Vinegar ~ a natural wonder!

You know the stuff; plan, white, distilled vinegar.  We tend to buy in bulk from Costco, because I'd known it was good as a rinse for laundry to keep soap ding away as well as doing a rinse for wall to wall carpet.  I've used it to clean wood as well and help unclog drains with it's friend baking soda (also a good effect in home made volcanoes)!   Knew it made an effective weed killer as well.

Within the last few weeks, came across MORE homemade cleaning products on Pinterest.  These cleaning products are a combination of vinegar, Blue Dawn (and yes name brand counts here), hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and optional essential oil for scenting. 

So far I have tried the 50% Blue Dawn/50% hot vinegar mixture to clean our shower pan.  It works like a champ, the lingering vinegar smell is not nearly as harsh as bleach, and has worked WAY better than any store bought, pre-mixed cleaner.  I will be trying more of the various combinations I've found to see how those work as well.

Adding Blue Dawn Detergent to my arsenal of cleaning supplies.  Just about time to check my home made cleaning supplies and go shopping, but before I sign off today, I'll leave a few links to home made cleaners.

• hardwood cleaner
• home made clorox wipes
• Blue Dawn recipes

Happy Cleaning!

 

Rug deodorizer

I have been playing around with the proportions for making my own rug deodorizer because I don't care for the ones off shelf.  These seem to give me a head ache because of their smell.

So today, I made some more and thought I'd measure out what I use, in case anyone else cares to use it.  If you do try it, let me know what you think. 

Here it is:

• 1 cup each:  baking soda, Borax, and corn starch
• 1/2 T whole cloves
• 1/4 t ground clove
• 1 T ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg

Directions: 

• sift all together to blend and get lumps out
• shake to blend smells
• if you can wait to use, the spices distribute better
• shake before using

This quantity fit well in a cleaned out, standard sized, Pringle's can.  I used a canning funnel, which also fit nicely on top of can.  I plan to later punch holes in top of can.

If you are wondering why I added Borax, it's because it is a natural flea repellent when sprinkled on rugs or cloth furniture and vacuumed about an hour later.  As we have a cat and dog AND it is flea season, it seems like a wise idea.