I have taken great joy in making my own household cleaners, though I still do not have great joy in actually doing the cleaning. The cleaners are typically made from a few basic ingredients: olive oil, vinegar, borax, and baking soda. Simple enough and you are making cleaners that are a lot easier on the environment. No weird chemical names here! Here are the easiest recipes I have gathered and begun to use. I will include the websites that I have used to find them.
Furniture Polish
1/4 c Olive Oil
4 Tbsps Vinegar
2 tsps Lemon Juice
Store this in the fridge. I also add some orange essential oil for a better smell. You have to frequently shake the mixture when you use it as the oil and vinegar will separate.
Disinfectant
Water
3 Tbsps Soap- you can use castila soap which is the most gentle on the environment (find it with the highest percentage of olive oil, otherwise it can have other stuff added to it.
20-30 drops of tea tree oil (anti-microbial)
All-Purpose Household Cleaner
2 Tbsps Vinegar
1 tsp Borax
1 c Hot Water
Stir them into the bottle, then add water to top of bottle with 1/8c dish washing detergent and 15 drops essential oil for smell
Butt Wipes ( for your baby that is)
1/2 tsp baby soap/shampoo
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2-3 drops lavender oil (optional for antimicrobial action)
2-3 drops Tea Tree Oil (optional for antimicrobial action)
10 drops Grapefruit Seed extract (optional for rashes)
Mix with 3 cups warm water
Dip cloth wipes in the mixture and use. We typically dip 20 wipes at a time and store them in a air tight container for use as needed. They work a whole lot better than the store disposable kind!
Window Cleaner
Club Soda
or
2/3 Water
1/3 Rubbing Alcohol
1 Tsbp Ammonia
Toilet Bowel Cleaner
Mix Borax with Lemon Juice and make a paste. Rub into the bowl and leave for up to 2 hours.
I was going to start making my own laundry soap, but I have found the most fantastic soap! It's Charlies Soap at www.charliesoap.com. It is equally good for cloth diapers as your own clothes. Plus it's cheap! I think it works out to around 9 cents a load and they do not charge shipping costs.
You need to make sure you have plenty of bottles for these cleaners, so as you are using up your old cleaners, save the bottles!
Here are some websites about making your own cleaners:
http://www.diylife.com/2007/10/01/thrifty-living-make-your-own-laundry-detergent/
http://www.diylife.com/2007/08/17/baking-soda-a-cleaner-of-my-choice/
http://www.totallyfrugal.com/forums/archive/index.php/f-29.html
This website by the way has a lot of tools to live cheap and simply!
http://www.mormonchic.com/dealdiva/homemade_cleaners.asp
This website is my total inspiration. The Mormons can make a case for a good deal.
This site will let you know how much money you could save.
www.babycottonbottoms.com
This is where we learned of the Butt Wipes. (There has got to be a better name for them though.)
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/120/diy
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2 comments:
Will have to try some of those out. Not sure about the "Toilet Bowel Cleaner" ;-) If it cleans your bowel and your toilet, you have quite the multipurpose product there.
I am going to try the household cleaner, but need to get some borax. I ws cleaning my stove htis morning though, and it had some nasty stuff on it. used Baking soda and it worked great! http://www.clean-things.com/how-to-clean-stove.htm
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