Living Frugal
Make your own cleaners with these recipes for homemade cleaning products. Clean house cheap and fast. One of the easiest ways to save money.
Homemade cleaning products often work just as well if not better than their store bought couterparts. If you've taken a trip to the cleaning aisle lately, you'll find cleaning products very expensive.
Stock up on these homemade cleaning products to make cleaning your house easier and cheaper - without all those harsh chemicals and irritating fumes.
Recipes for Homemade Cleaning Solutions
Baking Soda
Put baking soda to work for you. With it's deodorizing properties and mild abrasiveness, it works as a replacement for harsh scouring powders. Yet another must have for your homemade cleaning product toolkit.
For the Bathroom:
Sprinkle baking soda on a wet sponge to take care of bathtub rings, scouring vanities or to shine up the kitchen sink.
For the tougher jobs involving dirt, soap scum and water deposits, make a paste from baking soda and water. Put the solution on the stain and allow it to stand for 20 minutes. The paste softens the soap scum and water deposits making them easier to remove.
Do you have slow running drains? Pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup baking soda in the drain while allowing just enough hot water to wash the solution down the drain. Let it stand overnight, then flush it out the next morning throughly with hot water. Of course, the natural deodorizing is an added bonus (not for use on blocked drains).
For the Kitchen:
Do your pots and pans have crusted and burned on foods? Here's a tip using the homemade cleaning product with baking soda:
2 tablespoon baking soda per quart of water for each pan
Bring water to a boil and let the pan soak.
Wash as usual.
For the Laundry:
Add 1/4 of baking soda to the laundry to help remove grease and freshen clothes.
For the Home:
Carpet Freshener
3/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 cup talcum powder
Sprinkle on dry carpet and let stand 15 minutes. Vacuum.
Carpet Spot Cleaner
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup vinegar
3 tablespoons baking soda
Rub the carpet and watch the stain disappear.
Silver Cleaner
1 piece of aluminum foil to cover the bottom of the cleaning container.
1 to 2 tablespoons baking soda
2 quarts very hot water
Lay the aluminum foil along the bottom of a glass container
Place the tarnished silver on top
Sprinkle the silver with baking soda and cover with very hot water
Soak until the bubbles stop, then rinse and polish the silver with a dry cloth.
