Best Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner

I told you in my last post that I was going to be giving you recipes for homemade cleaners.  This is by far the most fantastic recipe I have for grout, and soap scum.  I am going to give you an alternative recipe too, but by far my favorite is the first one. It is well worth going to the health food store to have in stock the essential oils used.  Not only can you use them in homemade cleaners, but you can also add them to other recipes such as the body balms I have posted long ago.

1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup washing soda*
1/2 cup liquid castille soap**
25 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops lemon essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil
2 tablespoon white vinegar

*Washing soda can be found in the laundry soap aisle of your grocery store.  It is usually located by laundry booster type products.

**Liquid castille soap can be bought at the health food store (usually Dr. Bronners is sold there).  A better option is Trader Joes brand.  Dr. Bronners brand has freakish literature on the label which I do not support!

All you do is mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.  I find a Mason jar with the plastic lids they sell for Mason jars to work best.  To use, place a small amount of the cleaner on a toothbrush (for cleaning grout) or a sponge (for sinks).  Dampen it a little, and scrub away! It works and smells so good you will want to clean your bathroom every day!  O.K., maybe that's just me, but nonetheless it works great.

The alternative recipe is this:

1/4 cup baking soda
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup fine sea salt
2 tablespoons liquid castille soap or dish soap
enough white vinegar to make a paste

Mix and use just as the other.

Glass Cleaner

A big part of my day involves cleaning.  No big surprise there right.  I am a mother of four and I love to entertain so it basically comes with the territory.  A couple of years ago when I took the plunge into making my own laundry soap, I decided to buy as little other cleaning products as well.

My sister and I were so excited to share these cleaning products with others. We used the talent of my oldest daughter (a photographer and graphic designer) to make us labels, made lots of product,  rented a table at the local farmers market and stood in 100 degree heat.  I would love to say it went fantastic, but it did not.  In fact, we had so many left over products that I just recently ran out of cleaners and needed to make more.  

I would like to take the next few posts to give out some of the recipes my sister and I use to clean our homes.  I did post the laundry detergent quite a while ago.  You can search for it in the search bar along the side of this blog.  As for now, here is how I make my glass cleaner.

What you need:

1 spray bottle

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 tablespoon corn starch (optional, but I really to include it)

2 cups warm water

Put all the ingredients in the spray bottle and shake it up (if you are adding the corn starch, shake before each use as the corn starch will settle on the bottom).  Now you have a couple of reasons to smile.  One, you just saved some money over buying traditional glass cleaner and you have a better product.  Two, you don't have to worry about breathing in the fumes!