following the question on greener cleaning products, I would be interested to know if anyone has experimented with home-made recipes such as using vinegar as a base ingredient for lavatory cleaner and added fragrances to take that fish and chip shop smell away? This has come about as a fact that it is increasingly more difficult to find 'green' products on supermarket shelves, and the ones that are there are generally beyond the financial reach of most people.

-- steve huison (steve@huismith.co.uk), November 29, 1999

Answers

yes vinegar is excellent at getting limescale off taps and sinks and out of kettles. just plain old malt vinegar. soda crystals are good for grease etc and getting tea stains out of mugs (are they ecologically ok? i think they are). the best answer of course is not to do any cleaning!

-- aruna sahni (aruna@primex.co.uk), January 18, 2000.

Geranium oil is one of the nicest essential oils to use as an air freshener and one of the most effective - put a bit on a blob of cotton wool on a radiator or in a dish of warm water - should help with the vinegar. Not too expensive either and lasts for ages - also helps with the results of Aruna's last suggestion!!!

-- Emma Ramet (emmaramet@southend.gov.uk), January 21, 2000.