Have you ever read the warnings on the back of cleaning products? What about the ingredients? It all sounds scary and, even 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 are the way to go. However, as Washington contemplates tougher regulations on household cleaning products and more evidence points to a correlation between household cleaning products and foods like cancer, we need to rethink cleaning to make it safe for us and the environment.

I have seen many dirty toilets and bathtubs. When I need to clean tough water spots and soap buildup from the bathtub, I reach for my vinegar, borax, and baking soda. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and will remove many water spots. For really tough water spots 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 deep cleaned in about 6 months. The fixtures had hard water buildup and the tub, which had been refinished several years earlier, was discolored from children’s toys rubbing on it.

I started by mixing about 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of vinegar in the bottom of the tub. Next, I took a regular scouring pad, dampened it with water, and dipped it into the borax/baking soda/vinegar paste and began scrubbing. I repeated the process until the entire tub was covered with the cleaning cocktail. Some areas, like the fixtures, I worked on longer because they were water stained and hard water collected around them. Then I rinsed the tub with water. This all took about 30 minutes and afterward the tub looked new, the fixtures were chrome again and best of all, no fumes! All of these products can be easily purchased at any local supermarket on the cooking island.