When I first started my journey to being more eco-friendly, there were certain products I was convinced I’d never actually stop using. There are things you just don’t compromise, like the cleanliness of your home. But the more I read about commercial cleaners and the more I thought about the impact that my choices as a consumer have on my family’s health and the environment, I began to consider alternatives to things that I never thought I would. Like toilet bowl cleaner.
Store-bought cleaners in general have a lot of fillers and unnecessary and toxic chemicals, that are bad for the eco-system, therefore indirectly bad for your health. Take toilet bowl cleaner for example. Even if you’re not ingesting things like toilet bowl cleaner, or eating out of the toilet bowl, the cleaning agents you use are flushed down the pipes, and into the water. Once it goes into the waterways, it gets into the drinking water or is taken in by animals and plants that we then consume. Plus, every time you purchase store-bought cleaners instead of making your own, you are sending more plastic bottles that then get dumped into the landfill or to the recycling center. And let’s be honest–its better to reduce your consumption so that you don’t have to recycle at all.
Did I mention that making your own cleaners is cheaper as well as less toxic and less wasteful? Yup! A two-pack of toilet bowl cleaner is about $4.00. If you make your own, the initial cost is a bit more (roughly $27.00 in total for 5 lb pound bags of baking soda and citric acid), but you will be able to clean your toilets countless times over, since it only takes a teaspoon of cleaning powder for one toilet.
Here’s the how-to:
Here are the links for the citric acid and baking soda. I bought them off Amazon, as I couldn’t the amounts of them that I needed in my local stores.
I really love this recipe, as every other one required excessive steps like moulding them into balls. This one just requires me to throw stuff into a recycled jar with a teaspoon and sprinkle in the bowl when I’m ready to use it. Minimal prep, simple ingredients, inexpensive, non-toxic, long-lasting…. LOVE!
As always, I welcome questions or comments regarding the article. I’d love to know what you think of this recipe. Namaste!