Making your own household cleaners is an excellent way to save money and is often better for the environment as well. You can clean almost anything in your home with just a few simple ingredients that you likely already have around the house.
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Glass Cleaner
Possibly the simplest homemade cleaner. Mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with one liter of water. Pour it into a spray bottle.
Laundry Detergent
Matt at Debt Free Adventure has a simple laundry detergent recipe of 1 bar of shaved bar soap, 1/2 cup of borax and a 1/2 cup of washing soda.
Fabric Softener
Add 1/4 cup of baking soda to your rinse cycle to freshen and soften your clothes.
Carpet Deodorizer
Baking soda is also great as a carpet deodorizer. Sprinkle some onto the carpet before vacuuming.
Prevent Carpet Stains
Spill red wine on your carpet? Quickly pour a pile of table salt on the spill to absorb the liquid, vacuum it up and you’ll avoid the stain before it happens.
Stain Remover
Once again, baking soda does the job. Use it to scour away stains on tile or even food baked onto pots and pans.
That’s a few easy homemade cleaners, do you have any others that you use?
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This is great! I love making my own household cleaners. There’s nothing better than knowing that I’m saving so much money and not poisoning my family at the same time.
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Many of these cleaners are much better for the environment as well. You get less wasted plastic bottles and less chemicals.
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Great suggestions. I’ve had some mixed results with this though. We’ve tried making our own detergent and dish washing liquid in the past. While we got to save up using the home-made detergent, I think it the dish washing liquid was not as successful as we ended up using more since it was not as effective as the commercial brand.
To clean our stainless steel pans, we use kosher salt and some vinegar. It gets them spick and span and shiny in no time with very little elbow grease and no harsh chemicals are involved. It all biodegradable!
For the carpet cleaning, I think it was soda water then piles of salt. Gets the red wine out every time!
You can also use a cup of vinegar in your rinse cycle to soften your clothes.
I keep vinegar in a spray bottle and use it to clean our shower and faucets. I also use it with hot water to clean our floors – gets them really nice and shiny!
Wow, what a clever way to cut costs. Cleaners are always so expensive and never seem to be on hand when I need them. Definitely going to give this a try.
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Awesome! I’m gonna spend four hours tomorrow trying to formulate some detergent…
Or I could watch the game…..
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The concept is great… the 1/2 cup of borax for the laundry detergent… is that environmentally friendly? I guess a person would have to study up on benefits of these types of materials.
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simple green is a great cleaner, it basically comes as a concentrate and you can make a bottle last forever.. also cleans everything
i tried Matt’s recipe from Debt Free Adventure but it doesn’t clean like an usual detergent and i think i’ve spent a lot more money on the home made one…
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Your advice is very nice. I think it’s a very nice way to cut costs. Cleaners are generally luxurious and never appear to be on hand when we want them. We will definitely give a try.