This morning's post will be about cleaning products and such and how to make your own. I became a convert to the ways of the crumbly after being poisoned for a year with chemo. If I don't know wtf something is, I'm not sure I want it around my family or myself. People who go at the crumbly thing hard core are crunchy.
This is one store purchased product I get and use. I want to say I paid 6.99 USD for the 32 ounce bottle two years ago at a now closed grocery store and STILL have plenty left and I am a clean freak. Mrs. Meyers Lavender All Purpose Cleaner is eco-friendly, can be used on all kinds of surfaces, indoors and out, and I will give Streak the credit for pointing me in the direction of it. The list of ingredients on the website explains what's what and why it's used.
I have a spray bottle that I purchased from the dollar store and the spray part is purple. That means I use it with my diluted lavender cleaning solution, and because it's purple, when I'm grabbing a bottle, I know that's what I'm grabbing to use. (Spray bottle, 1.00 USD.)
One cap of the concentrate in the spray bottle is about all that's needed and then fill the bottle up with water from the tap. Instant multi-purpose cleaner for a variety of surfaces, and the smell is clean and not overpowering. (There are also other scents if lavender isn't your thing. I'm thinking next time, I'll try the Lemon Verbena.)
Another cleaner I use and do purchase by the gallon--yes, GALLON--is white vinegar. I use it as fabric softener in my laundry. (The vinegar smell dissipates.) I also use it on mirrors and other assorted places. Sometimes I feel like using my lavender cleaner, sometimes I feel like using my vinegar as a cleaner. Vinegar is a fabulous deodorizer and cuts grease really well, which is another reason why it works great in the laundry, especially with having monkeys who come home with various stinky dirt activities. (If you don't like the smell and you want to use it as a cleaner, try tossing a drop or two of essential oil in it. For cleaning off counters after raw meat has been on them, pure white vinegar or lemon juice kills bacteria. Yes, I still go over that with hot water and soap, but damn, isn't vinegar and/or lemon juice way safer to use than some of those fancy name brand kitchen wipes that even have on the label "Wipe surface with water after use." How many people don't pay attention to that shit? ) (Price for a gallon? Less than 3.00 USD.)
One soap I made was by using Kirk's Castile Soap and this is something that can be found at the grocery store. I got a bar and shredded it and added an appropriate amount of water, then slowly cooked it down into a larger amount of soap. It does act a little funny with hard water but works well as another multi-purpose cleaning item in the home, laundry, dishes, etc. (A bar is generally around 1.50 USD, contingent upon what store you're purchasing it at. I've seen it for as little as 1.19 USD or as much as 2.25 USD. Price check if you can, or check their website. A travel sized bar is .99 cents.)
Dr. Bronner's is yet another one. A small bottle can be 3.99 USD at the store and totally worth it. It's so multi-purpose, I'm not even sure there's an entirely completed list of all the uses.
(Quick mention of essential oils, I want to tell you that essential oils and fragrance oils are NOT the same thing. Essential oils are made from natural sources. Fragrance oils are faux (fake) and man-made. For someone who is a chemical-phobe, this is an important thing to know. I also try to be responsible and make certain that essential oils I use are sustainable, fair trade, reasonably grown, etc.)
If I keep going with this, it will be an extremely long post, so I'm going to suggest that you hit Pinterest up for some of your own recipes and such, there are some very useful laundry detergent recipes there, and some I wouldn't use. That's up to you. I have discovered Foca laundry detergent out of making my own and have just about decided the Foca is more economical for me. (Less than 9.00 USD and it does 120 loads when I use 1/2 cup per load in a top loader, lasts me nearly three months, the one I get is eleven pounds in weight. It's also phosphate free. It comes in a bag, so I transfer it into an old, washed out to be clean, plastic tub that once had cat litter in it.)
I don't have a rosemary plant yet, so I haven't made lemon-rosemary cleaner, so I haven't mentioned a recipe for that here.
You get the idea. It is entirely possible to find and use great cleaning products that are multi-purpose that aren't harmful to your health without spending a ton of money.
This is one store purchased product I get and use. I want to say I paid 6.99 USD for the 32 ounce bottle two years ago at a now closed grocery store and STILL have plenty left and I am a clean freak. Mrs. Meyers Lavender All Purpose Cleaner is eco-friendly, can be used on all kinds of surfaces, indoors and out, and I will give Streak the credit for pointing me in the direction of it. The list of ingredients on the website explains what's what and why it's used.
I have a spray bottle that I purchased from the dollar store and the spray part is purple. That means I use it with my diluted lavender cleaning solution, and because it's purple, when I'm grabbing a bottle, I know that's what I'm grabbing to use. (Spray bottle, 1.00 USD.)
One cap of the concentrate in the spray bottle is about all that's needed and then fill the bottle up with water from the tap. Instant multi-purpose cleaner for a variety of surfaces, and the smell is clean and not overpowering. (There are also other scents if lavender isn't your thing. I'm thinking next time, I'll try the Lemon Verbena.)
Another cleaner I use and do purchase by the gallon--yes, GALLON--is white vinegar. I use it as fabric softener in my laundry. (The vinegar smell dissipates.) I also use it on mirrors and other assorted places. Sometimes I feel like using my lavender cleaner, sometimes I feel like using my vinegar as a cleaner. Vinegar is a fabulous deodorizer and cuts grease really well, which is another reason why it works great in the laundry, especially with having monkeys who come home with various stinky dirt activities. (If you don't like the smell and you want to use it as a cleaner, try tossing a drop or two of essential oil in it. For cleaning off counters after raw meat has been on them, pure white vinegar or lemon juice kills bacteria. Yes, I still go over that with hot water and soap, but damn, isn't vinegar and/or lemon juice way safer to use than some of those fancy name brand kitchen wipes that even have on the label "Wipe surface with water after use." How many people don't pay attention to that shit? ) (Price for a gallon? Less than 3.00 USD.)
One soap I made was by using Kirk's Castile Soap and this is something that can be found at the grocery store. I got a bar and shredded it and added an appropriate amount of water, then slowly cooked it down into a larger amount of soap. It does act a little funny with hard water but works well as another multi-purpose cleaning item in the home, laundry, dishes, etc. (A bar is generally around 1.50 USD, contingent upon what store you're purchasing it at. I've seen it for as little as 1.19 USD or as much as 2.25 USD. Price check if you can, or check their website. A travel sized bar is .99 cents.)
Dr. Bronner's is yet another one. A small bottle can be 3.99 USD at the store and totally worth it. It's so multi-purpose, I'm not even sure there's an entirely completed list of all the uses.
(Quick mention of essential oils, I want to tell you that essential oils and fragrance oils are NOT the same thing. Essential oils are made from natural sources. Fragrance oils are faux (fake) and man-made. For someone who is a chemical-phobe, this is an important thing to know. I also try to be responsible and make certain that essential oils I use are sustainable, fair trade, reasonably grown, etc.)
If I keep going with this, it will be an extremely long post, so I'm going to suggest that you hit Pinterest up for some of your own recipes and such, there are some very useful laundry detergent recipes there, and some I wouldn't use. That's up to you. I have discovered Foca laundry detergent out of making my own and have just about decided the Foca is more economical for me. (Less than 9.00 USD and it does 120 loads when I use 1/2 cup per load in a top loader, lasts me nearly three months, the one I get is eleven pounds in weight. It's also phosphate free. It comes in a bag, so I transfer it into an old, washed out to be clean, plastic tub that once had cat litter in it.)
I don't have a rosemary plant yet, so I haven't made lemon-rosemary cleaner, so I haven't mentioned a recipe for that here.
You get the idea. It is entirely possible to find and use great cleaning products that are multi-purpose that aren't harmful to your health without spending a ton of money.
