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Homemade Cleaner Recipes And Tips
We all need stuff to clean our houses. And sure, there are plenty of eco-products you can buy off the shelves like various green household cleaners. But if you're feeling crafty or if you really want to know exactly what your products are made of...trying making your own!
Homemade Cleaners: Basic Ingredients
There are 8 staples for homemade cleaners, then some ideas for the right mixology is below:
Baking soda: provides grit for scrubbing and reacts with water, vinegar or lemon by fizzing, which speeds up cleaning times- Borax: disinfects, bleaches and deodorizes; very handy in laundry mixes (Warning: keep out of reach of children)
- Distilled white vinegar: disinfects and breaks up dirt; choose white vinegar over apple cider or red vinegars, as these might stain surfaces
- Hydrogen Peroxide: disinfects and bleaches
- Lemons: cut grease; bottled lemon juice also works well, although you might need to use bit more to get the same results
- Olive oil: picks up dirt and polishes wood; cheaper grades work well
- Vegetable based (liquid castile) soap: non-petroleum all-purpose cleaners like Dr. Bronner's castille soap
- Washing soda: stain remover, general cleaner, helps unblock pipes; should be handled with gloves due to its caustic nature. Washing soda is usually found in the laundry aisle of grocery and drug stores.
Recipes for homemade cleaners
What are you making? |
Ingredients |
Directions |
| All Purpose Cleaners (and soft scrub) |
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| Streak-free Window washer |
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Fill spray bottle with water. Add one tiny drop of dishwasher soap and 1 teaspoon vinegar. Shake well and use.
(this recipe came from a professional window washer's blog) |
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Freshening Window Cleaner |
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Combine all ingredients in a 22-32 oz. spray bottle. |
| Hairy Drain De-clogger |
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1) Mix Baking Powder in water and disolve as much as possible. Pour down the offending drain. The longer it takes the better - the baking powder will soak in.
2) *Slowly* pour in vinegar. Listen to it fizz! That's how you know it's working. Together, these will kill all of the germs or bacteria growing in your drain, which can catch hair and generally gunk things up. It will also loosen all but the most stubborn hair balls. I'll
3) Chase with very hot water - boiling hot if possible.
4) Repeat as necessary. (This one is great even if you have lots of curly hair and old plumbing.) |
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Purifying Tub Scrub |
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Using oxygen bleach as the abrasive, add 6-10 drops of ONE of the following essential oils: lemon, lavender, white thyme, tea tree, grapefruit, and scrub! |
| Disinfecting and Uplifting Floor Cleaner |
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Combine all ingredients in a large container and clean away! |
Disinfecting Toilet Bowl Cleanser |
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Combine ingredients in a 22 oz. spray bottle. It helps to let the mixture sit in the bowl for a few minutes before you start scrubbing. |
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Laundry Detergent |
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Using the liquid castile soap as a base, combine with washing soda, borax (for stains and bleaching), and either baking soda (reduces static and softens fabrics) or white vinegar (softens fabrics, reduces static and bleaches clothes). If you feel like your clothes aren't clean enough, play around with the amount of liquid castile soap, using from 1 oz. to 1 cup.
Check out this wiki for another DIY laundry detergent. |
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Bleach alternative |
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| Cleansing Room Spray |
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Combine in a 4 oz. spray bottle and mist into the room as needed. |
| Silver Polish |
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Combine Baking Soda and Water to make a thick paste. With a wet sponge apply the mixture onto the surface using circular motions. Rinse with hot water and buff with a clean dry cloth.
* For heavily tarnished items leave paste on item for approx 1 hour and clean off with a sponge and hot water. |
KayMMIV's Homemade Cleaners Cabinet
These are what are used to clean with in my house. Some jobs just require one ingredient, like just vinegar (disinfectant/deodorizer, just hydrogen peroxide (stain remover) or just baking soda (scrub/abrasive cleaner) and some a mix of a few of them. It's cheap and easy to do. Most people say they don't have time to make their own cleaners, invariably I find these people have never tried (or have tried with complicated recipes), it's amazingly simple and quick to make all the recipes I use, and they work just as well as store bought or better- and oh so much cheaper!
Basic Ingredients |
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What are you making? |
Ingredients |
Directions |
| Disinfectant/General Cleaning Spray | The easiest one by far is just half and half cheap white vinegar and water. | For a little more germ fighting and deodorizing power you can add 7/8 drops of tea tree oil and an ounce or two of lemon juice to 10oz of vinegar (plus 10oz of water) or 7/8 drops of any citrus essential oil instead of the juice. Just put this in an empty spray bottle and you have a very cheap and effective disinfectant and general cleaner. |
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Dishwasher Detergent (powder) |
1 cup borax 1 cup baking soda 1/4 cup citric acid (essential oil if desired for scent) |
Just mix the ingredients together and grind to fine powder. Use vinegar as rinse agent. |
| Dishwasher Detergent (powder) - Borax Free |
1/2 cup grated bar soap (I use castile, but any bar soap works) 1/2 cup washing soda 1 cup baking soda 1/4 cup citric acid |
If you aren't so hot on borax (like me) here's a good substitute recipe.
Mix and then grind to fine powder (or as close as you can get the soap to go) and use vinegar as a rinse agent. |
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1 cup rubbing alcohol 1 cup water 1 tablespoon white vinegar |
 Mix in a spray bottle or bucket.Tip: If you are having trouble getting some sort of oil off glass sprinkle corn starch to absorb the oil off it (or put it in a towel and wipe with it if a window) use the above cleaner again. |
Bathroom Cleaning |
Your new best bathroom buddy is baking soda, with vinegar a close second.
Most everything in the bathroom can be cleaned with one of the other. And when something just won't scrub off, mix them ;-) |
But remember those science volcanoes as a kid? So here's how you mix them to get the job done. Make a paste out of baking soda and water and put this on top of the tough to scrub clean area. then pour a little bit of vinegar over top. That chemical reaction will help loosen the soap scum or lime buildup or whatever it is. Then just your own scrubbing elbow grease will do the rest of the job. You can add whatever essential oils you want for smell, and using ones like citrus (lemon, orange, lime etc...) or tea tree oil or clove that have their own anti-microbial properties is never amiss.
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