I do a combination of homemade and commercially-prepared cleaners:
~ Baking soda completely replaced all cleansers. I asked friends for their empty parmesan cheese shakers (plastic ones with "fancy" lid to shake or pour) since I dislike that stuff. I have one container of baking soda upstairs and one downstairs. I use it in sinks, tubs, pots/pans, anything that needs more oomph to clean. Sprinkle or pour it on (depends on level of grossness
) and I find a dry cloth works better than a damp one, but it depends on the surface. The cleaning power is great, but the best part IMO is that it rinses clean away much easier and faster than all other cleaners I had used in the past. I love scrubbing the bath tub now because it is sooooo much faster to clean!
~ White vinegar mixed with plain water, roughly 50/50, in a spray bottle has replaced most spray cleaners for me. I spray directly on the counter or window or whatever and wipe with a t-shirt cloth (cut up old t-shirts). I have one spray bottle on each level of the house and a stack of cloths nearby. This cleans BETTER than commercial cleaners, IMO, and although vinegar has a strong smell, I like it better than the perfumey smells of commercial stuff. The vinegar smells fades quickly and EOs are expensive, so I don't bother adding them to my homemade cleaners unless I want the therapeutic benefits for something specific.
~ Dishwashing liquid is something I like to buy. I love trying out new natural brands. In fact, I just got one today at the discount store for $2. The ingredient list looks natural and fun (pure EOs are added) and it smelled good in the bottle. We'll see how well it works later. (I try them immediately after buying to make sure I don't want to return it, then I move it to the back of the cabinet.) I also like BioKleen and Seventh Generation. BioKleen works better for me, but 7th Gen smells better.
~ Dishwasher detergent is something I'd like to learn to make, but we use Ecover and it works well in our hard water. I think it depends on the mineral content of your "hard" water. Ours is VERY high in calcium and many regular brands don't even work. I recently found a dishwasher gel product that smells divine while the machine is running and worked well. I forget the brand name. I only used it once after buying it to be sure I didn't need to return it, then I put it away until the current box of Ecover powder is gone. I buy my natural products at the discount store (like a scratch & dent place, I think, from other people's descriptions...it is local only) and they do not always carry specific brands, so I am at their mercy or paying full price at the HFS, which I refuse to do because it is just beyond what I consider reasonable.
~ Laundry detergent is something I just decided today that I should probably learn to make myself. It has really gone up in price, even at the discount store and good ones are getting hard to find at reasonable prices. Anyway, I am not picky with this product as long as it is unscented or only scented with EOs. I have a Seventh Generation powder and Arm & Hammer clear liquid right now.
~ Wipes...I keep a package of these around for DH. If I don't, he'll buy them and he won't look for a good price. If he wants to clean the bathroom, I let him use whatever he wants!
~ Toilet bowl cleaner is the last holdout from the nasty chemical-filled junk. DH refuses to use plain vinegar even though he sees that it works because that is what I use and I clean the bathrooms more than he does. I tried tricking him, too.
(Refilled icky bottles with plain vinegar.) He went out and bought THREE bottles of the nasty stuff since we have three toilets. Ugh. I don't mind the wipes so much because the scent is really mild in the ones I buy, but toilet bowl cleaner is just way too strong for me.
~ I make my own insect repellents and room fresheners with water and essential oils. I make it in a glass measuring cup and then pour it into a spray bottle. SHAKE and spray. They smell good and WORK!!!
I am too thrifty to throw away cleaners. I used most of them up along the way as I switched over. Some I did give away. Some friends were having a garage sale and we did a swap where they gave us some things that matched our kitchen and some baby items (our first baby and their youngest was just over a year) for a bunch of stuff we no longer needed before/after moving from an apartment to our first house. Cleaning supplies were a big part of that swap (mostly DH's). The wife later told me our cleaning products were the biggest hit at the garage sale and went for prices close to brand new at the grocery store and people were fighting over them! That is when I decided *my* preferences/morals certainly were not universal.
for a laundry booster or for any job that needs that added scrubbing whiteness (100 year old porcelin sink) or to deoderize the sink - it does a lot, just read the fine (and I do mean fine!) print on the back of the box and for $5 a box, you can't beat it!
