I spent the day on Friday researching homemade cleaning recipes. I did this for several reasons. The first one is due to the amount of cleaning supplies we currently use. I am purely guessing, but I am going to try to average what we use for a month in cleaning supplies:
1 lg bottle laundry detergent- $14.00
1/2 dishwasher detergent- $1.50
1 bottle dish soap- $1.00
fabric softener- $2.50
carpet refresher- $3.00
1/3 furniture polish- $1.00
all purpose cleaners and wipes- $3.00
upholstery cleaner- $3.00
We use a few other things, but they are in such small amounts that it is not worth adding in the cents of it we use every month. So we use roughly $30 a month or so in high end cleaners.
I decided for my Spring cleaning in July to go au natural, that is, not using the stuff I normally do. Because I wanted to try out cleaning as naturally as possible with as little money as possible, I researched different cleaners, gambled with how they would work, and am here to share my experience with the natural solutions I used. I learned a lot today! Now, just for the record, I used normal laundry detergent because I just bought a HUGE container of the cheap stuff, and want to use the container when it is gone for my homemade trial. So I used regular laundry detergent.
What did I clean, what did I use, how did it work?
I did a thorough cleaning of our bedroom today. Our bedroom for now is a bedroom for 4. Our 23 mo. old and 11 mo. old are in cribs in our room.
The wood-
Lemon juice and olive oil seems to be the norm for furniture polish. I varied this to what I had on hand, which was lime juice (from making salsa) and I have all sorts of oil, but canola oil is SOOOO much cheaper than olive oil, so I tried that.
My results? It didn't smell like much at all, but the mixture cleaned the furniture and gave it a great shine. The part I was shocked about though is that some of the scratches that were previously there just "disappeared". Instantly. I have never seen this with the store bought stuff, although it has a great lemon scent. That is the trade off (unless of course I ever decide to invest in some essential oils).
The carpets and upholstery-
We have a carpet cleaner, but I refuse to pay 20 bucks for carpet cleaner (our recommended brand for our carpet cleaner). So I tried using vinegar. 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water. I tried this with both our couch and our carpets. The carpets were only dirty from shoes, but the vinegar water solution did really well removing the stains. The "miracle" was with the couch. Our lil ones fall asleep with milk bottles and cups on the couch constantly, which leaves huge outlines of stains. We have tried to remove the milk stains with upholstery cleaner, and they did OK. But the couch removal was INCREDIBLE... It looked NEW!!!!! White vinegar worked wonders for this.
I mixed 1/6 borax, 1/6 washing soda, and 1/6 white vinegar with 1/2 water. It is not rocket science, so just eyeball them. This is what I used as a multipurpose, and it worked just as well as my normal cleaner. However, what I did notice is that is you leave it on rather than just wipe it off, it takes marks off immediately.
My conclusion? Getting started on "natural" cleaning is worth it. 100%. It cost me around 7 bucks to buy the borax, white vinegar, and washing soda, and the rest we had around the house. But I believe firmly that these 3 products are worth the minimal investment. I am going to do some research on other uses for these products, and post even more uses.
As always, thanks for reading!
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