The first thing I made on my quest to make my own cleaning products was laundry detergent. I found my recipe and immediately doubled it because I am my mother's daughter and that's just what we do.
Laundry Detergent (yields 36 loads, 2 tablespoons per load)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
2 cups Zote soap flakes
Combine everything. That’s it. This recipe took me 10 minutes to make and that included the grating of the soap flakes. I just used a cheese grater on a paper plate. Easy peasy.
Funny conversation between me and my husband. He came home from work Thursday night and I was standing at the counter happily grating my soap onto a paper plate. He then seen the Borax boxes, washing soda, vinegar and other various things I bought:
Him: What in the world are you doing?
Me: I’m making my own laundry detergent!!! (smiling and happy)
Him: Are we poor?
Me: No. (confused)
Him: Have you spent a bunch of money I don’t know about?
Me: No!
Him: Okay. Carry on.
Ha ha. I love that he just lets me be me even if he thinks I’m crazy.
Anyways back to the detergent. The recipe above will make enough for 36 loads (2 tablespoons per load).
The verdict? So far, so good. Now, if you try this at home, please remember a few things:
*it does not ‘suds’ up like normal detergent. Don’t be alarmed, this is normal. It is still working hard and cleaning your clothes.
*I have no clue how it would hold up against heavily soiled clothing. My husband and I both have office jobs. We are not outdoorsy people. We don’t work on cars. We have no kids. In other words, our clothes do not get stained often. So this detergent worked well on our not-horribly-dirty clothes. I don’t know how it would do on seriously dirty dirty clothes. Although while I was doing my research, most of these recipes came from ‘mommy blogger’ sites. So they would probably clean kids clothes just fine.
*Some people have had issues with the soap not dissolving as it should (as all powdered soap does sometimes), so I filled up the washer a little and then put my soap in, followed by the clothes. I didn’t have any residue left on the clothing by doing it this way.
The cost? About .09 per load. Not bad at all. To compare, we had been using Tide Pods, which are .25 per pod. So if this works out long-term, I will save significantly on laundry costs.
Here’s another random little funny thing. One of my favorite shows to watching when I was younger was ‘Designing Women’. I still love it (the early episodes especially). If I happen to catch a re-run sometime I get super excited. Anyways, whenever I see a box of Borax, I think of this show. In one episode, Julia’s 19 year old son comes home from college for a visit. He brings his 41 year old girlfriend with him. Julia is appalled at the age difference, and the 41 year old girlfriend is just a pretentious piece of work. She asks really snotty like:
“I was wondering if you might have some lavender for my bath”
And Julia responds:
“No, but I have some 20 Mule Team Borax!”
Just the way she says it is hilarious. So now Borax and Julia Sugarbaker will also be linked in my head.
Next recipe:
Fabric Softener (8 loads, ¼ cup per load)
2 cups vinegar
10 drops lavender oil
This took about 2 minutes. Put the two ingredients in some sort of shaker with a lid, because you will need to shake this one before each use (to mix the oil and vinegar)
The verdict? So far, so good. The lavender cuts the vinegar scent and leaves a nice lavender-y scent behind, but it’s definitely not too strong.
The cost?
A whopping .04 per load.
Compared to Downey, which is .26 per load
So my cost of doing laundry just went from .51 per load to .13 per load!
Here’s the rest I made. I didn’t break down the prices of these because honestly I just don’t have the time and don’t enjoy math ha ha. They were cheap though. Probably ¼ of the cost or less of store-bought cleaners.
All Purpose Cleaner
1 Cup Distilled Water
1 tbsp castile soap
10 drops essential oil (lemon)
Dusting Spray (I tested this and discovered that a little bit goes a LONG way)
¾ Cup Olive Oil
¼ Cup White Vinegar
30-40 drops of essential oil (I used lemon)
*shake well before each use
Glass Cleaner (I tested this on both glass and my faucets in both bathrooms and it worked great!)
¼ Cup White Vinegar
¼ Cup Rubbing Alcohol
2 Cups Distilled Water
1 tbsp cornstarch (apparently the cornstarch prevents streaking)
Oven Cleaner
1 Cup Distilled Water
1 TBSP castile soap
10 drops essential oil (I used lavender)
*Spray oven with cleaner, let sit for 5-10 minutes, repeat spray, sprinkle baking soda over mixture and scrub with scouring brush
Floor Cleaner
1.5 Cups Distilled Water
1.5 Cups White Vinegar
10 drops dish soap
10 drops essential oil (I used lemon)
*This is specifically for laminate flooring, but it works great on tile as well
Granite Cleaner
½ Cup Rubbing Alcohol
2 Cups Water
8 drops dish soap
10 drops essential oil (I used lemon)
I also put vinegar in a spray bottle and baking soda in a shaker. Baking soda and vinegar can be used to clean just about anything, including the toilet (spray vinegar, sprinkle baking soda and scrub with a toilet brush. I do this every other day in each toilet…..it only takes about 30 seconds).
Once I had finished making my products, I cleaned under the sink and then put down two mats that I got from Dollar Tree.
Then I organized everything and put it all back.
SO. MUCH. BETTER!!!!
I can’t tell you how much better I feel about this cabinet ha ha. I no longer feel stressed when I open it!
As far as the non-cleaning supplies, I got most everything at the Dollar Store (spray bottles, blue and green bins for the rags). I had the large glass jar already for the laundry detergent, along with the little measuring scoop, the container for fabric softener, etc.). If you don’t have any of these things on hand already, I’m pretty sure all of these things can be purchased at Dollar Tree.
I’ve been using these things for a few days now, and so far, so good. I was very pleasantly surprised by the oven cleaner. I had burned green chile stuck to the inside of my upper oven for quite some time and this cleaner took it right off!!! I also LOVE using anything with the lemon essential oil in it. Lemony stuff smells so good and it lingers too, which is nice.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
My cabinets look and feel lighter!
