Comments on: Thrifty Oreganic Thursday: Homemade cleaning part I

By: Iconography Girl

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:32:00 +0000

Thanks for these tips!

I keep a spray bottle of 1/2 water, 1/2 distilled vinegar for general cleaning. I was told hospitals used vinegar once upon a time because of its disinfectant properties. It has been an invaluable tool during our never-ending potty-training. I love the idea of infusing it with fresh lemon!

(The spray bottle is also fun to give the kids: no damage done, everything just gets clean!)

And I'm like Christina: I'm still using up my Costco sized containers of Clorox Cleanup and Simple Green (which is decent, anyway).

By: Helenrr

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Hey there Carrie, good to talk with you yesterday! I use basic cleaners and I have made window cleaner with a teaspoon of dish soap (I like TJ with tea tree oil and lavender), 1/4 c. vinegar and a gallon of water (+/-). just put it in a spray bottle and go forth! Also, sprinkle baking soda on a wooden cutting board after wetting it down, let sit 5 minutes and rinse. Tah Dah, no more smells. (I really like that one, since we use tons of onions and garlic). Borax is also a great cleaner, hard water booster and diaper pail additive. I have also found it to be the only thing to stop black mildew growing in shower areas (bleach just bleaches it out). Take care and happy cleaning! Aunt Helen

By: Erica

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:42:00 +0000

I use mainly vinegar, baking soda, and just plain old water with a little elbow grease to clean my home.

I infuse vinegar with cut lemons and it smells SO good! Very cheap and safe to use.

I like to make my own cleaners, as I really don't trust that even the *green* ones are even that safe. I feel safe that if I'm moping my floor and it still isn't dry, that my 10 month old can crawl on it and be just fine.

By: Christina

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:16:00 +0000

I use vinegar, a lot.

And I use my cloth diapers that are no longer fit to be diapers as cleaning rags. They are the best (this is maybe the 3rd or 4th child using these diapers so they are definitely well used). They are the chinese pre-folds.

funny thing… i told myself that i was going to switch to home made all natural cleaners (from the metro website… ooh, we bought our paint from there, too) as soon as i ran out of the chemical stuff that i bought from costco. anyway, so i bought vinegar, spray bottles, and baking soda (big bag) and printed off my directions and found, when i was cleaning out our back porch closet a costco sized thing of 409 and windex! so i’m working on using that stuff up:)

By: Alana

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:30:00 +0000

I find that I save lots of money on cleaning products if I just don’t clean my house! (Just kidding). Thanks for the tips. They are useful.