September 21, 2013

"Natural" Cleaning Supplies

So a friend of mine was visiting not that long ago and helped me out with a kettle scale issue.  We had used CLR a couple of times, but since it is so ridiculously corrosive, you can't just let it sit until all the scale comes off and then you have to clean your kettle out about 4 times before you feel comfortable using it for things that are going to be consumed.  Anyhow, suffice it to say that my kettle was a disaster.  So we boiled some vinegar and added baking soda to it and then let it sit overnight.  Voila!  My kettle no longer has ANY scale in it.

Anyhow, this got me excited about all the awesome cleaning supplies you can make on your own.

I already use vinegar in a lot of my household cleaning (and by a lot, I mean it goes into the laundry periodically - mostly with towels and I use a mix of water, vinegar, & a dab of liquid dish soap to mop my hardwood floors.)

Right.  So, then I decided I was going to try out some of the nifty DIY housecleaners on Pinterest.  In particular - DIY laundry detergent - as seen here and DIY household cleaners - as seen here.

For the laundry detergent I left out the Purex crystals because, honestly, they stink.  The author of this particular post seems to really like fragrance.  I do not.  AND - I searched around the interwebs looking for a substitute for Felsnaptha or Zote soap since I CANNOT for the life of me find them.  It does appear that neither is available in Canada.  BUT - it turns out that you can substitute Sunlight Laundry Soap bars for the Zote soap.  Though - it's kind of a crazy conversion!  1 bar of zote soap (14.1oz) = 3 bars of Sunlight soap (130g each).  So... just for grins, I only bought 4 bars of sunlight soap instead of the 6 that this recipe calls for.  We will see how that works out.

As for the DIY household cleaners - so far I have made the "All Purpose Cleaner" and the "Grease Cutter".  I am just looking for a squeeze bottle before I make the tile cleaner.  As for the "antibacterial spray" - I won't be making it - this is because I don't particularly like things like that as I feel it just forces the bacteria to mutate, so my house is full of lots of awesome bacteria.  It never hurt anyone, right?  Sure.

Anyhow, this is the "excitement" in my life right now.  :)  I must admit, I'm hoping these work out awesome.  I'm sure I will update (or just post an update at the end of this post at some point) in the future.