Homemade Cleaning Products

Homemade Cleaning Products

By Glenn Dunphy

Before we bought our house, my wife and I lived with my mother-in-law in her house for nine months. I was blessed with what some consider rare - a wonderful mother-in-law. In my ongoing search for money saving and environmentally friendly practices, it is my mother-in-law who inspired me to discuss a number of homemade concoctions for cleaning the house.

Generally, I've addressed ways to save energy, but this time I am proposing that you use some energy. Not electricity, oil, or natural gas, but your own energy (and a little time) can be used to mix much cheaper household products into healthier and environmentally friendly cleaning solutions.

Outside of my mother-in-law's recipes, some of the suggestions I found seemed pretty obscure. Not many would consider dipping copper pots into leftover pickle juice or boiling apple peels in aluminium pots to make them shiny anymore. It's compelling information, but ultimately we're looking for basic around the house cleaning tips.

My first step was to compare the cost of a selection of cleaning products in my own home with the cost of the ingredients in the homemade solutions. Underneath our kitchen sink was an old bottle of tile cleaner at $3.79 for 450 ml, an all-purpose cleaner that cost $3.99 for 650 ml, and a 750 ml bottle of brand window cleaner that was $2.79. White vinegar is a common ingredient, in many of the homemade cleaning recipes I found and at approximately $1.99 for four litres, it is easy to see the savings. Ammonia is another common ingredient (though not necessarily 'friendly') and I paid $2.69 for 1.8 litres. My mother-in-law's window cleaner calls for a cup of alcohol (I paid $1.99 for 500 ml), a half cup of white vinegar, and a half cup of ammonia. Variations of this recipe had anywhere from a half cup to two cups of water. I started with no water, but it smelled too strong so I tried it with one cup first and then with two cups.

My first step was to compare the cost of a selection of cleaning products in my own home with the cost of the ingredients in the homemade solutions. Underneath our kitchen sink was an old bottle of tile cleaner at $3.79 for 450 ml, an all-purpose cleaner that cost $3.99 for 650 ml, and a 750 ml bottle of brand window cleaner that was $2.79. White vinegar is a common ingredient, in many of the homemade cleaning recipes I found and at approximately $1.99 for four litres, it is easy to see the savings. Ammonia is another common ingredient (though not necessarily 'friendly') and I paid $2.69 for 1.8 litres. My mother-in-law's window cleaner calls for a cup of alcohol (I paid $1.99 for 500 ml), a half cup of white vinegar, and a half cup of ammonia. Variations of this recipe had anywhere from a half cup to two cups of water. I started with no water, but it smelled too strong so I tried it with one cup first and then with two cups.

I went around the house cleaning the windows and mirrors and found the homemade solutions worked great - I especially liked the "no streaking" which you won't find with store bought window cleaning products (note: most window cleaner recipes exclude ammonia). I calculated the cost of my final concoction at 60 cents for 500ml (not including the water). Any time you are spending coins instead of bills, you must be ahead. I used a vinegar, water, and baking soda mixture for general bathroom and kitchen cleaning and this mixture was even cheaper. These are the only two I have tried so far although I now have a long list of potential homemade household cleaning solutions that I can't wait to try. There are homemade ways to clean everything from your hardwood floors to chandeliers to toilets to crayon covered walls.

For (many, many) more ideas on how to mix your own cleaning products, look on the Internet and you will find more recipes and advice than you could possibly use. There are many books out there as well. A wonderful one that I found while doing research is Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan and it is available at most big bookstores. This easy read is an informative book that compares prices (albeit dated and American) of commercial products with homemade ones and even gives "effectiveness" ratings for each recipe. Or you can ask your mother-in-law!