For as long as I can remember, my mother has made most of her own cleaners and I haven't been following her example...and I should.
My first venture into homemade cleaners was when we remodeled our kitchen and we got the granite counters. Because of the sealant you should not use a regular kitchen cleaner because it can harm the sealant. You should reseal your granite about once a year and using a harsh cleaner can strip off your sealant. Blasen called SC Johnson to see which of their cleaners are okay to use on granite surfaces. They were very nice and suggested we use Pledge Multi-Surface or Windex Multi-Surface cleaners...they even sent some great coupons. The Pledge I would use as more of a polish, but I used the Windex Multi-Surface cleaner for awhile as an everyday cleaner. I used all my great coupons and my cleaner ran-out.
Instead of buying more, I decided to make my own, because all it is is white vinegar and water. Duh. How stupid to even be purchasing this. White vinegar is soooo inexpensive. I swear you can get a gallon for under $2...maybe a bit more but not much more. I fill my old cleaner bottle with half vinegar half water, give it a shake and I'm good to go. It does have a vinegary smell but it goes away when it dries, which doesn't take long. For all you germaphobs...vinegar does kill bacteria, germs, and mold. So, you may want to switch over to vinegar/water mixture to save some money.
So, my second venture has been laundry soap. I've been hesitant for awhile now because Blasen likes "smell-good" detergents. Which is understandable...who wants stinky laundry detergent. Me, I'm fine with no smell. We've sort-of trained ourselves to associate nice smell with clean. This year, I'm wanting to find new ways to pinch pennies. Again, all the small stuff adds up over time. I was mulling it over one day and it finally dawned on me. I'll make scented cleaner, duh. I even had the how. Surely those people who make homemade hand soaps use something. I went to Hobby Lobby and sure enough in the soap/lotion making section were some oils that are used to scent soap and lotion. Now I just need my supplies.
1 box of Arm and Hammer washing soda
1 box of Borax
bar soap, I used Fels-Naptha, a laundry soap.
essential oil, I used grapefruit
I used the recipe found at DIYNatural. The guy there breaks it down and figures its costs about $.05/load. He did not use the oil and I used about half the bottle, but I quadrupled the recipe he uses(1c soda, 1 cup borax, 1 4.5oz shaved bar of soap).
I use 1-2 Tbsp/load, depending on how large my load.
I've used it for 3 weeks now and my clothes are clean and are lightly scented of grapefruit. Just as a side note, when you mix your detergent, it takes awhile to get the soap flakes well incorporated.
Now, there are also recipes for making liquid detergent. From what I understand, you use the same ingredients but with water. My sister uses this type and she reused her old dispenser and used a funnel to pour in the homemade liquid detergent.
And if you're thinking it's not worth the time...it took me maybe 10 minutes to mix up my batch.
Just another simple way to save some money. And now I'm looking forward to trying some other cleaners.
5 comments:
I really like the liquid version. I'm so glad we talked about the essential oils! I'm going to add some to my already made batches and try it out. K likes smelly detergent, too. Me? I like no smell, but like you, I concede. I'll head out and get some oils this weekend. Thanks for the tip!
yay! One day I will try homemade laundry detergent. Maybe when my current soap is out. I like the idea of the oil... I love the smell of my purex so finding something that smells good would be a necessity. OOH Mike would love some type of orange blossom.... hmmmm
We had a relief society meeting about ways to save money around the home, and one lady in my ward here who is convinced all the chemicals in everything we use from deoderant to laundry detergent is going to kill us led the class. I think she's a little too over the top, but I did save her recipe for detergent (and she really does make their own deoderant). She brought some of the clothes she washed so we could smell them and she uses those same essential oils and they smell good! Of course, this was after I bought about six jugs of Arm and Hammer liquid detergent (my favorite!) at the Commissary because I got a 96 load jug for $3.00! I'm almost to the end of all those, and want to try this when we get moved to Utah. It's ridiculous how much laundry and I do. We need to catch up!
Do you have any idea if this can be used in a High Efficiency washer? I know they make those detergents to suds less so they'll actually get clean - the washers use so much less water.
I suppose I could google it, but I just thought you might have read about it in your research. LOL
Just be careful with essential oils, as they can damage fabrics over time.
Though probably no more so than chemically created scents...
Rachael, yes you can use it in HE washers. I think it suds hardly at all. I used it to hand wash some stuff and it did not sud at all.
Also thanks for the heads-up about the essential oils.
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