Re-introducing myself and asking a potentially way-too-ambitious question

Breezy.Lives

::waves hello::

I know a lot of you from the baby boards, but one of my latest projects is to green our cleaning products.  I'm basically going one at a time - as I run out of a cleaning product, I'm replacing it with something I can make.  I'm doing this for 2 reasons:  money savings, and not smelling like bleach and other chemicals while I snuggle my son!  Seriously - I never want to clean the bathroom because I smell like it the rest of the day!

Anyway, my possibly way-too-ambitious question...

What materials/ingredients do you use to clean the house, and what are their various properties/uses?  Like, I know that lemon juice (and lime juice??) cuts through grease and also has disinfectant properties.  What other properties/uses does it have?

What about vinegar, baking soda, washing soda, borax, essential oils, castille soap, and everything else I see as part of recipes for various cleaning products?

Basically, I'm trying to understand the components so that I can figure out how to make what I need with what I've got - I figure I don't need a bajillion bottles of "specific" cleaning solutions.  I probably just need a few basics and a bottle or two of actual solutions, right?

Is there a website with this sort of information listed?

My name is Breezy, and I am probably getting myself in over my head.

AmandaHearn

I use this for everything:

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2 c Water

2 c Vinegar

1 squirt Dish Soap

1 dropper Grapefruit Seed Extract

 

I also have a bottle of this with some rubbing alcohol in it for windows and glass

 

luvlieK

Good question. ?I haven't started making cleaners yet. ?I use BioKleen's Bac-Out for a variety of things. ?But others should be able to give you a better response!

KRONK

Hi Breezy! Good for you for wanting to change over your household cleaners! I changed over and I am so glad that I did! It makes me actually like to clean... sometimes I did a post in my blog with the different cleaning recipes that I personally use over and over again! Hope this helps!?

My blog post:

https://keriandbrian.blogspot.com/2008/09/homemade-cleaners-and-veggie-wash.html

tinamichelle

There are tons of websites out there to give you recipes. With that being said kiliwicket's blog has a recipes in it.

https://anditstarts.blogspot.com/2008/10/crunchy-recipes.html

tinamichelle

https://anditstarts.blogspot.com/2008/10/crunchy-recipes.html

There are recipes in this nesties blog

triumphantreturnofplanningbug

I don't have anything to add to those suggestions, because they're the places I get my recipes, but it sounds like you're doing it slowly and that makes it more manageable IMO.  Enjoy!

Em&B

Just marking this so I can find it later . . . thanks ladies

ndilemma

I actually just use vinegar and water. I seem to make it work for everything...except the bathroom. I can't seem to steer away from bathroom cleaners yet.

JulyFiveBride

I use vinegar and water for just about everything. I'm starting to branch out into other products, too, because I want some EO in my cleaning products, especially my carpet cleaner. I miss the fresh smells!

 https://www.wswmd.org/recipes#ingred

 I don't know how to make that clicky, but it has several recipes and talks about the uses of different ingredients.