Natural Solutions

There are tons of “green” bathroom cleaners on the market, but most of the time it’s cheaper and just as effective to make your own. Armed with a few simple non-toxic and biodegradable ingredients, you can keep your bathroom fresh and sparkling. If you’ve got a little extra time today, grab this shopping list, head to the store and make a few batches of healthy cleaners to keep your bathroom (or any room) healthy!

Is your bathroom guest-ready?

Over time spot cleaning just doesn’t do it. You turn around one day, and your carpets are a shade darker than when you had them installed. Or, you do a great job spot cleaning only to reveal how dirty the rest of the carpeting really is. Here’s a way to give your carpets a deep clean using a few household ingredients, a vacuum, and a steam cleaner. Ingredients: Salt, borax, and white vinegar.

Many of us have banished chlorine bleach from our homes, as it can irritate the skin, eyes, and lungs, poison fish and insects, and release carcinogenic dioxins during production. Fortunately, there are still plenty of ways keep white linens, socks, and other fabrics sparkling, and you probably already have the necessary ingredients around the house. Ready to get started? Here are some bleach-free ways to get your whites whiter!

You spend about one-third of your life in bed, so it's an important place to invest in clean, healthy, and beautiful products!

Even in the areas that routinely get the natural treatment, there's a time and a place for the big guns.

Is there anything you can't handle with vinegar?

Whether you have a mint plant growing on your windowsill or a bottle of mint essential oil that you’re not sure what to do with, there are several household uses for the herb. Below, six household uses for mint you may not have thought of before.While you’re at it, also be sure to check out our guides on how to grow herbs indoors, what the best indoor herb growing kits are, and the 10 easiest herbs to grow.

Here are some tried-and-true ways to cool off with no AC at home.

I've been using a cleaner on my outdoor furniture that does the trick perfectly. It includes two common but powerful things you already have at home.

When it comes to important values like protecting the earth and safeguarding your family's health, greenwashing makes things murky.

We hate to hear it, but it’s the truth: Plastic wrap is bad for the environment. So for a more sustainable kitchen, we’ve been switching to reusable alternatives. Don’t know where to start when it comes to replacing your disposable plastic wrap? Then check out the ideas below.For smaller items, repurposed glass jars work perfectly. They have the see-through nature of plastic wrap and can be popped in the dishwasher after being used.

Combining soda and vinegar won’t hurt anyone — but don’t expect the mixture to do a good job cleaning, either.

Something everyone should have at home!

When you’re sitting at home, wrapped under 40 blankets in efforts to keep the electric bill down, knowing the difference between types of heaters is probably the least of your concerns. But rather than resorting to wearing your puffer coat indoors, understanding what space heater is best will allow you to pick the best one for your situation and may even cut back on your monthly expenses.

Whether you want to swap out stronger, potentially hazardous chemicals for gentle-yet-effective pantry ingredients or you’re just frustrated that your go-to products haven’t been in stock due to the pandemic, consider making your own, homemade cleaners.

It can handle tough jobs all on its own, but combined with other ingredients from your pantry, it can be even more powerful.

Hint: This hack will help brighten up your whole home!

If you’re not using this humble solution to its full potential already, here’s what you need to know.

There’s nothing like a swarm of mosquitoes or army of ants to ruin your time outdoors. Even though bugs are often useful, they can put a damper on picnics, BBQs, and simply chilling outside, and leave you with some nasty bites and stings. Thankfully it’s fairly simple to find ways to keep bugs away.

The humble pantry staple is key to preventing and removing stubborn fingerprints, smudges, and other frustrating marks.

There's definitely a time and a place for simple solutions that make cleaning easier—but this isn't one of them.

How a $2 household staple helped me tackle hard water stains that nothing else would eradicate.

A laundry hack sweeping social media helped me save an entire load of laundry from indigo dye stains.

I've found that it works the very best when I spray the solution on a cloth rather than spraying it on the glass itself.

By the time you grab a fresh bottle, it will probably be time to take care of an important kitchen chore you’ve been neglecting.

An entire gallon of the stuff can clean your entire house for months—and only set you back about 3 bucks.

Everyone has a few home and cleaning tips they’ve been taught that, to be honest, may or may not even work—whether that’s using newspaper to clean glass, rubbing strongly-scented dryer sheets on clothes to keep bugs away, or polishing shoes with banana peels. One laundry hack that often gets tossed around is putting tennis balls in a dryer to soften your clothes and dry them faster.

Picture this: Inspired by the window-cleaning marathon you completed while getting a jump start on spring cleaning, you’re cleaning all the glass in your house. You’ve done all the doors, the glass that protects every photo that’s hung on the wall or displayed on a bookshelf, and the mirrored tray on your oversized tufted ottoman. In your zeal, you’ve finished a spray bottle of glass cleaner.

Ants tend to pop up in the spring and can linger through summer, foraging through your kitchen for food.

This fermented wonder is useful all over the place—just check out the following cleaning methods that incorporate apple cider vinegar.

Remember that time you said you were going to double down on being less wasteful at home? Good news: It doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking, as long as you’re willing to add a few quick and easy skills to your repertoire. Being more self-sufficient at home starts with relying less on outside services and wasteful resources. It’s the type of change that happens when you commit to a lot of small tasks in order to make a greater holistic impact on your home life.

Dead skin cells, soap scum, random food scraps, human hair, pet hair, and just regular ol’ dirt—these are all the things you regularly wash down your sink or tub’s drain. And if they sound gross now, image how much worse they are once they’ve congealed into a stringy, slimy ball of gunk inside your pipes. Yuck! You want to prevent any of this gunk buildup before it becomes a real problem—especially in homes with older pipes or large families.

I live in a one bedroom “garden” apartment, which means that I get to have my own front door, porch, and small strip of flower bed. The only downside? The flower bed is under the porch roof, which means it’s constantly damp and shady, and also an ideal mosquito habitat. So this year, after frantically trying to squash a few rogue mosquitoes that snuck indoors while I was carrying in groceries, I’ve decided to get myself some mosquito-repelling plants.

Essential oils are natural mood boosters you can use in a variety of ways at home. Choose your favorite scent combinations, and bring a little aromatherapy to your daily routine with these nine projects. You’ll feel better for it. Important note: Do NOT handle essential oils with your bare hands. Essential oils are concentrated and can cause skin irritation if not diluted in a carrier oil or diffused across a material. If you do get some on you, do not wash with water.

Let's talk about what humidity levels you should keep in your home year round, and different techniques to do so.

Unlike grout cleaning and emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming is a household chore that I never mind doing. I love seeing all the dirt in the canister and knowing that I got all that out of our living space, and I love the immediate sense of satisfaction from looking at a newly-vacuumed rug. Vacuuming, to me, is a chore with one of the most visible results. Recently, I kicked my vacuuming routine up a notch, just once a week, and now I enjoy it even more.

We’re eager for that moment to throw our windows open to fresh spring breezes — and it seems that the things outside our homes are awaiting the opportunity, too (but for different motives). If it’s not the pollen blowing inside, it’s the bugs that somehow make it through the tiniest nooks and crannies you don’t see (even if you have screens).

I love inexpensive, simple DIY household cleaners with one giant caveat: they have to work. One of my very favorite homemade cleaners is Alvin Corn. I’ve mixed one up for every bathroom in the house and one for common areas and it’s one cleaning solution I’ll never replace. Alvin Corn is a homemade glass cleaner that actually works — and works so very well. I first found out about it years ago on Crunchy Betty when she tested several homemade glass cleaners.

We are always looking for more eco-friendly ways to shop for our homes. In addition to being better for the environment, it’s also a money-saver. That said, it can often mean spending more money up front for savings down the line, even if it’s small (like our new favorite $6 solution to paper towels). So when we do see deals on green products, we get excited. Ahead, three buys that are better for the environment – and currently better for your wall – on Amazon.

Between beanies, coat hoods, and dry, winter air, my hair always ends up looking like the Cousin It version of itself by New Year’s Eve. As a curly girl, I was getting sick of forking over $20+ for hair treatments and trying DIY hair masks that left a funky smell (I’m looking at you, mayonnaise mask). So this year I started looking into other options and kept reading about how great aloe is for your hair.

I like to reduce the chemicals in our household, not only because I don’t want them accessible to my young children, but also because I try to reduce our chemical exposure in general. That’s why I mix my own Alvin Corn glass cleaner (“alcohol, vinegar, cornstarch” — awesome stuff), and use baking soda to scrub my sinks.

In the quest to create the most eco-friendly paint and most innovative, LEED-platinum buildings on the planet, one Spanish company is throwing it back with one of the oldest building materials known to man: lime.

While the underlying causes of headaches can be pretty widespread (dehydration, lack of sleep and magnesium deficiency are just a few of the many options), it’s nice to have a remedy or two tucked away in your back pocket for times of need. And a natural remedy you can find in your own home? Even better. Here are seven options to help you cope the next time you find yourself dealing with a pounding head.

While natural beauty guru Rachel Winard (of the cult-favorite brand Soapwalla) and I were talking about good, easy facials to make with food that might currently be in your kitchen, I also asked her for pointers on how to start an essential oil collection. Essentially: What are the essential essential oils? She suggested these five (for which you could come up with your own mnemonic, too — my first attempt is “let little ponies eat … tea trees.

Sorry Costco, but I don't buy Saran Wrap in bulk anymore.

A cautionary tale. Or, I brushed my teeth with a stick.

In an effort to green their clean routines, some Apartment Therapy staffers are taking on small shifts at home, replacing their usual products and tools with more eco-friendly versions. Anyone who watches Shark Tank knows about Bambooee towels. In fact, while I had our roll sitting on the counter waiting to take this challenge on, my husband couldn’t resist shouting “BAMBOOEE!” (in co-founder Noam Krasniansky’s contagious accent) every time he walked into our kitchen.

A sporadic column looking into the goings-on at America’s favorite hippie soap company. Have you ever spaced out in the shower marveling at the label on the Dr. Bronner’s bottle? Or tried all 18 suggested uses for their castile soap (or two or three or four of them)? Or peeked into Dr.

Welcome to another installment of Beauty Bucket List, a series in which we roll up our sleeves to do some hard and fast testing of cult classic beauty products, because just hearing about how great something is just isn’t good enough.

If your home goal for 2017 is to go green(er), here are 10 remarkably easy changes that require the most minimal amount of effort. Switches as simple as changing a lightbulb (seriously) or buying a dish towel don’t call for much work on your part, but together they’ll add up to a total eco-friendly home makeover. When buying new wood furniture, look for certified sustainably harvested options.

There’s no question, many people are beginning to rethink their consumption, and have been transitioning to more natural ingredients when it comes to food, skincare, and even medicine. If you’ve ever been curious about some of the positive not-so-known properties of some of these common natural items, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a little 101 to get you started on your path to a more natural and holistic lifestyle in the new year.

If your home is feeling a bit stale, here’s a way to freshen it up and move forward with positive intentions. Burning herbs and flowers is a customizable twist on the incense you might remember from college. Choose your favorite blend of organic materials—based on their individual scents and properties—and create your own unique aromatherapy.

With the new year upon us, there’s no better time to start thinking more intentionally. The simple act of just thinking about what matters to you around your home is a step in the right direction. Whether it’s fostering a positive experience in your life, or just changing something that bothers you (like that pile of shoes in the entryway), there are plenty of small tweaks to make around the home to live a more intentional life.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that we all need to brush our teeth. What you use to carry out the chore is up to you, but if you’re looking for some natural toothpaste alternatives with minimal chemicals (more on that later), we rounded up 7 willing mouths at Apartment Therapy HQ to test out 9 top-rated natural pastes. Did they stand a chance against the raw garlic test? Read on to find out!

When you think of essential oils, you probably think about aromatherapy. Sure, they smell amazing, but essential oils can also come in quite handy when it comes to cleaning your home. From degreasing your stove to de-germing your kids’ stuffed animals, here are 7 ways you can clean your home with essential oils—their uses might surprise you! Lavender does more than just smell and look lovely—the purple plant has natural antibacterial properties, too.

Here's how to get a pesky pest problem under control the natural way, without using toxic repellents and insecticides.

Could the right supplements help keep your skin safe all summer long? While it’s absolutely essential to use a quality sunscreen to prevent burns, these seven foods and supplements just may bolster your efforts and increase your skin’s tolerance to those red-inducing rays. Sign me—and my skin’s borderline superhero ability to burn in ten minutes—up. Wait, isn’t this the whole reason you’re out in the sun in the first place?

There are a lot of things to love about summertime—vacations, movies, warm weather and that DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince song, chief among them. But we all know how those other summer staples—sweat, stink and sunburns—are the enemy of a good time. You don’t need to stay cooped up inside all summer long to battle the elements, you just need a handful of cheap beauty and cleaning hacks in your arsenal (and in your purse). Do you have any summer survival tips?

It’s a given that every time we write about plants at home, at least one person mentions toxicity and pets —which foliage is safe to ingest, which isn’t, and how to get a cat to stop eating their favorites. Turns out there is a DIY solution to keep them away from each other, effectively ending the the war of loyalty between your two loves. Molly of Almost Makes Perfect came up with a liquid solution to spray onto your plants.