Do you make any of your own cleaning products?

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Do you make any of your own cleaning products?

cleaning_products.jpg

 

Hello everyone,

 

There are so many different cleaning products available to buy today that it can be overwhelming to decide which one to choose from. I recently discovered that many people make their own cleaning products  in order to save money and protect the environment.

 

Table salt, vinegar, lemon, rosemary springs…there are lots of cheap and chemical-free ingredients in recipes to clean a house. I've just bought some bicarbonate of soda from my local refill shop, as I'm thinking of trying to make some dishwasher tablets! eep!

 

Do you make your own cleaning products? Do you have any recipe to share with us or things you have attempted? 

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Lizzie


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16 Replies 16
Мария15
Level 8
Moscow, Russia

Hi @Lizzie What a great topic!

I use a mixture of white vinegar and water (1 part vinegar/2 parts water) for cleaning the toilet. I keep it in a sprinkling bottle and sprink the toilet at least once a day. It almost totally prevents me from using harsh chemicals, I use them not more than once in a couple of months. But it is for my home use. Unfortunately in rented apartment I use manufactured cleaning products because I clean it not every day but only after the guests left, I am afraid that vinegar will not work well enough.

To make it smell good I add some essential oils.

I also experimented with putting peel of lemon, orange and mandarine peels in vinegar. After soaking peels vinegar has a great aroma, mandarin is my favourite.

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Мария15   Yes, I use a lot of white vinegar for cleaning, it's as good as Windex for getting a no streak clean on appliances and windows and costs MUCh less and is environmentally friendly.   I also started, when I have bought oranges, steeping the orange rinds in a mason jar full of vinegar for a couple of weeks and then straining into a spray bottle.  

 

Recently, as linen spray seems to be a thing of the past, tried making my own...2/3 water, 1/3 witch hazel and then about 10 or so drops of essential lavender oil, so far, seems to be working well. 

@Mark116Yes, Mark, I use it as all-purpose cleanser too, especially at stainless steel kitchen sink and on the bathroom sink. We have very hard water that's why I am always tackling limescale forming.

 

I was thinking about linen spray lately, how to use lavender oil to aromatize the linens. In what form do you use witch hazel? I am afraid we don't have it here. Can you post a picture or a link to Amazon, please? What could be a replacement for it?

 

@Мария15  Supposedly vodka, but I thought that would be weird, apparently it is to help the essential oil mix with the water, here's the 'recipe'

 

  • Small jar with tight-fitting lid
  • 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) witch hazel or vodka
  • 10 drops lavender essential oil
  • 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) water
  • Small funnel
  • Spray bottle
  • Printable label PDF
  • Label sheet, printer, and scissors
Directions

In the jar, combine the witch hazel or vodka and the lavender essential. Place the lid on tightly and shake well for 15-20 seconds to combine the two. Why? Well, the essential oil won’t distribute into the water on its own, but when diluted in the witch hazel or vodka, it will mix into the water.

 

But, I bet you can get witch hazel, although they do sell on amazon.

https://www.google.com/search?q=witch+hazel+amazon&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8i5DF...

 

 

 

@Mark116Thank you, Mark. Wil be interesting to experiment.

thanks for the tip on the linen spray! Going to make it too 🙂

Clara116
Level 10
Pensacola, FL

@Lizzie  Cool idea and I hope more hosts will share their ideas and stuff that works for them.  

I make my own Tub/ Sink scrub its inexpensive and leaves the surface squeaky clean and smelling wonderful. 

 

SINK/ TUB SCRUB

2 cups Baking Soda

10 drops favorite Essential Oil

(lemon or peppermint or your favorite)

put in air tight glass container - shake and sprinkle on sink/tub

add a few drops of liquid soap - scrub, rinse and sparkling clean

 

My husband is an organic gardener and when I discovered Loofahs - Luffas were grown and not from the sea I began my own small area of growing. Along with my Sink / Tub scrub its a fun gift that I enjoy sharing...also I've given away loads of seeds and loofahs to many guests.  (must have hot weather and lots of sunshine to grow loofahs so Florida is perfect for growing them). And I've even had them report back of their success with growing from the seeds I shared. 

Exfoliating our skin seems to help improve some parts of the aging process so I have played with capturing the loofahs at the stage where they are very gentle and not super abrasive to use on the face.  My recipe for Sink/Tub Scrub

Sink / Tub ScrubSink / Tub Scrub

 

 

 

 
Loofahs/ Loofah SeedsLoofahs/ Loofah Seeds

 

Clara after you pick the loofah how do you prepare it and get the seeds out? Is it very time consuming?
Thanks for any tips!

@Helen644 Well, I let it dry out on the vine............then I skin the entire loofah. Next I cut it in half and over a bucket I tap it knocking out the seeds.........there will be many some almost 50-75 seeds in one....some you will have to use a chop stick to dig out. Then I soak in cold water with soap....I like Dr. Bronners Peppermint as it smells so good and that smell will permeate the sponge. I wash it, and sometimes use a brush to get any stuff left inside until it is clean. I let it soak sometimes overnight....so it takes alittle time but its worth it. If you cut it before its totally dry off the vine it will produce a softer loofah sponge BUT it takes much more work to get totally clean inside. Its like a gel/squash like substance.

 

My friend likes to cook the loofah before it is very big and put it in soups - its a squash after all. 

 

I let it dry in the sun and then cut it sometimes into smaller peices or larger....as you like. I give as gifts with soap. 

I use loofahs for cleaning my stove top, sinks, tubs, anything....my body, face...............will NOT scratch any surface.

 

It grows up and best in a very large container - good luck

 

 

Perfect .. I'm sure they will easily grow here in Greece ... I will give it go!
Thanks for all the tips!

Kira32
Level 10
Canary Islands, Spain

Hola!

 

I clean the floor with local seasalt and warm water. Salt disinfects and gets rid of toxicity like the ocean does.

 

It's smells good too!

 

Sometimes I put salt at all the corners of the house and change the salt when mopping the floor again. 

 

Put salt it in a small cotton pouch as decoration. It's very relaxing and cleans the air😊

 

Kira♡

 

 

@Kira32I love it! How much salt do you add for a bucket of water?

Hi @Мария15 

 

2 tablespoons of salt

Marina996
Level 2
Mijas, Spain

Hi all! Great to hear your are bringing this up! In our finca in southern Spain we offer a studio and an apartment to guests. We are in a natural environment and have our own orchard built on permaculture principles. I want to use as many natural products as I possibly can and because we do a lot of cleaning and washing (!) that is definitely one aspect I am focusing on at the moment. As mentioned by other hosts I use a vinegar mix with essential oils in a spray bottle (see instagram post). For washing (I have white linen sheets) I use a small amount of detergent with baking soda. It really refreshes the white and is also a great help in removing body odour (we have very hot summers here). Baking soda is also great for scrubbing wash basins. 

I have started leaving a spray bottle with the mix in the guest rooms for those staying longer and wanting to do some refreshing themselves during their stay. I have also replaced the guest plastic dishwasher brush with a loofah and have upgraded the quality of the dishcloth so that they can be washed and re-used rather than the microfibre ones that start to look quite poorly. Overall it can at times be more work but I want to do it and feel it adds to the natural experience and inspiration for our guests as well. Looking forward to more ideas! Happy hosting everyone, saludos from Mijas! 🙂