[lovemy2boys]

Ok - so today I decide to try to save both money, and the environment...and I want to try my hand at homemade cleaning formulas...

Looked it up on the internet, tried one where I mix water, vinegar and baking soda...Admittedly, I added some extra baking soda because I loved the way it fizzed when I put it in the water (yes, I'm a dork)...

So I clean my kitchen with said solution, and EVERYTHING is streaky and you can feel a film...

So I rub the heck out of everything to remove the streaks...and it took like twice the time that it would have taken with normal Windex/pledge/clorox, whatever...

Sooo, does anyone have any good tips on homemade cleaning products?

Come on, Aclee - I know I can depend on you...

[aclee]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

Ok - so today I decide to try to save both money, and the environment...and I want to try my hand at homemade cleaning formulas...

Looked it up on the internet, tried one where I mix water, vinegar and baking soda...Admittedly, I added some extra baking soda because I loved the way it fizzed when I put it in the water (yes, I'm a dork)...

So I clean my kitchen with said solution, and EVERYTHING is streaky and you can feel a film...

So I rub the heck out of everything to remove the streaks...and it took like twice the time that it would have taken with normal Windex/pledge/clorox, whatever...

Sooo, does anyone have any good tips on homemade cleaning products?

Come on, Aclee - I know I can depend on you...

Am I getting a reputation? LOL

I only use steam for cleaning, I have a scunzzi steamer with a floor attachment. I want something a little better for the floors, but I love it for counters, the kitchen and the bathroom. I use a damp cloth for polishing wood. Course my house is a wreck, with dog hair, and tomato sauce everywhere (I canned this weekend) so I don't think cleaning tips from me are exactly what you should run with

I'll admit I do still have some chemical stuff around, mostly cause DH will NOT start up the steam cleaner so I have the wipey things with cleaner on them for him...he bought them in bulk and he can have those as long as they last, when they are gone, no more...he's been spoken to.

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by aclee

Am I getting a reputation? LOL

I only use steam for cleaning, I have a scunzzi steamer with a floor attachment. I want something a little better for the floors, but I love it for counters, the kitchen and the bathroom. I use a damp cloth for polishing wood. Course my house is a wreck, with dog hair, and tomato sauce everywhere (I canned this weekend) so I don't think cleaning tips from me are exactly what you should run with

YOU CAN TOO????

Well I just started using Vinegar and Water in my Scooba. It has to be white vinegar and you can't be too shy about how much you use....I only use vinegar on the floors though. The house smells like a salad for an hour or two but then it's fresh and lovely after that. On glass and counters I now use Clorox Green Works Surface and Glass ....not a money saver but natural and works great.

I use the baking soda separately with a scrub sponge in the tub.

My best trick though is you take a bowl of water in a microwave safe bowl. Put two tablespoons pure lemon juice in the water and turn on high for 3 minutes. Take a sponge or rag and wipe. Everything (even tomato sauce Aclee) inside the microwave just wipes right off and the lemon freshes teh smell...it's amazing.

I have recently started cutting way back on the paper towels and using rags. Makes me feel less guilty about the disposable diapers!

[aclee]

Originally Posted by Stormster

I have recently started cutting way back on the paper towels and using rags. Makes me feel less guilty about the disposable diapers!

Me too...I even have a wash cloth that is "Ty's" for after dinner clean up. I wash him up every night, and the hit with a tiny squirt of laundry detergent and wash it out with hot water, hang it on the edge of the sink. It the dogs don't pull it down and run around the house with it as a toy...I use it a few nights in a row...

Yes...I can. I did 12 quart and 12 pints of sauce this past weekend. 4 of the quarts and 4 of the pints were whole, blanched (and peeled) small plum tomato in sauce....YUM. I stuff basil in there too while the sauce is hot...that stuff makes Winter in New England ALMOST bearable. Course now that I'm gluten free, it's RICE pasta for me!

I also do Jelly's and Jam's...everyone screams at me that they want my jellies...but I hoard them...HOARD THEM I SAY! It's a lot of work...SO worth it though. I do about 1/2 fresh picked fruit, and 1/2 frozen fruit to supplement and cut the cost. If I could find a real farmers market I would go there any buy in bulk, but I just can't find one.

I don't can veggies...I don't have a pressure canner (they scare me...fine call me a baby!) and we can't add salt because of DH diet restrictions (I know, we're a mess) so I vac pack them and stick them in the freezer. I also did 12 ears of corn, and a HUGE batch of swiss chard/beet green to freeze (hopefully, before DH eats them all) and a big batch of roasted beets...don't know if I'll freeze the beets though...they are too freaking yummy.

My life is FAR less idealist than it sounds....come live it...seriously....come save me!!! I do to much sometimes. One thing I don't do too much of...Laundry. Seriously...I have to work on that.

I have been thinking about starting to make my own dog food...or do a raw diet for them. DH said he would leave me. All he wants is clean underwear...

[lovemy2boys]

Originally Posted by Stormster

I have recently started cutting way back on the paper towels and using rags.

We NEVER have paper towels/napkins in the house and it drives my mom crazy! It seems like the only time we have them is if we get take out...but I am definately going to use the lemon trick!

Aclee, I don't know if a pressure canner is the same concept as a pressure cooker, but a few years ago, my Mom was making soup in her pressure cooker...My Dad went over to it to look at the top (I don't know if there is a pressure gage or a thermometer on it or what) and as he turned to walk away, on a total fluke, the seal broke and the lid exploded off of it - It put a hole in their ceiling and when it fell, it dented their stove...the heat peeled the seems of the wallpaper on their kitchen walls...

Had my Dad been leaning over it 5 seconds later, he could have been seriously injured...or worse!

[aclee]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

We NEVER have paper towels/napkins in the house and it drives my mom crazy! It seems like the only time we have them is if we get take out...but I am definately going to use the lemon trick!

Aclee, I don't know if a pressure canner is the same concept as a pressure cooker, but a few years ago, my Mom was making soup in her pressure cooker...My Dad went over to it to look at the top (I don't know if there is a pressure gage or a thermometer on it or what) and as he turned to walk away, on a total fluke, the seal broke and the lid exploded off of it - It put a hole in their ceiling and when it fell, it dented their stove...the heat peeled the seems of the wallpaper on their kitchen walls...

Had my Dad been leaning over it 5 seconds later, he could have been seriously injured...or worse!

They are the same. This is why when I met DH, his went in the garbage. He says that when you can in it, it's safer cause anything that could cause it to explode is inside the jars, not in the water...and he says the new ones have some kind of safety where they let the pressure go if it gets too high or something. They scare me and I can do without it, so I do...

[Stormster]

I have a pressure cooker and was way into it but now I'm not into it all but not because I'm afraid of it (sissies ) I hate it because I may be brave but I'm lazy. Soooo much prep time! Now I want a slow cooker that I can just giant veggies in half (sort of) and throw it in there and let it cook all day. Sounds far easier!

Aclee I am the Laundry lady! I wish you lived closer I would barter laundry for sauce!

[Fran27]

Oh I love that lemon trick for the microwave. I hate cleaning that thing... I'll try it out

About rags, I need to get more... But even clean stuff has hair all over from all the pets so I still need to use paper towels to dry dishes.

[aclee]

Originally Posted by Fran27

About rags, I need to get more... But even clean stuff has hair all over from all the pets so I still need to use paper towels to dry dishes.

I hear you on the pet hair....course I'm lazy and let the stuff air dry...makes DH crazy...so he does the dishes

[binkybear]

I use baking soda on the oven grates, for tough stuck on stuff with pots, or baking soda with salt to scrub down my veggie cutting board. But mostly right now we use the Earth Friendly Products. The all purpsoe concentrate makes 5.5 gallons (that's a ton of cleaner) and the vinegar window cleaner leaves zero streaks on windows or appliances. Earth Friendly Products

I've had a "rag bag" in the laundry room for years. If a tshirt, sweat shirt, towel, etc comes out of the dryer looking way too sad to wear or use I just cut it up right there. Socks with holes go in for "dusting mits" We use 'em and then throw them into their own little hamper to wash and reuse.

[ourdreamcametru]

I pretty much get away with baking soda instead of comet to scrub, viniger instead of windex for glass and a damp rag instead of dust wax on wood. I never use paper towels, I have a bag of rags that get washed and reused. There are days that I miss the smell of a clean house but our allergies are so much better this way. My biggest improvement has to be buying a bagless vac. I wash it out after every use so that bag of dust isn't just hanging around.

[mom2zachy]

Wow! Great tips...I have nothing to offer, just here to scarf up all the help I can get....

Oh wait, one my MIL uses....vinegar in the coffee pot. I was using bleach. She almost had a stroke.

I usually use whatever Earth friendly, non toxic cleaner I can find. I like the Earth friendly aspect and I like the fact that DS, who is into EVERYTHING, doesn't have to have a heart attack when I scream "NO! POISON! DON'T TOUCH!"....

With a Rottweiler, a Pug, a hairy husband, a wrestle-into-the-shower 10 year old and a toddler, my house is pretty much trashed a lot of the time. But I do clean...and the change to a bagless vacuum and using re-using cloth towels instead of paper towels for many clean up jobs has been a good transition for us...

[lovemy2boys]

What I'd love to start doing, as well, is to buy large jugs/concentrated formulas and use spray bottles instead of throwing away all this plastic! (Well, recycling...)

We were up north last week, and there is no trash pick-up, so we have to drive the garbage to a dump and pay a guy to dump it there...And just seeing what we threw away in a few days, even after burning the paper, doing the whole compost thing with food, etc. it really opened my eyes to that.

Plus, we got home and I couldn't find the windex, and thought to myself, ya know, if I can clean just as well with natural things as opposed to chemical things, why not?

I think I'm going through some sort of crisis - one of my little guys starts 1st grade tomorrow and I'm just not myself...lol

[Stormster]

First grade is a VERY big deal!

Guys that lemon water gets VERY hot in the microwave. Remove it carefully!

[belleinblue1978]

Vingear ROCKS.. it is excellent to clean cabinets too, to take the grease off.

Not necessarily natural, but toothpaste takes ink off of tables.

I use baking soda with vingar to clean my coffee carafe.... Vinegar through it to clean out the lime in the actual maker though.