Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Here is a great recipe for an easy and economical tub and tile cleaner. It is a workhorse cleaner, that can scrub sinks, tub, tiles, and can deodorize garbage cans and diaper pails. I probably use this cleaner of all my homemade concoctions and have really benefited from the savings.

Tub and Tile Cleaner
One old Parmesan cheese container
Baking Soda
Lemon Essential Oil (or another scent you like)

Fill the container about a third of the way with baking soda. Add twenty to thirty drops of your essential oil. Shake and get ready to scrub.

Cheaply Clean

I wanted to move away from the foaming anti-bacterial soaps that I have been using for sometime now. I have been on a quest to eliminate all products with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate from my home. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is a foaming agent found in many soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes. It has been shown to cause many eye and skin irritations and dries out skin. I also had an unfortunate incident with anti-bacterial soap getting under one of my rings and causing a nasty burn. This obviously is a product I am not wanting to use on the little ones. So, off I went to find a replacement and boy did I find a replacement. This recipe is cheap, works great, and husband approved. You can't ask for more than that.

Homade Hand Soap Recipie

Take an empty foaming soap bottle and fill with two tbalespoons of castile soap

Fill the rest of the way with water

Shake to mix and you are good to go

Static Be Gone

I have struggled for a while to find a chemical free alternative to dryer sheets. I had long ago switched to the free and clear dryer sheets, when the little ones entered the picture, and was amazed to find that after only a short while I couldn't stand to have anything in the house that was dried with scented dryer sheets. When I recieved back some maternity clothes I had lent out it took me three washed to remove the scent from the clothing. I found that pretty disturbing and decided I wanted to stop using dryer sheets all together. After deciding against using any drying aides that contained plastic I stumbled upon directions to make wool dryer balls. They are easy and inexpensive to make and work pretty darn good. I do find that in the dryer parts of the year, or if I am drying something that creates a lot of static, they are not one hundred percent effective, but they work great the majority of the time.

Really good directions can be found at the following link:
http://howtomakedo.net/154/make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls

Germ Warfare

Following is an easy homemade recipe for disinfecting spray. It is simple to make and smells wonderful. The recipe calls for castile soap and tea tree oil, both of which, are easily found at health food stores. Castile soap is a wonderful, all-natural, vegetable-based soap that really has a hundred and one uses. It is definitely worth picking some up.

Disinfecting Spray

16 ounces of water

3 Tablespoons of castile soap

20 to 30 drops of tea tree oil

Mix all ingredients and add to a spray bottle.

Housekeeping

As, I transition over to this new blog, I thought I would bring over some of the old posts. Since, I am cleaning house, blog-wise, I'll have some of my cleaning recipes this week. Enjoy!


Mirror, Mirror

Whenever I would clean my glass I found the fumes were horrible and my hands would hurt for the rest of the day. I researched many homemade cleaning alternatives, but was disappointed that almost all used ammonia which wouldn't help me with my problems. Then I stumbled upon this simple recipe for glass cleaner. This is by far my favorite greener alternative to date. It is so simple, cost effective, and works far better than commercial products. In fact I could see a film on the glass that was leftover from the commercial products when I started using this. So, what is the recipe for this great cleaner?

• Buy one bottle of club soda


• Pour into a squirt bottle (does not have to stay fizzy, works great flat)


• Spray on glass

And, that's it! So, for sixty-nine cents I got twice the glass cleaner, that worked much better, and didn't contain harmful chemicals. You can't ask for more than that!