Saturday, January 12, 2008
More on Frugal Cleaning
| By Lynn Forgy I love to clean (I know, I'm a weirdie), and I love saving money even more. Today I cleaned out my cleaning cupboard, getting rid of the commercial cleaning products with harsh chemicals. I'm going GREEN - all of my cleaning products are now natural, homemade, and CHEAP! I spent $9.00 plus some change on the following: Vinegar Borax Washing Soda Baking Soda I am now able to make my own laundry detergent, all-purpose cleaner, bathtub and shower cleaner, floor cleaner, window and mirror cleaner, and laminate floor cleaner. There may be others that I haven't come up with yet, but the potential is there.  I used to buy laundry detergent at the store for about $2.50 per container (less than 2 gallons, approximately $1.40 per gallon). If I was lucky, I could get 15-20 loads per bottle. Now that I'm using the "green", homemade laundry detergent, which costs $.65 per gallon. Wow! The Family Homestead has a great, easy to follow recipe for making homemade laundry soap. Vinegar is a natural cleaner, and I mix about 1 tablespoon with 2 cups of water. This will clean counters, mirrors, even the laminate floor! The laminate floor is what really amazed me - no streaks! I used to purchase a special product only available at Home Depot (it was the only thing that did not leave streaks), which costs about $5.50 (10 uses per bottle for the entire house = $.55 per use). Compare that with the cost of making the laminate floor cleaner from vinegar = $.15 for the vinegar for the same amount of use. There are numerous websites that you can visit that provide information about essential oils, which you can add to your cleaning products (especially vinegar which I do not think has such a pleasant aroma) to give them a scent that like. Cleaning products that are purchased at the store can be very pricey - a good way to be frugal, saving some of your money, is to make your own! |
posted by Krista at 6:10 PM
Great articles! If you love to clean so much, you need to come to my house! How many times have you heard that one before?
Just a note on the homemade cleaning products. With so many people developing allergies or have weak immune systems...not just adults, but children...we may all have to go back to the homemade products. Which there is nothing wrong with that, it just requires a little more time & effort...for us lazy people :o)! You wouldn't know anything about being lazy though I'm sure!
I like the thought of the homemade ingredients being pure... without the use of chemicals that you can not pronounce...and don't even want to begin to think about what they are doing to your skin.
I love the old Felts-Naptha soap and remember it fondly from my days on the farm. Nothing made your wash smell better and cleaner than that soap! The only concern I have with it now is that I heard sometime back that it might be...and I say "might", (because it hasn't been confirmed to me yet)be dangerous to use in dryers. Something about it having an ingredient in it that is similar to paint thinner that may cause a fire inside your dryer. Before I go any further, I know it is used for "washing clothes", but it supposedly stays in/on the clothes, and when transfered to the dryer, could cause a problem when it reacts with heat. We didn't have a dryer on the farm...everything was hung on the line...so I don't know if this is true or not. If you or any of your readers know something about this, please blog back and update us all.
By Lynn Forgy
Very interesting - I haven't heard anything from my other groups/readers regarding fires in the dryer. I've only been using the homemade laundry detergent for about 5 days - no fires yet :) I'll keep you posted!
Thanks for the comments Maggie!