DIY Cleaning Product - All Purpose Cleaner (***** 5 Stars)

Good morning, friends,

Well, yesterday's post provided the Whitt household with a flurry of cleaning activities!  I attacked the counter I work from COMPLETELY!  I started by scrubbing and reorganinzing the spice rack (tossed some) and washing down the counter with my new all purpose cleaner.  YAY-- I love it!

Like my cute little label?

It wasn't without incident, though.  The ingredients I used are in the photo below.  Now... for quite a few years I taught elementary school and one of my students' favorite experiments during our totally fun dinosaur unit was to make a volcano.  It has been a few years since I was in that setting and so that bit of chemical know-how was tucked a bit far away in my brain.  To create a volcano, you need vinegar, food coloring and baking soda.

I am not sure whether it was the fact washing soda and baking soda are somehow related OR the fact I doubled the recipe and there was no where for the chemical reaction to go, but NO ONE ELSE has mentioned when you mix these items and screw on the spray.... the bottle will expand and fill to the point that when you quickly open it (OMG!!) you have a bit of a vinegary-soda action foaming out!   It dissipated and viola, all was fine, but the initial combination caused some consternation and shrieks from the kitchen as I realized what I had!

You will also notice that I have some hand soap for the "soapy" part of the recipe.  Many recipes recommend castile, but I didn't have any and couldn't find any while out shopping.  The hand soap I used was grapefruit, so it smelled great! 

Here's the recipe I concocted to create this cleaning product:

• 3 cups of hot water
• 5 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon washing soda
• 1 teaspoon liquid soap
• orange essential oil (I did about 5 drops - you could use more)

*I would mix over the sink.... you know.... just 'cause YOU might create a volcano, as well!  Perhaps reducing the recipe would work?

So, I am going to give this Pinterest idea 5 stars!  Works well and smells fine.  I like that I can control the ingredients and that what I was able to use is all good!

By the way, I also used it to clean the outside of my toaster (had a wee bit of greasy, ick from being near the stove), as well as my knife rack (same thing).  After cleaning with this to cut the grease, I washed them with soap and water and WOW, they look new.  I also used this to wipe off the stove after cooking...did I mention it's my brand new stove?  Muahahaha!

Stay tuned for more DIY Products and please comment below with thoughts and ideas.  Let's work though this together.

Quilty/Cleaning hugs,
Carrie