive for very long, and then package them entirely in plastic, which helps kill the good ones and fosters a few nasties.
Not really an effective Probiotic Cleaner!
A fermented cleaner is entirely different, and has some particularly wonderful benefits.
- Completely non-toxic. If your kid drinks the stuff, it would not be any worse than having him drink some vinegar water. Made from food ingredients, the cleaner is simply safe!
- Very earth friendly. Nothing in it that cannot be dumped on the garden, into the compost pile, or even into animal feed dishes.
- Easy to make. Just takes some time to ferment.
- Inexpensive to make. Simple ingredients that you can purchase almost anywhere.
- Creates a general all-purpose cleaner. Use for counters, windows, floors, and any surface that you’d normally disinfect.
Convinced? Or just want to try it?
The Recipe
Fermented Pro-biotic Cleaner
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup RAW apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 an orange
- non-chlorinated water that has NOT been sitting for weeks in a plastic container (plastics in contact with water do leach chlorides into the water, which inhibit some types of microbial growth). Freshly filtered water, or well water is best.
- 1/2 gallon mason jar
- Fermenta Lock or Fermenta Free airlock lid
- Fermenta Cap cloth cover or other cloth cover for the jar
- Blender or Food Processor
Cut the orange into small pieces, and toss it into a blender or food processor, along with the lemon juice and vinegar. Blend until the orange is finely chopped.
Pour out into the mason jar, and fill to the 6 cup mark with non-chlorinated water.
Put the Airlock lid on the jar.
Let sit for 2 weeks. You will first smell a pleasant orange smell on the airlock, and then an alcoholic orange smell. This is normal, and how it should be.
Remove the airlock lid, and strain the liquid. Squeeze out the solids completely.
Return the liquid to the mason jar. Add more non-chlorinated water, just to return it to the 6 cup mark.
Place the Cloth Cap on the jar.
Let sit for 4-8 weeks, or until all of the alcoholic smell is gone, and the smell is more orange vinegar.
Replace the Cloth Cap at that point with a storage lid, and your cleaner is ready to use.
To use, dilute with a ratio of 1 part cleaner to 3 parts water for spray cleaner. Dilute at a 1:10 ratio for other cleaning tasks.
For cleaning that involves a significant amount of grease, add a few drops of dish detergent to cut the grease. Not advised to do this otherwise, as it will interfere with the probiotics.
Now you can clean your way to a truly healthy home.