Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda is a deoderiser and bleaching agent with a gentle scouring action.

Lemon juice is also a natural bleaching agent and will cut through grease.

Put lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda together and you get an amazing fizzy reaction and then when the fizz dies down you get a great cleanser useful as a general cleaner for all surfaces from kitchen tops to shower walls and toilet bowls.

To enhance its effectiveness for killing germs and to aid its keeping properties add a few drops of tea-tree or citricidal. (2 drops to 10mls of liquid for the Tea-tree and 12 drops to 200 mls of liquid for citricidal)

I find this solution great for soaking into wooden chopping boards to deoderise and clean them. I then wipe them over after an hour or two of soaking. I love this method because it is natural and avoids the potential concern of consuming nasty chemicals from other cleaners for surfaces we use to cook on.

Use a toothbrush and this cleanser is also perfect for cleaning the stain that can appear on the grouting between the tiles in the shower.

However because of the bicarbonate of soda the surfaces will need a wipe with a damp cloth after applying the lemon/bicarb solution.