3 Surprisingly Great Natural Cleaners for Your Kitchen | Healthy Kitchen Hacks

Easy ways to clean your kitchen with natural ingredients you probably have on hand - and yes, they really do work!

It’s Healthy Kitchen Hacks Wednesday – the day we share our favorite time-saving kitchen tricks and cooking shortcuts to help you make healthy and delicious meals.

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Now…onto today’s featured Healthy Kitchen Hack:

3 Surprisingly Great Natural Cleaners for Your Kitchen

It's spring cleaning time. But these cleaners can be used year-round. In fact, these three are the only cleaning products I use in my kitchen (with the exception dish soap and dishwasher detergent.) Using natural cleaners over anti-bacterial cleaners can actually improve your gut health. 'A little dirt won't hurt' and here's why: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Gut Health Right Now

Here are my favorite cleaners in the kitchen:

1. Lemons

Use lemons to:

• Neutralize cooking odors - Cut 1-2 lemons in half. Place in a saucepan and just barely cover with water; boil for several minutes. The steam will help neutralize the odor from cooking onions, fish or curries.
• Freshen the garbage disposal - Never toss a lemon, lime or orange. Compost it. Or toss the juiced citrus (or citrus peels) down the disposal to freshen.
• Shine surfaces - Lemon juice in a spray bottle can be spritzed on stainless steel appliances and wiped with a clean (no-lint) towel.

2. Vinegar

White distilled vinegar is amazing to:

• Erase stains - For coffee or tea stained cups, fill a cup with vinegar to the stain line, let set for 30-60 minutes. Then pour the vinegar from the now stain-free coffee cup to the next stained cup. You can re-use that same vinegar for at least a dozen cups!
• Freshen the dishwasher - The dishwasher repair man told me to pour 1 cup vinegar into the bottom of my dishwasher and run (without detergent) on LIGHT or NORMAL cycle about every 2 weeks. This helps remove mineral and 'gunk' build-up.
• Neutralize odors in appliances - Every few uses, I rub down my coffeemaker with a vinegar soaked rag. It only takes a minute to remove nasty 'old coffee' smell from the nooks and crannies.
• Clean floors and countertops - The contractor who uncovered our wood floors from beneath seven layers of linoleum (not kidding!) said the best wood floor cleaner is vinegar + water. I use about 1-2 cups of vinegar in 1 gallon of hot water in my mop bucket. It cleans right through sticky stuff on floors.  [bctt tweet="Spring clean! 3 Surprisingly Great Natural Cleaners for Your Kitchen #HealthyKitchenHacks via @TspCurry" via="no"]

3. Baking soda

• Clean counters - To clean stained counter tops, mix a solution of 2 tablespoons baking soda + 1 tablespoons water and spread on stains. Let set for an hour and wipe off.
• Multi-purpose cleaner - Uses the same paste-solution of baking soda + water to scrub off 'gunk' around kitchen faucets, stove knobs, in microwaves and lots of other nooks and crannies in the kitchen. A little thinner paste works to get spatters off cupboard doors.
• Shine cooked-on, scorched pots - Sometimes, you don't even need to scrub; sprinkle a good coating of baking soda on caked-on messes in pots. Add water to cover and bring to a simmer for a few minutes. The goop should 'cook' off when rinsed (or scrubbed off). If it doesn't work the first time, just repeat these steps until clean.

Do you ever use natural cleaners? What's your favorite cleaner - or use for it?