How I Got Here...A Dirty Chair and a Smart Husband

People have been telling me that I should start a blog.  I never thought I should, however, because most of the things they thought I should post about (our green journey and discoveries) were all created or discovered by someone else.  But yesterday, my wonderful husband thrilled me by cleaning our dirty, leather bar stools (which were uncleanable!!) with a creation of vinegar and baking soda paste.  And I thought--I need to start a blog.  Because this kind of thing happens all the time and it may help someone else.  And that would be cool.  So here is my first entry:

Our kids eat at least one meal a day at matching bar stools in our kitchen.  These bar stools are white leather (I know, bad decision) and have gotten filthy.  And I faithfully try to clean them with whatever is in my homemade cleaner arsenal.  Because the kids are going to be sitting on them, touching them with their fingers, and then touching their food and probably their mouths.  So I wouldn't use anything toxic to clean them  (But I did try Windex in a moment of weakness and then wiped it down with water afterwards).  Long story short--nothing has worked.  Probably 7 different cleaners and the bar stools looked yucky and I thought probably the white paint on the leather had worn away and maybe they had to have this look forever.  Unless I used leather polish which wasn't going to happen.

Tim poured baking soda in a canning jar and added vinegar.  Luckily it was in the sink because it did that "volcano" thing and poured out foam a bit.  He mixed it and added baking soda until it was a honey consistency.  Then he poured some of the liquid/paste on the chair and used an old sponge to rub it around.  Very quickly, without much effort, the dirt lifted away.  I wish I would have taken a before picture but I didn't got the blog idea until he started cleaning.

Here is during:

And here is after:

Once they dried they had a bit of a gritty residue but that easily wiped off with a rag.  I am thrilled!

He has also used this cleaner to get dirt stains off the floor in our shower.  These stains were there when we moved into the house and I tried all sorts of things--even scrubbing with bleach, which I don't keep in the house anymore.  Nothing worked until this applied with a scrub brush.  It is crazy to me what you can do with cheap, safe ingredients.  Works on the kitchen sink's stains too!

Moneysaver:  I buy my vinegar and baking soda at Costco in huge containers.

Next time I'll talk about how I became an accidental green mama!