Maybe someone here can help...homemade cleaners

[chager]

I posted on the CB and someone suggested posting here too. My son is doing a Science Fair project involving store bought cleaners verses homemade cleaners. He is going to clean the shower tiles, some clothes, and the dishes with both and compare the results.The store bought part is easy, the homemade is not so easy. I am looking for any recipes for cleaning solutions that people use. I have done an internet search and found a few recipes but I am not familiar with a couple of the main ingrediants listed in most of them.
I know I read somewhere once that you can save over $5 everytime you make homemade products instead of store bought. So maybe this would be another good way to save money towards a WDW trip
If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate them.
Thanks

 

[MomE@Home]

White vinegar !!
I use white vinegar for many cleaning jobs.
For tile I use one part vinegar to two parts water- it does a great job on hard water spots, remember to rinse well.
I also splash a little into the bottom of my dishwasher before running it-don't need jet dry anymore !
I pour about one cup into the toilet bowl and let sit for about 15-20 min. then scrub.
There are so many other uses for vinegar ! I'm sure others here will have more natural ideas for your son.

 

[Snurk71]

I don't know the exact proportions, but you can use vinegar, baking soda (whatever arm & hammer is) and warm water as a drain opener/cleaner.

 

[te2077]

you can use tang to clean toilet bowls. lemon juice gets out fruit type stains. there is a book called "talking dirty with the queen of clean" has all sorts of homemade/cheap remedys.

 

[AMaloy314]

Try this site: http://www.recipegoldmine.com/house/house.html

There are lots of interesting recipes here.

 

[KristiKelly]

Baking Soda & water mixture is great for cleaning stoves.

 

[vhoffman]

Here's something I read. I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how good it is. Mix one gallon water, one cup white vinegar, one cup ammonia, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup baking soda. Fill up squirt bottles with it. Adjust the baking soda to suit, because it can clog the nozzle.

 

[Ellester]

I use a homemade cleaner that is 1/2 water, 1/2 white vinegar and about 2-3 Tablespoons of CitraSolv Orange cleanser. It works on glass, wood, formica, etc. And it smells really good! What a cool sounding project!

 

[CindyKansas]

Go to www.wackeyuses.com I was just looking at that web site earlier and it was full of cleaning ideas.

 

[te2077]

oh there was anotherone i forgot i believe its one part fabric softner to 3 parts water. you can spray it on blinds, celing fans etc to repel dust.

 

[vhoffman]

By fabric softener do you mean something like Downey?

 

[Cindy B]

There are quite a few out there

White vinegar is fantastic!

Baking soda gets out grout stains that seemed impossible.

Another pretreating laundry stain one that I use is: (be forewarned its STRONG!)

1 part ammonia
1 part water
1 part dish soap (like for handwashing dishes)

It will smell strong, so you may want to overcompensate on the water/soap. This is a great to pour in a spray bottle and pretreat stains.. mind you its great on play clothes/baby clothes.

I can't tell you how many stained onesies that formula cleaned!

 

[vhoffman]

Here's an offbeat idea I read on another board--use Spam to polish furniture! It would be interesting to compare it to Pledge or any other spray cleaner. Wonder about the smell? Also, while you son is trying store bought vs homemade cleaners, maybe he should include a section on store bought brand name vs generic brands. Good luck, sounds like a nice project!(Wonder if there's such a thing as generic Spam?, lol!)

 

[crazelion]

Bathroom cleaner to clean white tennis shoes that will not come not clean. I used bathroom cleaner to my tennis shoes that have red mud on them from the baseball field.

A friend told this that works at the baseball park with me. After I got pair brand new shoes dirty.

It really works great.

 

[EthansMom]

Gotta agree whole-heartedly with plain-'ole baking soda. Mix baking soda with a little water to make a paste and use it to clean the sink, stovetop, inside the oven, tile grout, bathtub, toilet, etc. Love the stuff!

Also, if you're looking for affordable store bought cleaners to try, I love Fabuloso for cleaning my tile. My mom recommended it to me and I was able to find it at Target. It cleans great, doesn't leave a film (unlike Pinesol) and comes in several great scents.

EthansMom

 

[vhoffman]

Fabuloso--I've got to try it. I'm going to Target tomorrow special to get some. About 1/2 our house is ceramic tile, and I can't find anything to clean it that doesn't leave a film and streaks. I mean, I've tried everything! Just tonight I cleaned the floor with a mixture of vinegar, ammonia and water. Sure enough, it dries to a film. I've even tried towel drying the floor. I give my kids old towels and have them help--their backs are better than mine. Even with towel drying, it always leaves a film. Even plain water leaver a film! So, tomorrow I'm trying Fabuloso. BTW, how do you mix it, that is, do you use the directions on the label or modify them somehow? I'm actually paranoid about my floor. I feel its the talk of the neighborhood, how I don't clean my floors. Or do you think the neighbors have other things to talk about?

 

[EthansMom]

I just follow the directions on the bottle and mix it with water. With Pinesol and the like, I always seemed to put in too much cleaner, end up with sticky floors -- yuck!

I have ceramic tile floors in all of my bathrooms and kitchen -- it's the stuff with the little pits and divets in the tile. The pits and divets fill with grime over time and I was having a heck of a time getting it clean -- hand scrubbing with backing soda worked, but then I had to hand clean off the baking soda and half the time, I had baking soda grime left in the pits. With Fabuloso, I just mop along as usual and use my scrub brush to hand scrub any time I see a particularly grimy tile and then mop over it to collect up the cleaner and dirt -- works well and at a fraction of the effort.

I hope it works for you!

EthansMom

 

[vhoffman]

Thanks, Eathan's Mom!

I'll try some of the Fabuloso tomorrow. I always wind up with sticky floors too whenever I use cleaners like Pinesol, Mr. Clean, etc. Now, do you have any suggestions for cleaning the grout? We bought our house new, and didn't realize that the builder hadn't sealed the grout lines. Of course, the first time its wet it changes to a darker color. We really need to seal the grout, but it needs to be cleaned first. I've tried scrubbing it with a denture brush and bleach, but nothing seems to work to bring it back to its original, light color.

 

[EthansMom]

Vhoffman,

I asked my DH about cleaning stained grout -- he replaced all of the tile in our last house and did a beautiful job. He said you might try specialized grout cleaner that you could probably find in the Tile area at Home Depot or the like. But, depending on the stains, that may not work.

If not, you'll have to remove and replace the grout. If you or your husband is particularly handy, that might not be a problem -- it's time consuming, but not terribly expensive as far as tools and materials. There's a little hand tool you can buy at HD for removing grout -- looks like an angled file with a handle. You have to file away the old grout (most of the way down, but not necessarily all), then clean up all the grout dust, and then regrout, and apply 2-3 applications of sealant. Other than the tool to remove grout, you'll also need one or two tools to apply the grout, and also the grout and sealant -- not terribly expensive, but messy and time-consuming.

I remember watching DH do some of this in our last house and given plenty of time with someone else taking care of my kids, it's the kind of job I am confident I could do without messing it up.

I completely understand about wanting your house to look clean. Except, with me, it's that I worry about what visiting family members think of my house. I've recently incorporated a few cleaning/organizing methods from www.flylady.com and was very pleased when my MIL came to visit and kept exclaiming over how immaculate my house was and how well organized I was. It was also nice that when we all got snowed in for 4 days in a row, I already had a good week's worth of food stocked in the house. I'm waiting to see if my Mom notices the difference when she visits next week!

Happy Cleaning!

EthansMom