The Naturally Clean Home Paperback – January 1, 2008

This is one of the coolest purchases and choices I've ever made. Easy to read, fun and personable, very very user friendly, and fun facts to help out daily tasks!I clean up after people, dogs, cats….serious wear and tear. Now I can keep my house smelling great, naturally clean, and pretty safe in terms of non-chemical cleaners. I've only gotten into a few formulas for different cleaning but am already mixing my favorite scents. I give serious props to Karyn Siegel-Maier on her ability to make home making FUN! I actually look forward to it. One of my favorites is the baking soda/essential oil deoderizer before vacuuming. I also am falling in love with the essential oils. Aromatherapy is huge!Thanks to this book I have found extra uses for the Eucalyptus oil - my husband has horrible allergies and asthma, so at night I sprinkle a little of the oil near his pillow and it helps ease his breathing so he can sleep soundly. The other night he was having an extra hard time with his lungs and he put some drops on a hot wet cloth and breathed it in for a while - it worked amazingly!I could go on and on about this book. For such a small financial price, it gives so much, and she is very adamant about making the switch to green cleaning AFFORDABLE. It's like my little handbook to happiness for my home and I wish I could shake the author's hand!

I came to know of this book through through a magazine called "Experience Life." I had never stopped to think about all the harmful materials in many of the commercially prepared cleaning materials around my house. Turns out that just about every one of my "favorite" cleaners, hand soaps, and laundry aids had a potentially significant harmful ingredient, often carcinogenic in nature.There are recipes for scouring powders, laundry detergent, disinfectants for the general household use all using things like vinegar, baking soda, dried herbs, essential oils, and castile soap to name a few. The author gives a variety of different scent combinations to try so that your home is scented to your preference. After trying some of these home-made cleansers, I am sold.They are every bit as effective (and sometimes more so) than the stuff commercially available, and I can control the level of scent, changing it dependent upon my needs at the time. Excellently written book, interesting tidbits of information about commercially available cleaners, and very simple recipes to follow. To boot, these home-made items cost pennies on the dollar compared to commercially available products.

I think the book is very well written and easy to follow. This is great for the beginner or even the novice. If you're worried about trying to find empty spray bottles, containers, etc. Just go to the dollar store and they work just as well if you spent 3 or 4 bucks on each item somewhere else. I will say as I was a true beginner to all of this the initial expense was buying essential oils. The other items such as baking soda, vinegar etc I had no problem buying in bulk as it really was inexpensive. The reason I gave it 4 stars because it isn't perfect. BUT, I will say it also offers cleaning solutions when it comes to your car, garage, concrete, etc. Where other books I've borrowed don't have the additional ideas. Everyone has a different tolerance/sensitivity to essential oils so for me I actually added more essential oil to some of the recipes as I love the smell of the essential oils versus vinegar. :D The recipes are great and easy to try and you can adjust or substitute any essential oil you don't have in a recipe for similar benefits on the list of essential oils she has in her book. I've tried several of her recipes and have had to adjust them a little bit. Adding 5 more drops of each essential oil it calls for or having to double the recipe so I wouldn't run out within a week of using it. My house is definitely cleaner then it has ever been. I've even used one of her recipes to disinfect the cat litter! Removing the litter first and cleaning out any residue or remains then adding baking soda, vinegar and my own essential oil mix. I've become more confident in mixing essential oils to recipes in her book and love how easy and simple it really is. Great job!

I've begun to clean with natural solutions and slowly eliminate the commercial cleaners. I cannot believe I was suffering all these years with commercial cleaners that burned my eyes, skin, nose and throat. And these natural solutions work better than the commercial stuff! The recipes call for items you can get any grocery, general store in your area. The only items I did not have on hand are the dried herb leaves, but I'll be trying them soon. I recommend reading this book. You'll likely find at least a few recipes in here that will allow you to save far more money than the price of the book. I would also like to note that the author does not include recipes with excessive amounts of essential oils which could be harmful; sadly some authors are irresponsible with the level of EOs they include in their recipes. But I find this book to be safe and helpful.

I really like that this book covers how to clean the house and what is in it from top to bottom (from floors, to cars, to bathrooms, to electronics). Plus the recipies in the book are easy to follow and made of ingredients that easily accesible. It is nice to have this book on hand to both save money and clean my home in a non-toxic way. It is very important to my family to have more gentle, earth friendly options as it keeps any allergies/irritations at bay, and I have a 2yr old son I want to avoid exposing to lots of harmful products especially. There is a huge difference for the better when making these type of natural cleaning products, and the job of cleaning still gets done just as well.