Making Your Own Household Cleaners

Everyone wants to avoid unnecessary chemicals, but, frankly, organics and all-naturals are just too expensive. But wait! There is an alternative! (I'm imagining this in Billy Mays' voice.) You can Make Your Own!

First of all, recipes abound. There are dozens of websites and books with recipes and formulas for cleaners, each with a slight variation of the same cleaner. Which one to chose? Do I use the Lemon Fresh counter cleaner with witch hazel or the Mint Scented one that has tea tree oil? A fair amount comes down to smell preference, I suppose. But the problem I had when confronted with all the options, was how to pick one. Nobody that I knew was using homemade cleaners, so I couldn't get any personal recommendations. So, I tried a few. I tweaked recipes. I added different scents, used more of this and less of that.

Most importantly, though, I found the base ingredients that are doing the bulk of the labor. Turns out, vinegar and baking soda are... well, they're amazing! Not just for cooking anymore, these two heavy-lifters can get nearly  anything clean (Billy Mays again)! Burnt-on soup spills on my porcelain stove-top--vinegar! Crayon on my fridge door--baking soda! Both of these guys have books on them: baking soda and vinegar. For history nerds like me, the Baking Soda introduction on the origin of Arm and Hammer was fascinating. : ) But, both books include hundreds (!) of uses for the two ingredients. Very fun!

So, vinegar and baking soda work as the base ingredients. Add to them inexpensive secondary ingredients like witch hazel, rubbing alcohol, and water and you can make counter/floor cleaner, window cleaner, air fresheners, and toilet scrub. I found witch hazel and rubbing alcohol in with the first aid stuff, each for around $2. The most expensive part of making your own cleaners is making them smell, erm, not like vinegar. For that, you can use essential oils, bought from health food stores for around $10. My favorite is lavender. It is more costly than other smells, though, so I use it for air fresheners and fabric fresheners. I highly recommend tea tree oil and citronella for a minty fresh scent.

Vinegar is acidic, so it works best for things that need to be dissolved, like burnt on food or calcium deposits on faucets. Baking soda is an excellent scrubber, so use it for things that need a bit of gritty scrubbing-action  to come clean. Knowing that, it's pretty easy to determine what product to use for what mess. Use a vinegar-based cleaner for the linoleum floor and add baking soda if there's dirt in the grooves (of course, baking soda would have to be rinsed off). Use a vinegar-based cleaner for the stove-top and add baking soda for extra scrubbing power!

The book I found to be most helpful was "The Naturally Clean Home" by Karyn Siegel-Maier. Good basic recipes, and tons of tips.

Speaking of, here are some of my favorite (which means, tested by me personally!) recipes. To make them, gather up your ingredients, a funnel, and some spray bottles. I got garden spray bottles for a buck or two apiece. I highly recommend writing out the recipe and taping it to the bottle so that you don't have to look it up each time you want to make more. I usually double or triple the recipes (depending on the size of my container).

Window Cleaner
1/2 C water
1/2 C white vinegar
1/4 C isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)
Mix and spritz! It is better to spray any window cleaner onto the rag you are using and then wipe the window.

All-Purpose Cleaner for Counters, Tub, Tile, and Floors
1/2 C water
1/2 C white vinegar
1/4 C witch hazel
10 drops of essential oil of your choice (I combine the antiseptic tea tree oil and lavender oil)
Mix 'em into your bottle, give it a shake to mix up the oils, and spray away!

See? Easy-peasy.  : )

Air Freshener
1/2 C water
5-10 drops essential oil of choice (you can put in more drops to make a stronger smell)
Shake before each use to mix the oils in. This can make the floor slippery if you spray it too close to the ground. I prefer to spray it onto a nearby fabric, such as the shower curtain or window curtains.

Carpet freshener (not a cleaner; just for giving the room a nice smell)
Combine in a bowl 1/2 C baking soda and 10 drops essential oil of choice. Use a fork or a whisk. Mix the oil into the baking soda really well, so that there aren't any big clumps. Sprinkle it over the carpet, wait about ten or fifteen minutes, then suck it up with the vacuum. I found that the smell sticks to the inside of my cyclonic vacuum and it releases the scent into the air the next time I vacuum, even if I don't put down more freshener.

Toilets are tricky. I have really mineral-laden water, so my toilet bowl needs extra help. I spray the All-Purpose  Cleaner in the bowl and then sprinkle baking soda on it. It fizzes, of course; after it's done fizzing, I scrub the bowl. I'm not entirely satisfied with this method, so I'm still looking for a better one. The same thing works quite well for soap deposits in the tub or shower, by the way.

Laundry Freshener
You can add vinegar to the final rinse on your washing cycle to help with static cling, I've heard. I don't have a problem with clingy-ness (on fabrics, anyway), so I've never tried this. But, I have read it in a few places. I have tried scenting fabrics in the dryer! Take an old t-shirt and cut it into little pieces, say 3" squares. When the dryer is almost done (five or ten minutes left), put 5 or so drops of your favorite essential oil onto the wee bit of fabric and toss it in. If it's a big load, you might want to use more oil. This is awesome when I do my sheets! It's so nice to climb into my bed and have it all lavender-y! I store the extra fabric pieces in an old tissue box. They can be washed with your laundry, dried, and reused!

There are sooo many ways to clean using vinegar and baking soda that I could go on, ad nauseam. I will post some more brilliantly simple ways to clean and freshen the home next time.

Thanks for reading and happy cleaning!