Thursday, February 14, 2008

Project Green Clean Mosque Recipes



Here are the three main recipes you'll need to know to start your Green Clean Mosque Project:

1. Carpet Deodorizer:

Ingredients: Baking Soda, essential oil (I like to use lemon scent), a plastic shaker, and a vacuum cleaner or a good old-fashioned carpet sweeper.

Fill half a shaker with baking soda, add 15 drops of an essential oil, fill it to the top with some more baking soda, mix it up and you're ready to go.

Sprinkle the scented baking soda on any area of the carpet that needs deodorizing( sprinkle very lightly, and make sure the rug is completely dry before sprinkling. You don't want a paste on your carpet. I did that before, and boy did it take me a long time to get the paste off!).
Let sit for a couple of hours or overnight. Then vacuum clean. Finish up with scented Vinegar rinse( it'll take care of any powder residue). Then put some old towels down and stomp on them to soak it up. The carpet will smell fresh and clean.

2. Scented Vinegar Rinse:

Ingredients: White Vinegar. Water( if you have hard water use distilled water). An essential oil( Lemon, mint or lavender are good choices). hard plastic 30 oz spray bottle( I like to use the kind with the recycled plastic, its more durable), and a funnel.

Fill half of the spray bottle with water, the other half with vinegar, then add 30 drops of essential oil( add more if it smells too vinegary) shake well and you're all set.

This rinse is an all purpose cleaner, it can work as a rinse after you use soap or baking soda, or it can work alone to clean any surface( tiles, mirrors, floors, walls, toilet bowl, carpets..etc). I sometimes add a drop of tea tree oil to the vinegar rinse for its disinfecting qualities.

3. Soapy all purpose cleaner:

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons castile soap, or Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds. Water( use distilled if you have hard water). A 30 oz spray bottle( use hard plastic bottles they're more durable). An essential oil of your choice. You don't need to use the oil scent if you're using Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds. It already comes with a pine scent.

Fill spray bottle with water. Add 2 tbsp castile soap. Add 15 drops essential oil( or skip this step if you don't want a scented cleaner. Mix. ( Another all purpose cleaner, use it on floors, bathrooms, kitchen counters, you can even squirt a couple of squirts on hand washing delicates.) finish up with Vinegar rinse to avoid soapy sticky surfaces.
To clean a carpet you'll need to add 2 tbsp to a warm bucket of water, make a lather and spread the lather on the carpet, wipe with a mop, then rinse with vinegar rinse. Dry the carpet with towels.

These recipes are copied from Clean house clean planet by Karen Logan. I use all these homemade products for cleaning and I am very pleased with the results.

You'll need to buy a lot of the ingredients in bulk in the beginning. It can get pricey at first.( don't get discouraged). You'll use so little portions that the ingredients will last you forever. It actually costs less than your store bought products. You can buy only one essentail oil scent at first ( since these are the most expensive). Then work your collection through time. It won't feel too heavy on your pocket that way.
You can use the money used for the store bought products, to buy the natural alternatives. That's what We agreed on in the mosque I go to.

Caution: Never re-use empty bottles from old chemical products. The stuff will react with the ingredients and release toxic fumes.

Ok people Update me as soon as you start.

2 comments:

Sanjana said...

asalaamu alaykum ms. muslim hippie,

wow, i'm impressed - this is great start masha'ALlah!

the issue of "green" cleaners also came up in the discussions at one of the masjids here in northern virginia, that is trying to go green. apparently, a lot people got sick during ramadan because of the harsh cleaners being used daily.

tawfiq with your efforts insha'Allah. please keep us in the loop - my email sanjana.ahmad@gmail.com :)

Taliba said...

Salams Habibti,

Masha'Allah, you are really born to do this :) Your posts are so witty and entertaining, not to mention that they actually make me want to get up and get scrubbing with those lovely essential oils!

Just a small question: isn't baking soda with a few drops of essential soda too thick to spray? Should I add water or just poor it onto the surface I want to clean?

Keep up the mubarak work!

Rahma:)