My recent obsession with homemade cleaners happened innocently enough. Adam's 3 year old son, Christian, can hold his own playing DS or Wii but can barely hold a pencil, let alone color in the lines. To capitalize on his current, "I wanna help" stage, I bought him his own spray bottle so he could help me clean the kitchen after dinner. It didn't seem right for me to let him play around with the chemicals found in most household cleaners so I googled homemade glass cleaner recipes. Low and behold, there was a whole homemade cleaner movement I was not aware of!
What started as a way to help a 3 year old with his motor skills turned into a passion! My first glass cleaner was a simple mixture of white vinegar and water. Christian wasn't a fan of the smell but it worked fine. After making my first successful batch I spent an entire evening on the computer and found a bunch of recipes I simply had to try!
Conveniently, I was almost out of Windex antibacterial, so I knew I needed a multipurpose cleaner with disinfectant properties, an improved glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner (since I was low on that as well), and I've never been satisfied by any of the dishwasher detergents I've tried so I wanted to try another option for that as well.
Here are all the ingredients you'll ever need to make your own cleaners!
There are a million different recipes out there for all of my above mentioned cleaners but these are the recipes I've tried myself:
All Purpose Cleaner
- 1 tsp borax
- 1/2 tsp washing soda
- 1 tsp Castile soap
- 2 cups warm water
I got eucalyptus scented Castile soap so I love the way this cleaner has disinfecting qualities and leaves a fresh scent behind! My only complaint is it leaves a wet residue. Not a big deal to either let it dry or wipe it with a dry cloth, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Pretty Much the Best Glass Cleaner EVER
- 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch (sounds weird I know but do it anyway!)
- 2 cups warm water
Make sure to give this a good shake to redistribute the ingredients before use. The cornstarch seemed like an odd addition to me but I gave it a try anyway. All I can say is wow! It initially wipes on so streaky you'll think I must be crazy to promote it, but give it a second. It not only gets all the kiddy hand prints, doggy nose prints, and tooth paste off the mirrors and glass, but it dries streak-free!
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
- 1 cup white vinegar (pour in toilet first)
- 1/4 baking soda
This will cause a fizzing reaction just like your old volcano science project did in 3rd grade. Let it sit for 5 minutes and do it's thing. When you go to brush the bowl it will fizz up again to help you scrape off the grime. Works like a charm and has the added benefit of being completely innocuous to your septic tank (if you have one, of course).
Liquid Dishwasher Soap
- 16 cups water (divided)
- 1 1/2 cups washing soda
- 1 cup borax
- 1/2 cup Castile soap
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in other ingredients, one by one, until dissolved. Add remaining 8 cups of water and stir. Let cool and store. This makes about a gallon so feel free to scale down to your needs. Give it a good shake before use. It is suppose to become gel-like over time, but I've found that doesn't really happen. I stored it in two different containers and had one container (a recycled white vinegar jug) gel up fairly nicely and one container (recycled cascade jug) stay watery to this day. The website I found the recipe on said to use approximately 1 tbsp per load but quite frankly that doesn't seem like nearly enough to me. I've used probably 3 times that with varying results. Sometimes everything comes clean, sometimes I find caked on food particles. Most of the time everything comes out with a haze of soap residue. The key to minimizing residue is supposedly using straight white vinegar in the rinse cycle (where you would put your jetdry). I still have leftover jetdry in mine but I top it off with vinegar before each load just for good measure. I was having residue and food particles with my store bought detergent as well so at least now I'm not only paying less for the same result but also it is less toxic then the store bought stuff. Another perk is before I could actually taste the detergent on my tupperware when I reheated my lunch in them (gasp!!! microwaving plastic... the horror!!!) but now the milky white residue is tasteless and odorless. I am going to try and scale down on my quantity of detergent per load and see if there is any improvement.
So, the recipes aren't perfect. If you find the glass cleaner didn't work as well as I said, don't fret. Store bought cleaners leave residues that take time to remove. Try it 2 or 3 times before you write it off. Obviously the dishwasher detergent has the most room for improvement. The multipurpose cleaner is awesome for wiping down walls and baseboards. Just double the batch and put it in a bucket with some towels. Baseboard cleaning could be a fun chore for the little ones since they are closer to the floor anyway!
There is something inherently satisfying about creating your own cleaners. It has a mad scientist feel to it that appeals to my inner nerd. It is also CHEAP! I found every single ingredient necessary for the recipes at Publix. The washing soda is in the laundry isle, and the Castile soap is with the beauty products (typically found in the organic/natural soap section). Giant boxes of baking soda are in the baking isle and white vinegar is with the salad dressing and olive oils. The most expensive item is the Castile soap. If you aren't willing to invest too much, buy a small container and the whole lot will probably cost you less then $15 for gallons and gallons worth of potential cleaning products. Castile soap is also great for bathing. If you find you aren't into making cleaners anymore you can always put it in your shower and use it as a body wash. It comes in all kinds of awesome scents to choose from. Here is a
link with more information!
Not satisfied with my recipes and want to learn more? Here are some links to help you get started on your own homemade cleaner journey:
http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/09/homemade-liquid-dish-soap-that-really/
http://choosingsimplicity.blogspot.com/2012/01/choosing-simplicity-homemade-liquid.html
Happy Trails!!
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