Recipes for Homemade Cleaning Products

Here are a few homemade cleaning recipes I discovered. If you have ideas please post your recipe ideas to this post.

Homemade Spray Cleaner Recipe Vinegar appears to be the natural power cleaner superagent because it makes an appearance in many homemade cleaning product recipes regardless of the purpose. When you ferment ethanol using acetic acid bacteria, you create a liquid that is part acetic acid and water – that’s white vinegar. In addition to cleaning and disinfecting, vinegar consumes odor, rather than just covering it up. 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup water A mix of 50% water and 50% white vinegar is a popular homemade recipe for a spray cleaner and it can be used to clean any surface. By cutting the acetic acid in the vinegar by half, it’s mild enough to clean most household surfaces. It will also dry without odor. You can use this on countertops, your range, backsplash, bathroom surfaces, tile and grout. If you have particular persistent soap scum or other accumulations, you can use straight white vinegar, without cutting it with water, and/or you can heat up the mixture until it’s warm and use it that way. If you use undiluted white vinegar, be sure to use it only on non-porous surfaces such as the ceramic toilet bowl or bathtub. It’s acidic so it can damage porous surfaces if left there.  

Homemade Glass Cleaner Why is the glass cleaner different than the earlier homemade cleaner recipe? It’s because glass is clear and you need a fast drying agent that won’t leave spots or other marks on the glass. For that purpose, you will replace white vinegar with rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl, and then add just a tablespoon of white vinegar for cleaning purposes. 1 cup rubbing alcohol 1 cup water 1 T white vinegar  

Homemade Scrubbing Cleanser Recipe Baking soda is popular for removing persistent stains because of its a mild abrasive and has natural deodorizing properties, one of the reasons people put it in their refrigerators. There isn’t much of a recipe in this case, just that most places advise that you sprinkle it on a sponge when you’re trying to scrub away stains. Many recipes for the homemade spray cleaner also include baking soda.  

Homemade Air Fresheners I never had air fresheners growing up and Febreze scares me – I have no idea what’s in that stuff. Unfortunately, there isn’t you can make that you can spray but you can take steps to reduce odors in your home. You can put dishes of baking soda or vinegar around the house, before company comes over, to help eliminate odors. You can simmer a pot of vinegar in water (1 tablespoon in 1 cup of water) to kill cooking smells, like fish. You can use vinegar and water on cutting boards and knives to help take down the smell, as well as using fresh ground coffee. Lastly, plants can consume smells, as can herbs and spices.  

Homemade Toilet Bowl Cleaner One of the most frequently used products in our home is toilet bowl cleaner and we typically rely on Comet. You can easily replace Comet by using a mixture of vinegar and baking soda (see a trend?) – quarter cup of baking soda with 1 cup vinegar into the bowl. let it sit, then scrub and rinse.  

Homemade Laundry Detergent This is a common topic on the interwebs, how to make your own laundry detergent, so I won’t rehash it much here. It’s basically 1 bar of Fels-Naptha, half cup of Borax powder, and 1 cup of Washing soda. Of course soapberries are a better alternative if you want total sustainability. See the weblink on the right of the blog to learn more about soapberries and how you can order them. I am a user of soapberries and absolutely love them. When I purchased my soapberries I purchased enough to do about 960 loads of laundry and the cost is approximately 6 cents per load.  

Homemade Drain Unclogger Finally, and this happens a lot, the one product I really wanted was a drain unclogger – like a “Drain O” minus the gross chemicals in a product like that. The best solution we found was to remove the stopper and clean out whatever you could, then follow up by pouring a half cup of baking soda down the drain followed by half cup of vinegar. The bubbling reaction can break down the clog and push it through. If that doesn’t work, do the same but block off the hole so the escaping gas has to push the gunk farther down. (then stop using bar soap at the sink, it has coagulants that creates the blockage problem in the first place) The best part about all these recipes is that you’ve now made natural cleaning products without all the harsh, fancy named, chemicals that many of the commercial products use. All you really need now are a few spray bottles, containers, and ingredients for your very own homemade cleaning supplies.

The Mission  for this interest group is to discover, learn, and educate one another about the interaction between environmental toxins and women’s health, and empower and encourage women to be aware of the products they purchase and bring into their homes by becoming a savvy, aware consumer. This is a life-long journey in learning how to respect our beautiful bodies.

The purpose is to become knowledgeable about the products we smother on our skin, the foods we devour, and the surroundings in which we immerse ourselves. Through this group we will learn and teach one another about selecting simpler products for ourselves and our families.

Who knows we may even save some money by simplifying our purchases to create a more healthy environment for ourselves.

The group will begin with gathering online through this blog. We will meet face-to-face four times during the year beginning in the fall of 2012.  In the fall we will have our first face-to-face gathering and discuss Kristi Marsh's book Little Changes. I encourage you to visit www.choosewiser.com and become familiar with the work Kristi is doing in this area. You can also purchase her book if you need a copy. I have read the book and I LOVE IT! It is funny, memorable, and will definitely begin to educate you on the everday items we use on ourselves and our families.

I will post weekly items on this blog and I encourage you to interact as often as you are able to fit it into your schedule. Face-to-Face Meeting Schedule (these are the times we will gather and meet together)
Fall Book Study: Little Changes, by Kristi Marsh
Winter Body Treatments: Pamper yourself with homemade facials, lotions, and scrubs.
Spring: Chemical Free Cleaning
Summer: Planting the seeds of health Healthy Cooking Demo

Where The Purdue Room at University Village (right across from the PNC campus)

Date & Time To Be Determined

Welcome

I am so glad you are here to embark on this journey of becoming more environmentally health conscious. Please introduce yourself and tell us something about why you are here.