Cleaning on the Cheap

Today I had a request for a blog entry about using homemade cleaning products. About 8 months ago I concocted a few different homemade cleaning solutions to test them out and I have stuck with almost all of them. The reason I decided to switch was
1. because I am super cheap and cleaning solution is fairly pricey
2. I was trying to reduce the amount of chemicals in my home

Here is a pretty comprehensive list where I got most of my "recipes".  The only non-homemade products I consistently use are a special "urine eliminator" carpet solution for when Mowgli has accidents, dish washing detergent, and Dawn liquid soap.  I also keep a container of Clorox wipes on hand in case of a rare instance where I feel like I need something strong to kill bacteria.

The one item I use and love the most is my homemade laundry soap. I have always used liquid laundry soap so the first homemade version I tried was a liquid version, but it was pretty messy to make. It worked good, but after I used it all up I tried the powder version. It was super easy to make and worked just fine, plus it is about a tenth of the cost of regular detergent.

I do realize that I  don't have kids and therefore don't usually have many tough stains, so if anyone tries this with heavy duty stains let me know the results. It works with high efficiency washers for those wondering about that. Here is the recipe:

1/2 bar Fels naptha soap (chop/grate very finely)
1 cup washing suds
1 cup borax

While I am chopping, I usually just do the whole bar of soap and double the recipe. Use one tablespoon per load. And I found all of these ingredients in the detergent section at Kroger.

As far as fabric softener goes, just use plain old vinegar!!

Basically what I have learned in making my own cleaning solutions is that pretty much anything can be cleaned using a combination of vinegar and water.

My other favorite thing is Dr.Bronner's soap. You'll notice many of the recipes call for it. It has basically 1,000 uses and a wonderful peppermint smell. I use it as Mowgli's shampoo and I also use it for hand soap. For the had soap I use 1 part of the soap to about 5 parts water. It is pretty potent stuff. I don't know if this is just luck, but we had previously bought the foam kind of hand soap. When I filled the empty containers with the homemade solution, it came out in foam form. Perhaps it is just the pump that makes it foam? Anybody know? I don't know why it happens, but I like it.

They have Dr. Bronner's at Target and at Kroger. You won't be able to find it at  target, because it is in the beauty section, so you will have to ask someone for help. When you ask someone for help they will say they don't have it. You must not accept this for an answer and demand they look it up on some sort of computer until they find it because I guarantee you they have it. This was my experience trying to find it at Target, hopefully you find someone more helpful.


The carpet cleaner I find to be most effective is to take a cup and put some baking soda in it, then SLOWLY add in vinegar and mix together with a tooth brush. Then rub into the carpet stain with the toothbrush. Wait about 30 minutes and vacuum it up.


I recently saw this recipe for dish washing detergent:
Equal parts Baking Soda and Borax mixed together
Use just like a commercial powdered detergent, approximately 2 TBS per load
 Each load will cost you mere pennies. (also use vinegar in the jet dry well instead of the expensive stuff)

I haven't tried it yet, so if anyone does please let me know how it works.

Hope you all switch to more natural and more inexpensive solutions soon!