If you're buying commercial cleansers, you're spending about ten times what you need to pay. Instead, keep some basic ingredients on hand and formulate your own cleansers, based on what's needed. First, some useful ingredients and what they do, in no particular order:
- Vinegar - stick with the dirt-cheap white distilled stuff to avoid the possibility of staining. This acid kills germs, mold and mildew. It also absorbs odors, cuts grease, hard water deposits, soap scum and waxy build-up.
- Baking soda - This base reacts with acids to create a cleansing, foaming action. It's also a mild abrasive. It absorbs odors and softens water.
- Borax - cleans, whitens, disinfects, softens water
- Washing soda - cuts grease, removes stains, softens water
- Ammonia - strongly alkaline, yet does a lot of the same things vinegar does, often stronger
- Bleach - kills germs, mold and mildew, whitens, (NOTE: NEVER mix ammonia and bleach - it releases a deadly gas!)
- Rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol - kills germs, mold and mildew; effective in cleaning glass.
- Lemon - acidic enough to be effective in killing germs, imparts a nice smell to cleaning efforts
- Corn starch - absorb greasy stains
- Olive oil (or jojoba) - good in polish
- Kosher salt - abrasive, disinfectant, stain absorber
Now go to the nearest dollar store and get some spray bottles for making concoctions useful for specific applications:
- General-purpose cleaner
- Window cleaner - 1 cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water, 1 T vinegar or ammonia
- Furniture polish - 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/2 c lemon juice
- Heavy-duty mold cleaner - straight vinegar, let set on surface
No spray bottle needed for the following applications:
- Oven cleaner - place small bowl of full-strength ammonia overnight in oven
- Toilet cleaner - rub with straight vinegar and salt
- Gentle scrub solution - baking soda (or salt) and a little liquid (water, vinegar, ammonia, dish soap)
- Laundry detergent (NOTE: Haven't tested this in new high-efficiency washing machines!)
-
DIshwasher detergent
The simple ingredients used can be formulated into literally dozens of combinations for different uses, and most of them also have applications in beauty products and the garden. (Watch this space for future columns which will elucidate some of those!) No self-respecting tightwad should be without them.
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