In my last post, I shared some of my favorite body recipes. Today's post includes some tried and true home cleaning products.
Laundry Soap
- 1 Bar of grated Fels Naptha
- 1 cup washing soda
- 1 cup borax powder
- lots of water
In the largest stockpot you own, place the grated Fels Naptha and 12 cups of water. Heat until the soap melts. Stir in the washing soda and borax. Remove from the stove and add 8 cups of water to a 5 gallon pail. Stir the soap solution into the pail. Then, add another 2 gallons and 12 cups of water. Let this sit overnight. It will become a thick jelly. Use about 1/2 cup per load in a top-loader. (I don't know how well it would work in a front loader.) We use this routinely for all of our laundry, including diapers. Sometimes, we also add 1/2 cup of baking soda to boost the cleaning.
Dishwasher Soap
- 1 cup borax
- 1 cup washing soda
- 1/2 cup citric acid
- 1/2 cup cheap salt (I don't use sea salt since it won't be consumed.)
Mix together in a sealed container. Add 1-2 T dry rice to keep the detergent from clumping. Fill the dishwasher soap container with this mixture. I usually takes about 1.5 T for ours. Also, vinegar makes a wonderful rinse agent.
Floor Sweeper Spray
First, get one of these sweepers! I LOVE that you can fill it with your own (natural) mixture and don't have to keep shelling out for refills. Then, fill it with
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of vinegar
- 1 cup of rubbing alcohol
- 2 drops of soap
15 drops essential oil (I use a mixture of peppermint, lavender, and orange.)
My nutritionist, Sherry, has a great website with other home-cleaning recipes. When I finally get around to doing more cleaning, I'll let you know how they work ;)