If you make your own safer cleaning products...

mrsfirefly

I posted this on EFF, but no responses.  Am thinking you ladies might have some insight:

I was reading this article on mothering.com about making your own products and the writer says that you need baking soda, washing soda, vinegar, tea tree oil, and a good soap or detergent (and that detergent doesn't leave build up but soap does).  She gives a variety of "recipes" to make various products. I am confused by what she means be detergent.  Does she mean to buy some laundry or dishwasher detergent and use that to make your products, or is there some more generic product called plain, old detergent?  Here's the link to the article, if you're curious.  Thanks!

EnglishMajor03

Well, she mentions castile soap which may be used as a detergent (I used it in the NICU to clean my pump parts for Parker)  I wonder if she's also talking about something like Borax, which we use in our dishwashing detergent recipe.

There's some good information here, but I personally believe you don't need so many cleaners.  I use a 50/50 vinegar water mix for the kitchen, a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide water mix for the bathroom, baking soda for scrubbing/scouring and olive oil and lemon mixture for dusting.   Borax is similar to baking soda but has extra uses in the laundry and can be used in the bathroom too.  You can find Borax at Target.  There is tons of information right on the box.

passar3588

I have a cleaner that I make that uses liquid dish soap. Here's my recipe:

2 c water

3 T vinegar

1 T liquid dish soap

1 T Borax

randa603

I just came over to this board to look for some valentine craft ideas and saw your post.  I'm not sure what the writer means by detergent.  I use an excellent recipe myself and wanted to forward it along because it was created by a toxicologist...https://www.doctoroz.com/videos/clean-cleanser-recipe

https://www.doctoroz.com/videos/clean-cleanser-recipe

Mrs.Reem

With kids around I don't trust using or keeping Borax handy. It can be pretty toxic if a kid gets into it and eats it.

I've had great luck with 50/50 vinegar and water with a little essential oil to cover the vinegar smell.  For grease cutting I add a tsp of dish washing liquid. The dish washing liquid will streak though so you don't want to use that on glass or granite.