Spring Cleaning on a budget

I never really understood the idea of "Spring Cleaning." To me it sounded pretty gross to wait until a specific season. I get these sporadic bursts of energy where I must clean this or that. They usually end up with my house looking way more chaotic than before. You know what I mean. You decide to reorganize your closet and the entire house looks like it exploded. This happens pretty often to me because the rental house we are staying in is pretty small compared to the house we lived in before. I am always trying to move things around to "make more room."

Anyway, yesterday I got the urge to clean all of the baseboards in my house. It was raining outside and I was feeling pretty cooped up. I don't like to be indoors if I don't absolutely have to. So I decided to distract myself by doing some random task. I was excited because it gave me another excuse to use the homemade wood cleaner I had whipped up about a week ago. I found it in a library book called "The naturally clean home; 101 safe and easy herbal formulas for nontoxic cleansers" by Karyn Siegel-Maier. It was fantastic. I'm thinking about buying it for myself from Amazon.

I really enjoy making my own household cleaning solutions for the same reason that I enjoy making my own food from scratch. I know what is going into it. I don't have to wonder what isopropyl alcohol or tetrasodium pyrophosphate is, and more importantly, is it really safe? When you are only using a few ingredients the most I have to worry about is not mixing baking soda and vinegar together. Also, it is much cheaper!

A few weeks (or months---I can't keep up with time anymore) I went shopping with a friend who was buying cleaning supplies for her home. She had ran out of everything and needed to restock. I didn't really need anything, and was just tagging along for the company. She was right. She was out of everything. Laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, wood cleaner, window cleaner, disinfectant, toilet bowl cleaner---the works. This is all that she purchased on this trip and the total was around about $60.00! I was floored.

Before I started to make my own cleaners, I had never really made one trip to the store to buy everything. I guess I never ran out of everything at the same time so I never knew how much I was spending for the whole kit and caboodle. I'm not really sure how much cleaners cost per use. That would involve elaborate math and that is something that isn't in my job description. However, I do know that you can make your own cleaning products for a fraction of the cost of buying them in the store. The best part is that most of them require the same ingredients so you really do not have to purchase that much to start out. As I have mentioned before, all you really need is baking soda, vinegar, borax, and super washing soda, castile soap, lemon juice and some essential oils (if you'd like). Some of these are more expensive than others (like the liquid castile soap which is around $14.00), but most of the ingredients can be bought even in bulk for under $5.00.

I made my own laundry detergent after finding the recipe on the Women's Voices for the Earth website. They also have instructions for Green Cleaning parties which I have been seriously contemplating hosting for a while now. However, whenever I mentioned this people just tended to snub their noses at the idea. I don't know if it just seemed like a lot of work, or if they were just happy with their own cleaners, but I didn't think that anyone would be interested. Lately, I've been reconsidering the idea. After talking to a few of the ladies from the sewing group I am thinking that I might have a few takers. Ladies, if you are reading this let me know if you'd like to come to one. I think it would be a good time.

As I mentioned before, I found a ton of great recipes in the book by Karyn Siegel-Maier. However, if you're not able to get the book, there are more than enough resources on the web. Just Google what you are looking for: "How to make your own Windex" or "How to make your own Febreze" and you should find more results than you'd even know what to do with. Also, there are several blogs dedicated to such topics like Healthy Child, Healthy World or Simple Organic just to name a few. Also, here is a few that I am already using. Enjoy!

Herbal Mist Spray (Air freshener)
Wash a container and fill it with water. Add 5-7 drops of essential oil per 8 oz of water.

Rug and Carpet Deodorizer
I have not yet used this one, but it is on my list!

1 cup Borax
1 cup baking soda (Tracy talks about how wonderful this ingredient is here)
½ cup cornmeal
15 drops of your favorite essential oil (or try mixing two of your favorites together)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Break up any clumps. Sprinkle mixture over carpet/rug. Wait several hours (overnight) and vacuum up!

Dusting Aid
½ cup of oil soap (Murphy's Oil)
¾ cup of warm water
5 drops of essential oil (I used orange)

Put into spray bottle and go!

Fabric Softener
1 gallon vinegar
10-20 drops of your favorite essential oil.

Add 1 cup per load to rinse cycle.

Basic Laundry Soap Liquid
I have been meaning to try this one

1 ounce liquid castile soap
2 Tablespoons glycerin
1 cup washing soda
1 cup baking soda
2 cups warm water
10 drops essential oil

Put all ingredients into a heavy plastic container. Shake well. Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.

Kitchen Floor Cleaner
1 gallon hot water
2 Tablespoons liquid castile soap
15 drops orange essential oil (use whatever you'd like)
¼ cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients. Dip mop into bucket or place in spray bottle and spray your floors before you mop.