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How to make homemade cleaners
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I would love to know how to make some home made household cleaners – bathroom cleaners, surface cleaners, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, etc. I have started using soap berries to wash clothes with, but if I could even do it less expensively, I would like that. And the fumes from windex and other bathroom cleaners really don’t make me feel well. I just don’t know where to begin and what to use. We are about to move and I am trying to let things run low so we don’t have so much to move. I thought now is a good time to make some changes.
Thanks
I have changed pretty much all of my cleaners to more natural, homemade cleaners and would be happy to help you. Do you have anything specific you would like to start with? Or, I could just pm you with all the recipes I can think of, if you prefer! Ha! unless that would be overwhelming! ; )
-Miranda
Go to the Pennywise Women blog – we had quite a few on there…I make nearly all my cleaning things now.
check out homeschool freebies today – they have a pdf book:
http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/
It’s right underneath the poem. I haven’t opened the pdf, so no idea if it’s any good. Just thought I’d let you know. 🙂
My main ones are:
1) Window/Glass Cleaner: 1 c. vinegar and 2 c. water
2) Furniture Polish: 1 part lemon juice and 2 parts veg. or olive oil
3) Hand Soap: Natural (Trader Joes) dish soap diluted 50% with water
4) General Cleaning: Dr. Bonner’s soap, diluted
HTH some:) Gina
I have some recipes I haven’t tried out yet, but will be soon. Miranda, I’d love to see your recipes and hear your thoughts as to how they’re working. My chemical junk is just about gone (finally! Stocking up is not always a good thing… LOL).
Was it someone on this forum or somewhere else that said after a few months of using her homemade laundry detergent, the clothes are smelling like they’ve already been worn? Well, wherever/whoever said it, that’s what’s happening with mine. I finally did a load of just vinegar in the rinse cycle with no detergent, twice, to get our sheets sleepable.
I haven’t ordered more castile soap because of this. I’m really afraid to keep using it. <sigh> As I posted on the other thread, I won’t use Borax, and nearly every recipe has Borax in it. I don’t have to wear gloves and a mask in order to use vinegar and baking soda, so I’d rather avoid Borax (now that I have 2 boxes in my laundry room because I didn’t know the effects of it before I bought them ). I just need to find something that actually works but is Borax-free and smells nice, too – but I can’t use fragrances because I have one who breaks out in hives when I use the wrong detergent. Joy… 🙂It isn’t a diy, but we’re using Charlie’s Soap powdered detergent and it works great. We’ve used it for two months with no problem. It even takes the “funk” out of stinky dishcloths.
Well, I will post a couple now, while I have time. They are all pretty simple.
I cannot use any conventional dishsoap because of excema and I have tried several recommended homemade versions that did not work so well in my opinion. This one is the best so far and it actually has been helping my excema feel better! So I think I will keep using it just because of that!
It is just soap nuts liquid with some tea tree oil mixed in. You make it just by gently boiling 10-15 soap nuts in about 6 cups of water for 20 mins to half an hour. It should give you about 4 cups of liquid when done. Then I pour the hot liquid into a sterilized canning jar and put the lid on and it seals. After I open the jar, I just pour a few days worth of the liquid into a container by my sink and add about 5 drops of tea tree oil, then I store the rest if the jar in the fridge. I pour some liquid into hot running water and wash like normal but I have found that I need to rinse with HOT water to get the best results. It works pretty good on most dishes but I have found that plastics tend to stay a bit “slippery”, for lack of a better word. I am not sure how it works with different types of waters, though.
I really like this natural glass cleaner and it is very easy as well.
You will need to start with whole lavender flowers or buds. I always use dried. I use approx 3-4 cups of water and pour in max a 1/4 cup lavendar. Then just boil until all the purple color crom the buds has leaked out into the water and the buds all look just green. Then I strain the decoction into a pourable container and press out all moisture from the lavender buds while they are in the strainer. Discard the buds, let the decoction cool and then pour into a clean spray bottle. I have found that, if I leave this for to long on its own in a cupboard, it will start to grow mold, though. So, I have started making less at a time or using the same method of canning and use as the soap nuts liquid. I used to use the vinegar method but my husband HATED it and did not think it worked very well when he cleaned any windows, so this is better for us and he says that it works MUCH better. Even my mom, the “queen of clean” says she likes it a lot.
For a tough scrub powder for jobs that require a bit more scrubbing action (sort of like comet or jax) I mix equal parts baking soda and washing soda then add 1/4 -1/2 measure of salt. I use this when the normal baking soda and vinegar is not quite enough.
Furniture polish is pretty much the same as Gina’s. Just slight variations in method. Same basic concept, though, so I won’t post that one.
I use soap nuts (or berries) for laundry and I usually add a little bit of washing soda or vinegar because we have hard water, so far it is working pretty well. No one around here has had any complaints about it. I am still working on an all purpose homemade,natural stain remover, though.
I have a few different recipes for oven cleaners. Some of them use borax, though. I don’t have time to post them , though.
HTH : )
I haven’t read all the answers but after trying to make my own laudry detergent (and most receipes call for Borax which I do not like to use) I found that soap nuts were the best option. Maybe you need to find some at a better price.
I make liquid soap w/it. For cloth diapers I use Charlie’s soap.
I tried the homemade laundry soap recipe (dry) on the pennywise blog, but 1) I felt it ran out pretty quickly and grating the soap was really hard on my wrists so it wasn’t like I wanted to make a bunch ahead and 2)I honestly didn’t feel like my clothes were gettting as clean as if I used regular liquid detergent. I would love to use something homemade and save the money but after this experience I’m not so confident anymore.
So those of you using the soap nuts –
Does it get mud off of snowpants pretty well?
Betcha can’t guess why I am asking that question! LOLCan you only make liquid soap out of soap nuts? Or is there a way to make powdered? Powdered is much easier for my dd to use as I gear up to teach her how to wash her own clothes this year.
The powder recipe I’m using now is just 3 ingredients: 1 bar of castile soap (grated), 1 cup of washing soda, and 1/2 cup of baking soda. Mix it all together, and it lasts around a month or so. I try to make 2 or even 3 batches over the course of a few days or a week, but all that grating… Like botanicalbecky said, it’s so hard to do that! And it does seem to run out much quicker than it should.
Thanks. Would love to hear from any one else, too. I am going to get some spray bottles when we get to the new place and try some of this out.
Sara B. – I just started using the soap nuts a few months ago. So far they seem to be cleaning quite well. I would add some oxiclean for the mud. Also, if it is rubbed in pretty good, I’d probably soak them overnight in some oxiclean and then wash as usual with oxiclean.
I just put the soap nuts, as is, in a little muslin baggy that came with them and throw it in the washer. If I am starting with cold water, I soak the soap nuts (in the baggy) in some warm water first. The directions came with my soap nuts. It says that you can grind them into powder or make them into a liquid, but you don’t have to. So I don’t.
I’ve wanted to make my own cleaners for a while, but life is busy and has gotten in the way. Scrubbing the bathroom always gets to me with the smells of the store bought cleaners. Then today, DD 8, was cleaning the bathroom and the whole house started to smell and get to me. The house is less than 800 sq ft, but still. When I went back to the bathroom she had the mirror just dripping with windex. More is better, right? lol. I think I’d rather smell some extra vinegar than be gagging on the smell of windex all through the house! Or, better yet, smell the lavendar Linabean mentioned!
I haven’t ordered more castile soap because of this. I’m really afraid to keep using it. <sigh> As I posted on the other thread, I won’t use Borax, and nearly every recipe has Borax in it. I don’t have to wear gloves and a mask in order to use vinegar and baking soda, so I’d rather avoid Borax (now that I have 2 boxes in my laundry room because I didn’t know the effects of it before I bought them 
). I just need to find something that actually works but is Borax-free and smells nice, too – but I can’t use fragrances because I have one who breaks out in hives when I use the wrong detergent. Joy… 🙂
Betcha can’t guess why I am asking that question! LOL- The topic ‘How to make homemade cleaners’ is closed to new replies.