Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Homemade Cleaning Products


I have been reading many articles on homemade cleaning products and decided I'd give them a try. Here are a few that I have tried and really like.


#1. I have been making my own laundry detergent for almost a year now and I love it. It takes a little time to make but it definitely saves me money. You can find out how to make your own by looking under cleaning recipes on my sidebar.


#2. Alice's Wonder Spray is an all-purpose cleaner recipe that I found over at Tammy's Recipes. I mixed a bottle of this up for everyday use but I also mixed a large batch of it up and used it to scrub my walls down with a few weeks ago. It worked well on the little fingerprints on the wall. :)

1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. borax
3 cups hot water
squirt of dish soap
32 oz. spray bottle
Mix the vinegar and borax in the bottle. Fill with hot water and shake to dissolve the borax and then add the dish soap. (This is the blue bottle that is in the photo.)


#3. Floor Cleaner
Here is what I mixed together the other day to scrub my linoleum floors and it worked well.
1/4 cup borax
1/4 cup baking soda
1 1/2 cups vinegar
hot water
Add the borax, baking soda and vinegar to a scrub bucket. Let it bubble up for a minute and then fill the bucket the rest of the way up with hot water.



#4. Homemade Fabric Softener Sheets

My sister-in-law Joan passed this on to me (It's the milky white substance in the photo.) and here is how I made mine.
Take a coffee can or other container of about the same size.
Add 1-2 capfuls of store bought liquid fabric softener to the container and then fill it the rest of the way up with water.
Next I took two old washcloths and cut each one in half giving me a total of 4 strips. Place those in the liquid.
Now when I dry a load in the dryer I just open my container and pull out one or two strips and wring them out good. Toss them in the dryer with the clothes and turn dryer on. When clothes are dry I take the strips out and toss them back into the coffee can for the next load. I have just started doing this within the past month but can already see that it is saving money and it does make my clothes soft and static free.
**I purchase a lot of these cleaning ingredients in bulk so that I always have enough on hand. I buy the Borax and vinegar at Walmart. The baking soda I buy in big bags at Sam's Club. **


7 comments:

Carmen S. said...

Awesome, I never knew you could make fabric softening sheets! I will jot these down and definatley give them a try! I made an all purpose spray when I got my essentials oils that I use constantly to spray my counters and such. Its just vinegar, water and some sweet orange oil and it smells so fresh and clean and I breath alot better, no more asthma attacks! Right now I'm trying to find a good tub cleaner that will get off the light green limestone stains we get. Thanks for sharing:)

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

I like to use homemade cleaners, too. I am too chicken to try to do my own laundry detergent, but I ought to, because have you noticed, the prices on laundry soap have gone sky-high. I do "fancy up" the cheap detergent I get with some borax and sometimes vinegar added...

I really like that fabric softener idea! I have some old washcloths that would be perfect for recycling that way!

Unknown said...

Thank you!! I am slowly turning my home into a healthy enviroment and your recipes are a start...At first I was going to jump into changing everything..Eventually my home will be totally green...one step at a time...Lisa

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

many thanks for posting those cleaing recipes. i plan to go back and mix some up when i have a quiet weekend. have you ever used those cloths that require no window cleaning solution? they are hard to find but i got one in my stocking one year. they work really well, but you cannot put them in the dryer. i just dampen one and go to town on the windows! (they are not the shamoo things you see on tv)

Nancy M. said...

Cool! I love trying new things! I have been making my laundry detergent for a long time now. But, I can't wait to try the dryer sheet one!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much I love finding cheaper better ways to clean!

Granny Sue said...

Good information. Thank you! My daughter-in-law has been making laundry dtergent and a few other things. I will try this when I have a little time.