➹ Homemade Cleaning Supplies ▻ Part 1 ➷

I mentioned that Z and I have incorporated a years' supply of cleaning and hygiene products as a part of our food storage. I discussed how to keep track of what you've bought and buying on sale, but now let's talk cleaners.

I thought a lot about how I wanted to store all these cleaning products in our home- how much, where, which ones. In the end I surprised even myself with the answer.  We've decided to store the items that go into cleaners so that we can make our own, store less toxins in the condo, make anything we want as we need it.

Recipes can be found all over the Internet- but here are the basics you'll need to start:

Liquid Castile Soup, Washing Soda, White Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Borax, Baking Soda, Olive Oil

With these items you can clean just about anything- and they're pretty stinkin' cheap too!

Homemade  Laundry Detergent- All Natural

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar (of grated) Castile Soap 

Just grate a dried out bar of soap and mix in with other ingredients in reusable container .

Use  2-3 tbsp per load depending on its size.

Homemade Surface Spray- All Natural

2 tsp Borax

1/4 tsp Liquid Castile soap

16 oz Spray Bottle

Hot Water 

Furniture Polish 

 1/2 tsp Olive Oil

1/4 cup Vinegar or Lemon Juice

Mix in a glass jar and use rag to polish surfaces.

Floor Cleaner

1 cup Vinegar

2 Gallons Warm Water 
 

Toilet Cleaner 

Baking Soda or Borax

Liquid Castile Soap

 

Dishwasher Detergent

2 cups Borax

2 cups Baking Soda

4 packages Lemon Unsweetened Kool-Aid or 1/2 cup Citric Acid

Window/Glass Cleaner

 5 parts Water to 1 part White Vinegar

Spray Bottle 

 Carpet and Stain Remover

 1 part Borax

10 parts Warm Water 

Spray Bottle

Mix and then spray on stain, wait 5-10 minutes and blot clean.

That's the basics! Isn't this the perfect project to put in cute bottles and make some homemade labels? Do you see it?

source

I do! Let me know if you have any questions,  have recipes to add, or want some more recipes from me.

I'll be back tomorrow from my trip. Gotta get my projects going!! Woot Woot!

UPDATE:

I've added more recipes! Check'em out here!

And Here!

That's not the Toilet

 I had a special house guest coming into town last weekend, it's my grandma. I was doing a deep clean to get the guest bath ready and realized I was out of tub and tile cleaner. I was left with a few options. I could use Pine Sol (yeah right), Comet or Lysol toilet cleaner.

Just contemplating using comet brought up horrible childhood memories of me trying to work up a lather with that gritty cleaner trying to please an OCD parent (obviously an impossible task). No surprise at all that I squirted the toilet cleaner all over the tub and shower surround with out concern or regard for negative consequences.

The water here in UT is so hard. I am constantly fighting hard water stains. But they have finally met their match! The toilet cleaner cut through everything and didn't require scrubbing just wiping the tub down was enough. It saved me some serious time and the results are great. Who knows if it should be used on all different types of surfaces but it was awesome on my tub!

Hope you're all having a good week!
I know I am!!
- Becca -

Remove Water Stain from Wood

One of the only things I like more than finding a good deal is making making something I already have better.

Or in this case fixing a blemish. We have a dark wood table that got a nasty white heat stains from a very hot pot of Grandma's famous spaghetti sauce. I didn't even realize this could happen, but wasn't too worried when I saw it because I figured Murphy's Tinted Oil would fix it right up.

There is a glare that makes the damage look worse than it is. Thank goodness.

It did lighten the mark- or rather darken the mark a little. But you could still see it. Then I was blog hopping and ran across someone with the same problem. (although I didn't mark whose blog it was- whoops) She said to place a cloth on the table and then apply an iron on top of the cloth over the affected area. It could take between 2-5 minutes for the spot to disappear.

Looks pretty great right? It only took my table about two minutes to get rid of the mark. I did it for about a minute then checked it and then checked after again at thirty second intervals- just in case!