When life gives you lemons, use them to clean! Lemons and lemon juice can be a great natural cleaner to use around your home. The clean, fresh scent is great for a nice pick me up feel around your home and using lemons provides a safe, non-toxic way to clean that will not harm your pets or your children and they add a natural antibacterial property that is safe for you and the environment unlike some of the harsher chemicals.

Here are but a few of the great ways that you can use lemons to clean around your house:

Have Dingy and Dirty Silver and Copper that you Want to Clean? Lemon juice works great for a safe and non-toxic way to shine them right up, just wash the lemon juice off and be sure to dry the items immediately.

Making a Simple Cleaning Paste: For really dirty items you may want to create a cleaning paste by mixing the lemon juice with a bit of vinegar and baking soda.

Simple, Natural Furniture Polish: A cup of lemon juice mixed in with a couple cups of olive oil can make a great, refreshing furniture polish.

Have Stubborn Dishes and Pots that need cleaning? Cut a lemon in half and splash a little baking soda on the top of the lemon half then use it as a natural and handy scrubber to get your dishes or stubborn pots and pans clean. The lemon juice will help cut grease and freshen your dishes, then just rinse as normal.

Need to Get Rid of Ants? Lemon juice is a great way to safely tackle an ant problem. Just spray a bit of lemon juice around the areas where the ants are entering your home or other problem location to help deter them.

Microwave Smelling a Bit Odd? After a while regular food odors from using your microwave can become a bit smelly but you can easily eliminate them with lemons. Simply take a microwave safe bowl and place a few slices of lemons in water then microwave between 30 seconds to one minute. This will help neutralize the odors and make the stains easier to clean off. You can also store the rest of the lemon in the fridge, unwrapped to get rid of unwanted food odors there to.

A Natural Way to Clean the Bathroom: Lemons can also be used in the bathroom as a safe alternative to some of the harsher chemical cleaners out there. In the shower lemon juice can eliminate hard water stains and soap scum and you can try the same trick as with the pots and pans if you need a little extra scrubbing. Lemon juice can also be mixed with baking soda or borax for use as a toilet bowl cleaner.

Need to Unclog and Freshen Drains? Before you try those toxic drain cleaners, just pour some hot lemon juice and baking soda down your drains to clean them out. And when you are finished you can toss the left over lemon peels into the garbage disposal to clean and freshen it as well.

Clean Your Cutting Board: If you are using a wooden chopping board, take a minute after you cleaned it to run a bit of lemon juice over it and allow to sit overnight before rinsing. This helps to kill any left over bits on the board that might harbor bacteria and will help to keep it fresh since they absorb food odors.