Compassion

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Homemade Cleaners

Ever since I tried (and succeeded) in making my own laundry detergent, I've had an itch to try replacing other cleaners with homemade versions.  One, for the price and two, to ease up on the chemicals in the house.  Our huge bucket of laundry detergent that has lasted at LEAST six months now cost us less than $6.  I don't even include laundry detergent in our small-anyway grocery budget anymore.  Amazing, right??  I know you're amazed.

Of course, I still want to first and foremost KILL THE GERMS.  That is my number one priority.  But if I can also save my nostrils from some burning (along with probably a few brain cells here and there) and keep a little extra cash in my pocket in the process, I'm all for it.

So today, I tried making this recipe for homemade "shower cleaner" that really could be used on almost anything.  It's basically equal proportions of vinegar and dish soap mixed together ... I was skeptical, but the blogger claimed to have tried numerous different recipes over the course of two weeks and that this was the one she liked the most and that it "smelled amazing!".  So I tried it.  Now I'm wondering what else she tried .... it's horrible! =P  I ended up mixing in some lemon juice, lemon extract and water to try to tone down the vinegar smell ... it helped, but not enough.  And it seems like there's way too much soap STILL (after watering it down a bunch) because when I spray it, it doesn't just wipe off, it's all soapy and probably leaving a film.  I will say that it cut through the grease on our stove pretty easily.  So that's good.  It might be a good base recipe, but the proportions are all off.  And you either need some strong lemon oil or a strong-smelling dish soap to counteract the vinegar smell unless you want your kitchen/bathroom to smell like you've just been dying Easter eggs all day.  The dish soap I happened to have was original scent, so that may be part of the reason for my troubles.

I guess I'll keep looking ... I found this website that looks pretty promising.  Their proportions are 2 T vinegar to 2 CUPS of water and 10-15 drops of essential oils.  Uh yeah.  The other one was definitely off.  I honestly don't know what she could have done to make that work ... probably should have taken the time to read the comments. =P

Some exciting news ... in my quest for homemade cleaners, I've also been finding many other recipes for homemade goodies - peanut butter, eye makeup remover, starbucks brownie cake pops ... yay!

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