You know I love a good DIY cleaner recipe. It not only saves a ton of money, but it eliminates a bunch of crazy chemicals I’d otherwise smear, scrub or spray in my house {while all the ingredients aren’t all natural, it’s sure a step in the right direction!}. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer too, you’ll love this complete list I’ve compiled of ALL of my homemade cleaner recipes:
How to Make Your Own Daily Shower Spray
How to Make Your Own Carpet Deodorizer
How to Make Your Own Dishwasher Detergent
How to Make Your Own Dishwasher Tablets
How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent
How to Make Your Own Homemade Granite Cleaner
How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent Tabs
How to Make Your Own Window and Glass Cleaner
How to Make Your Own Fabric Softener
How to Make Your Own Soft Scrub
Did I miss any? Are there any tried and true DIY cleaner recipes you’d like to to share?
Making your own stuff is awesome!
~Mavis
Steffanie says
I love my all purpose disenfectant:
1/4 cup Dr. Bronners liquid Castile soap
25 drops tea tree oil
Fill normal size spray bottle with water leaving room to pour in the two above ingredients put the spray top on and shake well. It’s a natural anti bacterial.
Steffanie says
I should say not mine specifically though, I just found it somewhere on the web
Liz says
While I love home-made products I get really frustrated when people say such things are free of chemicals! Borax, baking soda (= sodium bicarbonate), vinegar (= dilute acetic acid), isopropyl alcohol and water are ALL chemicals! Take a breath and you are inhaling a mixture of gases that are all chemicals. The only place you will be free of chemicals is in deep space or any other conveniently-located vacuum!
Chloe says
There are good chemicals, and there are bad chemicals.
Denise Trowbridge says
All good recipes. We use the vinegar and blue dawn one frequently, and anything from Karen Logan’s Clean House Clean Planet is good. One question, though: how do the dishwasher tabs work out for you? Everything homemade I’ve tried to make as dishwasher detergent has turned into a slimy hot mess! Maybe you know some secret I don’t.
Connie says
I use my mother’s old electric salad master with the cylinder inserts for grating my bar soap…it works great. Glad I didn’t throw it out when she gave it to me. I can grate 2 bars of soap in about 2 minutes! It beats scraping knuckles with a hand one.
Chrystie says
I don’t care for the powdered laundry detergent. It never seems to fully dissolve without (seemingly) a lot of extra work. I much prefer the liquid. Once you grate the soap this takes about 15 minutes to make.
2 1-gallon containers (or 1 2-or-more gallon container)
1/2 bar of Fels Naphtha Laundry bar soap (last I saw it was $1.10-$1.33 at Kroger Stores You can use other soaps, including Dr Bronners’ Liquid. I just haven’t tried.)
1/2 cup Borax (heaped) (cost about $4 per 76 oz. box)
1/2 cup Washing Soda (heaped) (cost about $4 per 55 oz. box)
Essential oils (opt.)
1) Grate the soap on a cheese grater. It could be my imagination but a larger grate seems to hold up better. It just takes a couple more minutes to dissolve.
2) Put it in a pot with 12 cups of cool tap water. (you CAN do less if your pot isn’t that big.)
3) Heat the water on medium or medium-low heat stirring slowly with a plastic spatula until FULLY dissolved.
4) Make sure your tap water is as hot as you can get it, and put 4 cups of hot water in each 1-gallon container. If you are using essential oils, now is the time to add a few drops to each container
5) Add the Borax and Washing Soda to the pot and stir with your spatula until dissolved. You will stop feeling grittiness in the bottom of the pot, and the mixture will thicken noticeably.
6) Pour equal amounts of the mixture into each container, and fill the rest of the way with hot tap water. Stir if desired. Let sit overnight. The mixture will gel up. Just mix, shake, or break up with your hands.
7) Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry. Batch makes about 64 loads. Cost: approximately $1.10 per batch. Wow!
Emily E. says
Hi Christie! I also make my own liquid laundry detergent and love it! For a change from the Fels Naptha I use Zote which also has a really clean fresh scent. I haven’t purchase laundry detergent in about 6 months! I will try adding some of the essential oils to my next batch as I really like my clothes to smell clean and that can be a challenge with well water.
Mary Reidler says
Awesome!
Carolyn says
Toilet cleaner?