We’re going to take a quick break from North Carolina Spring Break options to talk about spring cleaning! How exciting! A few years ago I started slowly phasing out toxic store bought cleaning supplies and replacing them with homemade natural options. I’m pretty lazy so I don’t make anything that takes up too much time or requires bizarre, hard to find ingredients. I spent the snowy weekend stocking up on my homemade cleaning supplies and thought I’d share some recipes with you. Most of them are variations of things I found on the internet. So, thank you internet people.
Granite safe kitchen cleaner
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
2 cups water
6-8 drops dish soap/liquid Bronner’s
3-4 drops essential oil
I use vinegar all over my house, but it’s not safe to use on marble and granite. I love this recipe so I mix it in a bigger bottle and just use the same proportions.
All Purpose Cleaner
1 tablespoon of dish soap/liquid Bronner’s
1 tsp tea tree oil
Water
I add the first two ingredients to a 32 ounce spray bottle, shake it up and I’m done. This is my go to cleaner for the bathroom sink, outside of toilet, non-granite counter tops, table, you name it.
Bathtub Cleaner
1 cup of baking soda
5 drops of essential oil (I usually use something lemon)
I use this in place of Ajax. I make this in a batch of 2 cups and keep it in a glass jar.
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Window Cleaner
Hand Soap
Dry laundry detergent
2 bars of shaved bar soap
2 cup of borax
2 cup of washing soda
This is the recipe for a big batch, it’s pretty easy to cut it in half if you’d like to try it out first. There are several bar soap options. I like to Ninja up a bar of Kirk’s Castile and a bar of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint for this recipe. To save on cost you can use two bars of Kirk’s Castile and add peppermint essential oil. I like to add tea tree oil due to its antibacterial properties as well. Helps get the extra stinky work out clothes smelling fresh. Lemon and lavender are all other popular oils you can add to your laundry soap. I use one tablespoon for small loads of laundry and two for large loads.
Another laundry tip- I just figured this one out this week. I was running one day and as I began to sweat I noticed this awful sour smell. After momentarily panicking, thinking I reached my expiration date like a jug of milk, I realized it was my shirt. Either I left it sitting in the washer for too long or it had too many workouts. When I got home I soaked it in the tub in a warm water/vinegar solution with a few other stanky workout items. I washed them an hour later and they were fresh as a summer’s eve….errrr breeze.
Have any other cleaning supply recipes to share? Happy cleaning!
