Mining Monday: DIY Cleaning Products

Good morning, friends -
The weather is slowly improving - what a marvelous weekend we had here in New Hampshire!  Spring weather makes me think "spring cleaning" and that brought me to the idea of cleaning products.  My wonderful daughter-in-law (I am sooo fortunate!!) was telling me about some laundry soap and baby wipes she'd made and it got me to thinking I'd give some a try.  Today's post is my search for ideas.  Later this week (or perhaps next?) I will let you know how they came out!

Let's start by discussing "why bother"?  The local Walmart has plenty of these products available, right?  I have two reasons:

1. The cost.  I can make these (if they work) for pennies on the dollar.  
2. What on earth is in them?!  The chemicals included in the off-the-shelf products include way to much of what I can't pronounce.  Less of that in the air we breath or the counters we eat off from makes a lot of sense to me. 

One of the things that I noticed as I searched for ideas is that there are several different ingredients you might not have in stock, like fels naptha soap, borax and washing soda, as well as essential oils.  The first three can be found (if they are available) in the same section as laundry soap and cleaning products.  I think more and more people are asking for them, at least around here, because a year ago I needed washing soda for something or other and I had to have our wonderful local hardware store order it for me!  This week I found it at the grocery store!  I also just picked up the biggest bottle of vinegar I've ever seen!  I've either got to make these things or I've got vinegar for life!

So here are some of the things I found:

Here's one from Mymerrymessylife.com.  It's an all-purpose cleaner with a cute little label she created. 
*She does say that using Dr. Bonner's soap and vinegar isn't a good idea as the vinegar messes with the soap and doesn't work as well.  Check out what she has to say on that.

 

This link takes you to Littlemrsrobinson who has a set of recipes for cleaning products, this one is for an all purpose one she calls "The Cure All" which sounds great.  I also love the idea of a few drops of food coloring to help tell them apart!

On the same page, she has another recipe for a fake Fabreeze - I really want to try this as my DD's field hockey goalie gear, well... REEKS!  She's been using Fabreeze for years and we just read that it's bad for people with asthma - that would be HER!  I am going to definitely try a batch and see if it works.

Slapdashmom has some very simple ideas for all sorts of cleaners.  I am interested to try some of hers because she uses extracts for scent, rather than essential oils.  I am curious if it will work as well.  I am going to find out! 

The Krazycouponlady didn't mention any sort of problem with the castile soap in her post.  I am going to have to try it to see.

Pam and Lisa at overthebigmoon.com have a series of recipes for cleaning products including an all-purpose and a floor cleaner I'm interested in.  They also have a wood floor polish that my living room is calling for with the muddy boots that are coming in the house right now! 

What do you think?  Have you tried any of these?  Any "OMG... don't use blah blah!!"  Or the reverse... "Carrie, you have to try...."  Let me know!  As for me... it's off to mix and spray - I'll let you know how it goes!

Quilty hugs... or should I say "Cleaning hugs" today?

Carrie