Over the past few weeks, I've been experimenting quite a bit with home-made cleaners for the home. So I thought I'd share with you my favourite (and the ones that work the best) recipes so you too can get on your way to using home-made cleaners. Not only is it a hell of a lot cheaper to make your own cleaners, it's better for the environment and it's better for your health. I cleaned my entire bathroom (scrubbed grout and mould...gross, but that comes with the territory of living in a rented house) without the use of any bleach or chemicals. And now our bathroom is sparkly and white. YAY! Even better was not having to run from the room every 20 minutes because of the fumes.
So, the ingredients you will need are:
White vinegar (also known as cleaning vinegar), rubbing alcohol, dishwashing liquid and water.
I have also started to rely on bi-carb soda quite a lot in my cleaning adventures, so you may want to have some of that on hand, even though it's not required for these recipes (I will do another post that details my bi-carb use)
You will also want to pick up some spray bottles. I got mine from the local Woolies', and decided to go with different colours to easily differentiate between them. It's also probably not a bad idea to label them either.
To make glass cleaner, you will need:
equal parts white vinegar to water. I used a cup of each.
This glass cleaner also works really well for mirrored surfaces. It helps get rid of any smudge marks and evaporates quickly, leaving no streaking.
To make a de-greaser and scum fighter you will need:
This is a tricky one to give a recipe for because the quantities can change depending on what dishwashing liquid you use. This particular dishwashing liquid is quite a high concentrate so I used about 6 tablespoons, to one cup of white vinegar. If your dishwashing liquid is not concentrated, I would use equal parts dishwashing liquid to white vinegar.
This is a really, really powerful cleaner, and is a great one to keep in the kitchen. It's especially useful for cleaning stovetops and ovens, as well as bench-tops. When I cleaned my bathroom I used this on the tiles and glass to get rid of any built up soap scum. I also keep a spray bottle of water nearby to easily clean off any soapy residue.
To make a household disinfectant you will need:
And that's it! Of course, I'm not advocating completely getting rid of all store-bought cleaners. (I still regularly use JIF on our steel counter, for instance) I think everything has a time and place, but if you can swap to using these home-made cleaners more often it will be better for everyone.
At first, the smell of the white vinegar seemed a bit strong, but with continued use of these products I barely notice it any more. The 'vinegar scent' also dissipates really quickly and doesn't build up (like chemicals can) so it will be over before you know it. I have actually noticed since switching to these that when I give our bench-tops a quick clean with some spray-and-wipe, the smell of that product is way too strong for me now. Interesting, huh?
Have you ever dabbled in home-made cleaners? Do you have any recipes to share with me? Next week I'll share my favourite uses for bi-carb soda!
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