Question by *Sombra*: Eco-Friendly, Inexpensive and/or Homemade Cleaning Products … For Tough Cleaning Jobs? Can You Help?
I have way too many cleaning products! Some of them (toilet cleaner, stainless polish, carpet cleaner) have only one purpose, and I’m hoping to eliminate some of these “specialty” products and replace them with a few “all-purpose” cleaners. Something I can mix up and keep in a spray bottle, maybe?
I already use diluted white vinegar for most light, everyday cleaning, and diluted bleach to sanitize. But I’d like to find inexpensive, eco-friendly alternatives to some of the harsh products used for:
Pet stains on carpet
Kitchen grease build-up on the range
Glass shower doors and fiberglass shower surround
Toilet cleaning (safe for septic)
Stainless sink and appliances
Any suggestions? If I could make these products myself, that would be even better!
Thanks for your help!
I
Best answer:
Answer by elementoflife
For the pet stains, you could try a dilution of tea tree oil and water – let sit on stain for a while and then soak up liquid with a rag. I would test this on a hidden patch of carpet first though.
for the glass shower doors and surround, use rubbing alcohol to get all the residual bought cleaning product off the surface and then you can just use white vinegar (not diluted) in a spray bottle. This of course works for mirrors and chorme fixtures. If there is hard water build up on the glass doors, let it sit for a while – although it may not get all that residue off right away. I also have a squeegy that I use to squeegy off the water from the tub surround – it reduces the chance that you’ll get mineral build up on the surround (that stuff that looks like water drops dried up, but you can’t seem to get rid of it easily).
For my stainless steel sink and such, I just use a baking soda paste that i make as the scrubber (it seems to work like ajax or comet) and then rinse. You tend to get a filmy residue afterward rinsing with water so i just take a dry flannel cloth and wipe it up (a piece of old pjs that I ripped up works wonders! – or I get them from the second hand store for CHEAP and rip them up if I am running low on cloths). Also, you can use 1/2 a lemon dipped in borax as a more abrasive cleaner but I never have a lemon around so I haven’t used it often (I find the soda works well to get grime off stuff anyway). Now that I think of it – try that for your tub surround too! It’ll scrub off scuzy stuff!!! If you want to polish the stainless steel after you’ve cleaned it, you can use mineral oil too.
Borax in water is a great way to get grease out and off of stuff.
I know you didn’t ask but I see that you have a septic field/tank so I thought you might be interested to know about laundry softner that you can use in your washing cycle rather than using those sheets… and this literally costs you about 3 cents per load
In a large container mix
2 c white vinegar
2 c baking soda
4 c water!
Shake everytime before using (the soda settles).
Get yourself a downey ball from the store, fill it with the regular amount of homemade softner. it’ll release in the rinse cycle! I use it and it works wonders!
I am not sure about safe septic cleaners for toilets. I would assume that using borax in water would suffice. Apparently 1/2 cup borax in 1 gallon of water meets the most sanitary requirements. I think it is considered the enviro-bleach!!
Hope that helps!!!
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