Have you ever read the warnings on the back of cleaning products? How about the ingredients? It all sounds scary and, what’s worse, it’s bad for your health. But most people feel, as I do, that to thoroughly clean and sanitize the bathroom, toxic chemical cleaners were the way to go. However, as Washington contemplates stricter regulations on household cleaning products and more evidence points to a correlation between household cleaners and cancer-like foods, we must rethink cleaning to make it safe for us and environment.

I’ve seen a lot of dirty bathrooms and bathtubs. When I need to clean up hard water stains and soap buildup in the tub, I take my vinegar, borax, and baking soda. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and removes many water stains. For really tough water stains and dirt, I use a cocktail of a paste made from borax, baking soda, and vinegar. I recently cleaned a bathtub that hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned in about 6 months. The fixtures had hard water build-up and the bathtub, which had been restored several years earlier, was discolored from children’s toys rubbing against it.

I started by mixing about 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of vinegar in the base of the tub. Next, I took a regular scouring pad, moistened it with water and dipped it in the borax paste, baking soda, and vinegar and began to scrub. I repeated the process until the entire tub was covered with the cleaning cocktail. In some areas, like fixtures, I worked longer as they were water stained and had hard water build-up around them. Then I rinsed the tub with water. All of this took around 30 minutes and then the bathtub looked brand new, the fixtures were shiny chrome again, and best of all, no fumes! All of these products can be easily purchased at any local grocery store on Bakery Island.