Squeaky Clean!

What kind of blog-writing-stay-at-home-mom would I be if I didn't post my favorite homemade cleaners?!?

A good friend read on the internet that stay-at-home moms are cancer prone because of the chemicals that they breathe in on a daily basis…… SO….. as faithful pinners and pinterest scrollers, she and I have made a few different homemade cleaners.

Vinegar. Do you know what vinegar can do? This site has tons of ideas. I haven't tried them all yet!

I do have a spray bottle with 2 parts vinegar, 1 part water. I was using it to clean almost everything but my husband complained about the pickle smell. I thought the price was well worth the smell, even after I tried masking it with Scentsy warmers. We compromised a little...

 Here are my favorite:


BATHTUB CLEANER:

• 1 part dawn
• 1 part vinegar

This is a famous pin and so worth making. I bought a sponge/soap holder thing for convenience. Mix the dawn and vinegar in the holder. Scrub tub, rinse. For deep cleaning, sprinkle baking soda around the tub first. 

KITCHEN CLEANER                                    

• spray bottle                                                   
• water
• vinegar
• tree tea oil
• dawn

BATHROOM CLEANER

• spray bottle
• water
• vinegar
• borax
• tea tree oil

For both kitchen and bathroom cleaners, I put 1 part water and 1 part vinegar (to fill bottle 3/4 full). Several drops of the oil was added to each and 1 tablespoon of dawn or borax. 

Tea tree oil is anti-fungal and vinegar is anti-bacterial or maybe it's vice versa. The oil leaves a nice, fresh scent. ***KEEP IT OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN! IT CAN BE HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED***

If you have a Cameo, I can send you the file for the labels. I'm sure there's some way to post on here but I can't figure it out!

LAUNDRY SOAP

The link is here. 

I have tried to make dishwasher soap but the recipes that I tried didn't leave my dishes as clean as I like. I'm open to your suggestions!

Homemade Laundry Soap

I have been making my own laundry soap for over a year now. A friend sent the recipe to me and another friend and I made it one afternoon and LOVE it. I think the main reason we chose powder form is so we could stick a cute vinyl label on the container! It's so much cheaper than name brands and I think it works better. Here are step-by-step instructions:

Ingredients:

• 1 box Borax (4 lb.)
• 1 box Baking Soda (4 lb.)
• 1 box Washing Soda (3 lb. 7 oz)
• 3 bars Fels-Naptha Soap
• Oxi Clean (I use about 2 lbs)

Wal-Mart conveniently has the ingredients all together in the laundry section.

I usually cut the recipe in half but decided to make a full batch today. I mix it over a double lined trash can.

Directions:

1. Shave the bars of soap. I use a Pampered Chef microplane. You can order one here. This is the hardest part but the bright side is getting a good triceps workout.

2. Pour in the other ingredients (slowly). It's somewhat strong so keep a little distance!

4. Mix together.

I have a glass container from Hobby Lobby to store the soap in. You can order a cute vinyl label from me here.

For HE machines, use 1-2 tbsp soap per load. 

For standard machines, use 1/2 cup-3/4 cup per load.

note: There is very little smell for this recipe. I add smell good beads to most of my loads.

This is so easy to make and costs $11.77 (before the oxi-clean). It lasts my family of 7 for months!