Thursday, May 23, 2013

DIY & Homemade Cleaner Spray Recipes I Need to Remember!

Homemade cleaner and detergent recipes found on Pinterest, modified by me!



All Purpose Cleaning Spray:

1/4 cup Lemon Juice (I used the concentrate I use for cooking & baking)
1/2 cup White Vinegar
1 tsp. Borax
1 tsp. Super Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)
1 tsp. Castile Soap (or dishwashing liquid)
32 oz. Spray Bottle

Add just enough HOT tap water to mix / shake / dissolve powdered ingredients, and then add cold tap water to fill your spray bottle up to the 32 oz. line.

You can also add a few drops of essential oils if you want, but I found that the lemon juice concentrate made for a wonderful lemon fresh scent! I found the original recipe which I adapted for my purposes at this link:

http://www.oursemiorganiclife.com/2011/04/diy-counter-cleaner.html



Dry Powdered Dishwasher Detergent:

1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)
1 cup Lemi-Shine
1/4 cup Kosher Salt or 1/4 cup Epsom Salts

Mix well in a container large enough to dip your hand into. Throw in a cracker or something to absorb any extra moisture, since you'll likely be storing this under your sink and it WILL clump up. Throw in a scoop or measuring spoon and use as much as needed to fill your dishwasher's detergent cup.

Original link on Pinterest (Her recipe calls for 1 tbs. but I use almost twice that much):

http://www.simplydesigning.net/2011/05/hard-water-stains-dishwasher-detergent.html



And now for my all-time favorite recipe that I've been using for months! No grating, no muss, no fuss. I may never buy commercially made detergent again!

Liquid Laundry Detergent:

6 tbs. Borax
6 tbs. Super Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)
4 tbs. Dawn Dishwashing Liquid Soap (I use the lavender Olay one)

* If you stir the powder ingredients in a bowl first to eliminate clumps, that helps a lot! * Add enough HOT tap water to your gallon-sized jug to shake / mix / dissolve all the powder ingredients. Once everything is dissolved, add enough cold tap water to fill the jug up to the 1 gallon line. I use about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup in my HE front-loading washing machine.

As you can see, I have doubled the ingredients and added less water to make a more concentrated detergent. I went to Walmart and purchased a 1 gallon beverage container in the plastic container section in the Home department for less than $3, but you can use a clean milk jug or an old detergent container that's also been cleaned out. One of those cute beverage dispensers would be a really classy or cute and much easier option, albeit more expensive, and then you could just dispense directly into the washer or into a cup.

Original link on Pinterest:

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/no-grate-homemade-laundry-soap.html

3 comments:

  1. Nice to have all these recipes in one place. I have used a similar recipe for detergent for washing diapers and it was way better than any commercial formula. Unfortunately we have a front loader now so I can't use dish detergent in it, and I rue the day we ever got a HE machine! It sucks for diapers!

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  2. Thanks, Stacey, I need to make some of the washing detergent. I didn't write it down when we were with you.

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  3. Thanks for the comments, Hillary! I am definitely going to have to check my manufacturers manual, because ours is an LG HE front loader and it seems we haven't had any issues with dish detergent in it, but I don't want it to ruin our machine down the road... Thanks for the tip!

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