DIY All Purpose Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}

April 16, 2012 - 9 Comments

I have been looking for a good all purpose cleaner recipe. I found a few that I liked and combined them to make this one. I tried it out all weekend and loved it! {I am a big 409 fan and I think this works even better than 409!} Here is what you need:

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2 tsp Borax

1 tsp Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

1/2 cup white vinegar

2 cups hot water

1/2 tsp dish soap {I prefer Dawn}

empty spray bottle {I’m reusing an old empty one}

I add the Borax and Washing Soda first to the funnel, the remaining liquids wash the rest of the powder down.

Next add the 1/2 cup of white vinegar

It foams up a lot, wait till the foam goes down

Then add 1/2 teaspoon of dish soap. I prefer Dawn, but you can use what you have on hand

Finally add 2 cups of hot water and shake gently to mix it up. It will be a little sudsy.

I tried it out on my dirty bathroom that my kids use to wash their hands after playing outside and getting nice and dirty, the sink is always a mess!

Waa-Laa nice and shiny! I also used it on my walls {I wouldn’t use it if you have Flat paint, it will take the paint off!} under the counter where my kids eat. There was some nice dried on food and all sorts of yucky things…I sprayed it and let it sit for a couple of minutes then just used a wet washcloth to wipe it off and it looks so much better! I also used it to clean my floor boards under said counter and they look so much better too!

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All Purpose Cleaner Recipe

1 tsp. washing soda

2 tsp. Borax

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 tsp. dish soap

2 cups hot water

Combine all ingredients in an empty spray bottle. Shake gently to mix. Clean away!

Did you notice the handy homemade cleaners link on the sidebar? Click on it and it will take to you a page with all the homemade cleaning recipes.

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By Marji

DIY Window & Glass Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}

March 26, 2012 - 18 Comments

With spring comes spring cleaning. My windows always look really dirty after the winter months. I’m not saying I go and clean all the windows in my house (that is just crazy talk) but I do clean the ones I look out the most. I searched for a good homemade window cleaner and found one that I am loving, hopefully you will love it too! You should have everything on hand to make this. Here is what you need:

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1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

2 cups warm water

empty spray bottle

Add the vinegar & rubbing alcohol to the spray bottle. {I always use a funnel so it doesn’t end up all over my counter}

Add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Then add the 2 cups warm water, the warm water washes the corn starch down the funnel perfectly.

Shake gently

I found these microfiber washcloths at the dollar tree & I LOVE them. They work great for washing windows and mirrors or for shining my granite counter tops. I also love that I got 3 for $1!

My kids’ bathroom mirror is always a mess, it is hard to get a good picture of a dirty mirror, but trust me, it is messy!

Looks much better! Make sure you shake well before each use so the cornstarch doesn’t clog up your sprayer. Here’s one of my back windows the kids are always touching, lots of little finger prints…

Now nice and shiny. I really recommend the microfiber washcloths, make sure they are dry though, when it starts to get wet get a new one. Newspaper is also good to use, I just don’t like getting my hands black so I never use it.

Glass & Window Cleaner

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

2 cups warm water

empty spray bottle

Mix all ingredients together in spray bottle. SHAKE WELL before each use! After I made my batch I went around my house and cleaned a bunch of windows and mirrors because I was so excited about the results!

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By Marji

18 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: DIY, glass cleaner, Household Cleaner Recipes, window cleaner

DIY Tub/Shower Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}

March 5, 2012 - 61 Comments

This is my one of my favorite homemade cleaners. It is amazing and has just 2 ingredients: blue dawn and white vinegar. You also need any empty spray bottle. (Mine has the cleaner in it and I’m just adding more to it)

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Heat up 12 oz. of vinegar in the microwave. I heated mine up for 2 minutes.

After you heat it up, add it to your spray bottle.

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By Marji

61 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: DIY, homemade cleaner, Household Cleaner Recipes, shower cleaner, tub cleaner

DIY: Homemade Granite Cleaner Recipe {Picture Tutorial}

February 29, 2012 - 22 Comments

Marji here with another homemade cleaner. I have granite counters in my home and I love them, but have struggled with what to clean them with to keep them shiny and not streaky. Luckily pinterest saved me; I found a great recipe here. I have been using it for months and have LOVED it. It is super cheap to make with things you should have lying around.

How to make homemade granite cleaner:

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1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
2 cups water
8 drops dawn dish soap
scented oil of your choice
Spray Bottle (I picked mine up for 99 cents at Wal-Mart)
It is really easy to make, just add all the ingredients to the spray bottle

1/2 cup rubbing Alcohol

2 cups water {most cleaners contain more water than anything else, why pay money for water?!}

6-8 drops Dawn dish soap {I’ve tried other brands and the Dawn really does work the best}

3-4 drops Scented Oil, to mask the rubbing alcohol smell{I have an assortment of oils that I got from Michael’s when I made some bath salts a few years ago, if you use a coupon you can get them for pretty cheap and they last forever}

Gently shake everything together and you are ready to clean. {I had to cut a vinyl label out for my spray bottle, I LOVE to label things}

It is safe to use on all your appliances and other countertops. I use it to clean my bathroom counters too. To help with the shine on the granite counters use a soft cloth or paper towels. I much prefer the less than 50 cents it cost to make this compared to the $7 I paid for granite cleaner at the store. Do you have any other homemade cleaning recipes you love?

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By Marji

22 Comments
Filed Under: DIY
Tagged With: DIY, Homemade Granite Cleaner, Household Cleaner Recipes

Homemade Stain Remover {picture tutorial}

February 27, 2012 - 17 Comments

A lot of you probably already know that you can use a grease-fighting dish soap to help with grease stains, but this concoction takes it up a notch… Stains that would not come out with other methods and cleaners came out completely with this spot remover. Plus, it is cheap! You probably already have everything you need to make it right now. A special thanks to my fab friend, Sarah, for sharing this stain remover and stains with me!

The Only Spot Remover You Will Ever Need

recipe adapted by OneGoodThingbyJillee from Glamour.com

one part Dawn dishwashing liquid soap (generic dish soap works too)
two parts hydrogen peroxide
add some baking soda for extra scrubbing power (1-2 Tbsp)

Mix the ingredients together in a small bowl. Do you keep baking soda in your fridge for odors? After your baking soda has soaked up all the odors that it can, give it a second life and put it to work in this cleaning mixture.

Use a small brush to scrub the mixture into the stained area. Rinse, if desired. Launder as usual.

For tough stains, you can let the mixture sit on the garment for an hour or so, then launder as usual. Or treat the area a few times before laundering.

For this lovely stain, we let it sit for a few minutes after the first treatment, rinsed, then we treated it again and let it sit for another little while. After laundering as normal, the stain is completely gone!

I recommend doing a test on an inconspicuous part of the garment first to make sure that the spot remover will not harm the fabric. Hydrogen peroxide can be tough on fabric. Peroxide is sensitive to light, hence the dark bottles, so you may just need to mix this up as needed each time you need to treat some stains.

Try this spot remover on: underarm & collar stains, blood stains, grease stains, poop stains, baby food stains, cutting board stains, and many more!

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By Melanie

17 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Recipes
Tagged With: Cleaning Recipes, DIY, homemade spot remover, homemade stain remover, Household Cleaner Recipes, laundry

Live on Less – Homemade Dishwasher Detergent for $.06 a Load {Picture Tutorial}

February 13, 2012 - 68 Comments

Marji here with another homemade cleaner recipe, a great way to live on less. I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for a while. Cathy asked if I had tried homemade dishwasher detergent I decided I needed to make it and try it and share it with all you Fabulessly Frugal Readers. There are lots of recipes out there. This is the one that was pretty consistently listed as one that worked really well. One disclaimer though if you have hard water you might have to make some adjustments a little more, like adding more salt or using 2 TBSP instead of 1.

Here are the ingredients for homemade dishwasher detergent:

I had everything on hand but the unsweetened lemonade mix. I got the generic brand for 10 cents a package.

2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
1 Cup Kosher salt
10 packages unsweetened lemonade (citric acid)
A container to store it in

I just added everything to the container I was going to store it in.

I stirred it and broke up some clumps

Then I shook it to get it good and mixed up.

I had to cut some vinyl to label my container. I put the 1 TBSP on so my husband will know how much to put in when he does the dishes. I put a tablespoon in the container for easy dispensing.

If you have a prewash compartment on your washer, put a little of the 1 tbsp. in there, I put about a third of the tablespoon in the smaller compartment.

Another important thing to do to prevent cloudy glasses is to add white vinegar to the rinse aid dispenser. People with really hard water used Lemi Shine instead of the lemonade or citric acid. Since we don’t have hard water I didn’t try this out.

I read a few things online that people were concerned about using borax to wash the dishes with, I didn’t see anything that I was concerned about. One site did say it can clog up your system so use a store bought detergent once a month to keep it clear. (Borax isn’t good if it is ingested, but that is true for any dishwasher detergent. You want keep it and all cleaning products away from kids.)

I have used it a few times and my dishes look great, no cloudy glasses and shiny silverware. The price for the batch (which will do about 80 loads if you use 1 tbsp.) is around $4.50. I figure it is worth it to try it for a month, it is a savings from what I was spending on the generic brand.

You might also like to learn how to make your own:

Homemade Fabric Softener

Homemade Laundry Detergent

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By Marji

68 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Frugal Living
Tagged With: Cleaning Recipes, DIY, Homemade Dishwasher Detergent, Household Cleaner Recipes

Homemade Fabric Softener {picture tutorial}

February 6, 2012 - 86 Comments

Marji here again with another recipe to save you money on your laundry. I don’t go through fabric softener as quickly as I do laundry soap, but I figured there had to be a recipe to make my own for less than what I pay at the store for it. I found one on pinterest and it is really easy to make and uses things you probably have on hand!

Here is what you need:

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2 cups hair conditioner, pick a scent you like
(Here is a deal for .19/oz)

3 cups white vinegar

6 cups hot water

a container to mix it in

Mix the water, vinegar & conditioner together. I used my big pitcher, easy to mix in and easy to pour into another container.

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By Marji

86 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Frugal Living, Recipes
Tagged With: Cleaning Recipes, diy fabric softener, frugal living, Homemade Fabric Softener, Household Cleaner Recipes, Money Saving Tip, Recipes

Homemade Laundry Soap {picture tutorial}

February 1, 2012 - 140 Comments

Hey Y’all! Marji here with a way to save BIG money on laundry soap. I have been using this homemade laundry soap for a year and I LOVE it! I learned how to make it at a church meeting. The person who taught us got the recipe from the Duggars (the family with 19 kids)! One batch of it has lasted me a whole year, that is almost $200 in savings for my family. We were going through a large thing of laundry soap a month. With 4 little kids we do lots of laundry and have lots of dirt and stains. This soap is awesome!! We have a HE machine and it works great in it and you use less than in a top loading machine.

Here is what you need to make it:

1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap (other options Ivory for sensitive skin or Pink Zote)
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda!)
5 gallon bucket and lid

I found all the ingredients at my local Kroger Store. I have also seen borax and the washing soda at Wal-Mart. I bought them a year ago and don’t remember the total cost for all 3, but I’m pretty sure it was under $6 for everything and you will get multiple batches from the borax and washing soda. They sell them all on Amazon, but they are cheaper at your local store. Here is how you make it: