Make Your Own Multi-Purpose Cleaner
I spent a few years trying to come up with just the right recipe for a multipurpose cleaner. At first I simple mixed some castile soap with water and tried using that. It works OK for some surfaces but not for others. Then I tried adding vinegar but that didn’t quite work either. I wanted something that would disinfect, clean, cut grease, and do away with stains and odors. Somehow I ended up with this recipe and I LOVE it.
I use it for everything, cleaning my hardwood floors, toilets, windows, pet stains on the carpet, and it also gets rid of pet odor like you wouldn’t believe. It’s also so really great at getting rid of stains, but beware, it’s so good that you might notice a clean spot and the rest of your carpet might look a little dingy (from personal experience).
HOMEMADE MULTI-PURPOSE CLEANER
1/2 cup peroxide (the regular kind in a brown bottle)
1/2 cup distilled water
1/2 teaspoon castile soap or Sal-Suds*
(*Note that as Sage pointed out in her comment Sal Suds from Dr Bronners does contain SLS. I keep a bottle around and use it sparingly only if I actually do need to dissolve grease from my hands/clothing. It’s then followed up with castile soap to remove any residual SLS. Definitely not something you want to us all the time. )
Mix ingredients in spray bottle, use for cleaning floors, dusting furniture, cleaning toilets and other hard surfaces. This is also a powerful stain cutter and odor pet neutralizer. Make sure to test on an inconspicuous spot before using over a large area of your furniture or carpet. I spray my furniture and carpet without issue, but all fabrics are different. The Sal Suds will cut grease better than a regular castile soap will, that makes it perfect for cleaning windows.
When it comes to mixing up your own homemade cleaners, don’t be afraid to tweak things, add more soap, less soap, swap in vinegar. Just be sure not to mix ammonia & bleach (do you even keep those in your house?). A while ago I purchase The Naturally Clean Home. It’s filled with 150 different recipes for cleaning just about anything you can think of, including a number to clean various surfaces in your home, even one to can make your own car wax. For me, having one that use for everything makes it easy, I don’t want a bunch of bottles of various things sitting around. Sure every now and then I might need something special for cleaning carpets or something else, in case I’ll grab this book and mix up one batch to use. Other than that, you’ll find me using this mix for everything!
If you’d like to have a nice reference filled with a bunch of different recipes I’d recommend purchasing The Naturally Clean Home. For less than $10 it’s a valuable resource to have on hand. Who knows, perhaps you can even start a small business mixing up non-toxic cleaning products to sell at your local farmers market!
Is there anyone in your area that sells homemade non-toxic cleaning products? Would you be willing to purchase them from a small local business?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
and more to come
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Mix Your Own Foaming Hand Wash
I LOVE foaming hand wash. It’s quicker to use and it uses so much less soap than using a straight liquid. My foaming soap dispensers were Method Brand dispensers. I like theirs, so I purchase them with soap, used up the soap and refill them with plain castile soap from Mt Rose Herbs. Here’s how I do it.
HOMEMADE FOAMING SOAP
1/4 cup of plain castile soap (the ones with essential oils will clog your foaming dispenser)
1 cup water (I use filtered)
Pour soap into dispenser. Note the level on the bottle and make a mental note or draw a line with a permanent marker, then you won’t have to measure each time. Slowly add water, don’t add too fast or it will foam up. Replace cap and gently shake to mix soap and water.
It’s really that easy, I promise. I’ve tried a variety of soaps in my dispensers and most of them use the same general recipe. You could use dishwashing liquid in place of the castile soap. Personally, I like to find a product that I can use for all applications so I only have to keep one bottle around. Now I buy castile soap by the gallon from Mt Rose Herbs and I use it for everything. I no longer need to keep: dishwashing liquid, hand soap, bathroom cleaners, etc. Just one bottle instead of 4 or 5.
This is what I use for scrubbing up all of our dishes in the kitchen (and they all get washed by hand). In the bathrooms we now use a bar of soap which we get from a Lavemé Clean. Wendy traveled to Colombia in 2011 was moved by what she experienced. She knew she had to help and upon her return to the States she started making all natural soap (here’s her story). Wendy and her kids now make soap and send one bar of soap to Colombia for every bar she sells. The same soap you buy is the same soap that gets sent down to Colombia. My dad helps deliver these soaps to the slums of Colombia to help them maintain a clean standard of living and avoid disease.
Are you a bar soap, liquid soap, or foaming soap household?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
and more to come
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Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
A few years ago I detoxed my cleaning routine. Before that I was using “green” products, but they can be pricey and sometimes they’re not any better than regular products. Some of them still contain artificial fragrances, along with toxic ingredients. Once you get rid of all of your old cleaning products and stock your cleaning kit with a few inexpensive items you’ll never look back. Your house will be sparkling clean and you won’t have to worry about what is in those cleaners lurking in the cabinet. Here’s what I have in my cleaning kit:
CLEANING SUPPLIES
carrying case
vinegar* – you can use white or apple cider vinegar (I prefer apple cider vinegar because it’s not made from petroleum and I can make it myself) I keep a squirt bottle and spray bottle with vinegar.
baking soda – which is easy and inexpensive to obtain in bulk
castile soap (regular and scented if desired)
peroxide
essential oils if desired for fragrance & cleaning power
spray bottles
foaming soap dispenser
parmesan cheese shaker
cotton rags
variety of scrubbers & sponges
old toothbrushes
pumice stone
*if you dislike the smell of vinegar, consider infusing it with citrus peels, lavender or herbs – here’s how.
Fill a parmesan cheese shaker with baking soda and keep one in your cleaning kit and one by your kitchen sink. Baking soda is the perfect non-abrasive scouring cleaner to give your sinks, toilets, tubs and pretty much everything that nice shine. It’s especially nice for cleaning stainless steel pans and leaves them sparkling. Baking soda is also a natural odor absorber. Keeping it in a cheese shaker makes it super convenient to use. You can simply save a plastic shaker jar, I happened to have these glass ones that I use since I don’t purchase pre-ground parmesan cheese. I’ve been using them for about 10 years without ever breaking them.
In my cleaning kit you will also find a spray bottle filled with vinegar and one filled with my own homemade multipurpose spray (recipe to come later this week). Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and is perfect for spraying countertops after cutting raw meat. It also is a fantastic soap scum buster, spray on sinks, tubs and showers, let sit for 10-15 then scrub with castile soap. No need for a that super blue liquid for cleaning mirrors & windows, use plain vinegar (citrus infused vinegar works even better) or the multipurpose spray on windows & mirrors. Spray on and buff off with a cotton towel or a microfiber. You can use saved spray bottles but I prefer to get new ones, then I know they don’t have any chemicals that have leeched into the plastic. You can find a variety of them on-line, this Clear Spray Bottle 16 oz. is nice and I also love this colorful Crystal & Neon Mist Bottles as well. A foaming soap dispenser is also a great thing to have, you can purchase empty ones. All of mine were Method bottles.
Castile soap is one of the best when it comes to non-toxic cleaning, it comes in unscented or with essential oils. You can use Dr. Bronner Organic Castile Soap if you’d like, I purchase mine in gallon jugs from Mt Rose Herbs. If you want the essential oil castile soap, Dr Bronner’s come in a wide variety of scents like peppermint citrus, lavender, tea tree, rose, almond and my favorite eucalyptus. I also keep a bottle of Dr Bronner’s Sal Suds* on hand and linseed oil soap, they’re fantastic at busting grime and dirt that regular castile soap won’t (like that burnt on grease that gets on your oven mirror and super dirty rags). Sal Suds does contain SLS though, even though it’s biodegradable I use it sparingly and only when needed. <em>*Note that as Sage pointed out Sal Suds from Dr Bronners does contain SLS. I keep a bottle around and use it sparingly only if I actually do need to dissolve grease from my hands/clothing. It’s then followed up with castile soap to remove any residual SLS. </em>
You’ll also want to keep a variety of scrubbers, sponges, old toothbrushes, q-tips and a pumice stone in your cleaning kit. Keep whatever kind of scrubbers you like to use. I’ve talked about my love of Twist Sponges here, they’re compostable and made from all natural materials. Why a pumice stone? It works at getting those tough rings off the porcelain of your toilet. Although it does still take some elbow grease, it’s easier to just keep the toilet clean in the first place.
I also keep some rags in my cleaning kit, along with a microfiber (although I admit that I hate microfiber with a passion and when these wear out I will not replace them). I’m more of an old towel cut up for rags than a paper towel kind of gal, I think they work so much better and are much more absorbent. The microfiber will come in handy for polishing mirrors and faucets (though a towel works just as well).
All my cleaning supplies fit in this shower caddy that I picked up a long time ago for a few dollars. When I’m not cleaning it lives in the laundry room closet. When I’m going to clean I grab it and work my way around the house. The rest of this week I’ll be showing you my methods for using these products to clean the cottage here at Chiot’s Run. We’ll go room by room and I’ll share any tips I’ve learned along the way, like non-toxic toilet cleaning made easy (which a lot of you asked about).
The truth is that it’s easiest to keep you home clean, you’ll spend far less time if you maintain clean rather than letting it completely out of control. This is often when people feel like they have to reach for heavy duty toxic cleaners.
What’s your biggest cleaning challenge?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Homemade Whitening Scouring Scrub
Non-Toxic Cleaning: Doing the Dishes
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
and more to come
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Quote of the Day: Nigel Slater
Mrs Pearman’s house was a home in every sense of the word. A place where a daughter or son would suddenly turn up without warning, expecting, and getting, supper or Sunday lunch. Where every piece of furniture seemed to have a history and where every daily event was faithfully recorded in photograph albums. It was warm and happy, untidy and cozy. There was always a jug of garden flowers on the kitchen table and milk in the fridge. And like all good homes Mrs Pearman’s also had an overriding smell of golden retriever.
Nigel Slater from Toast
Around here it’s hit or miss. You can come to my house one day and it’s clean as can be or come the next and it’s a bit crazy. It all depends on what’s going on, how many seeds I’m planting, if I ‘m canning, or if we’ve been traveling all day for a few days. My house is usually clean, but it’s often a tad cluttered (there is a difference).
I used to be quite a neatnik, sweeping and mopping several times a day, especially after we first got the chiots. Then I lightened up a bit as I acquired more and more hobbies. Now I’m actually a little more comfortable when the house is a bit cluttered. When you live in a small house and the dining room table is the craft table, sewing table, seed starting table, work table, and the canning table it can get a little messy at times. I used to try to clean everything up when people came over, but then I realized it didn’t matter. People know we live here, and sometimes, life is messy.
If you ever stop in for a visit our home will look like people live here. A whole lot of life happens at Chiot’s Run and at times it really shows, especially on our dining room table! You can always tell how busy we are by what our dining room table looks like.
What part of your house starts to show life first?
