{Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap and Cleaners}

Get a 5 gallon bucket, some Fels-Naptha, Super Washing Soda, Borax,

and roll up your sleeves.....we're making Laundry Soap!

I love this recipe! I've been using it for about 6-7 months and I've only had to make it twice! It cost a little over $1 per 10 gallons and the borax and soda will last a year or two! The Fels-Naptha is $0.99, here in Idaho, and the borax and soda is around $3.00 a box. So in a year I will have spent about $10.00 on laundry soap. Is that not CRAZY!? Why do we spend $$$$$$ for brand name? This one smells nice and gets the stains out!

Front or Top load machines-best value!

4 cups hot tap water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*

1/2 cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)


*Baking Soda will not work

Inexpensive Fabric Softners

Recipe #1
1 Cup White Vinegar
Add vinegar to rinse cycle. Works great. Removes residue and odors. Also helps to keep washing machine and hoses fresh and clean too.
Recipe #2
1 Container of Name Brand Fabric Softener
4 Inexpensive sponges, cut in half
Pour entire container of softener into a 5 gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice. (2 parts water to 1 part softener) Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet.

Household Cleaners

All substances, even natural ones, have a chemical component (meaning they are made of atoms) and should be used with knowledge. Mixing a pinch of this and a touch of that can cause some harmful reactions if you don't know what you are doing. Vinegar and Bleach is one example. Most people know that mixing bleach and ammonia can cause harmful, possibly fatal, fumes. Did you know that mixing vinegar and bleach has the same effect? Also many handwashing dish detergents caution against adding bleach to the water for a similar reason.


If you are using cleansers with different ingredients whether commercial or homemade, it is best to use a clean cloth for each formula. This will prevent any mixing of chemicals.

The recipes listed below are compatible with one another and safe for children to use. That said, borax is not safe to ingest. If you find your baby happily eating a cleanser with borax in it, you should call poison control. 

Colors:
I like to add a drop of food coloring to my liquid homemade cleansers. This is completely optional, but some of the cleansers look like plain water without them. The colors help me see at a glance what recipe it is, although I still write it plainly on the bottle.. Silly as it sounds, the color makes me think it's more "real." I use blue for window fluid, green for all-purpose cleaner (if it's mint, or orange if it's orange flavored), and red for floor cleaner.

Containers:
For spray cleaners, I like to buy the empty 32oz spray bottles from the dollar store. Wal-mart has some for the same price next to their brooms. Theirs are only 24 oz in size but work just fine. For my homemade dishwashing detergent, I used an empty protein shake container. I washed it out and made my own label just for fun. The scoop just happened to be the right size to measure with. You can use anything. Leftover food containers are nice, because you know they aren't toxic. But I would stray away from using leftover commercial cleanser bottles. Even if you wash them out, there could be a chemical residue. It's probably safe, but I don't feel good about it personally.


Labeling:
Do label your containers with the name of the cleanser, what it is used for, the recipe (for easy refilling and just in case your baby eats it), and directions for use. A sharpee is usually fine for this, but if you want to make fancy labels on your computer {go for it}! :)

Orange Infused Vinegar Total Cost $.04 

Orange oil is famous for it's cleaning properties. It smells great too! Harness the power of orange by soaking your peelings in vinegar. It will absorb the oils and pigment boosting the cleaning power of the vinegar.


The most economical way to make this is when you are already buying oranges to eat because they are such a great price. This usually happens in winter. I try to make enough during this season, to last me until next year.

To make: Stuff the peelings of 4-6 oranges into a glass quart canning jar. Cover with vinegar and seal with a lid. Shake every once in a while for 1-2 weeks. Strain out peelings. When finished the orange vinegar should be a dark orange color.

It is okay to start the jar with your first orange and add peelings to the vinegar as you eat them. Just be sure to leave room in the jar for the peelings when you pour the vinegar.

Use this in any of the recipes below in the place of white vinegar.


Note: When making infused vinegar, any citrus fruit will work. I've used lemons, limes, grapefruit, and tangerines with success.



Organic Disinfecting All-Purpose Spray Total Cost $.59 
This recipe is based on castille soap and awesome healthy cleaner. Just a touch of borax makes it disinfecting without becoming a toxin. It is a mainstay around here. You can change the scent by adding a few drops of essential oil, or by buying the castille soap already infused with oils.


1/4 C vinegar (white or orange, see recipe above.) $.04
2 t borax (less than half a cent)
1/4 C liquid castille soap (Dr. Bronner's is the best brand. Shop around online for the best price. Any flavor will work--I like peppermint.) $.55
2 C hot water
1 drop food coloring (optional)


Swirl all ingredients together in a spray bottle. Shake before using. Spray and wipe. Ideal for counters, table tops, stove tops, high chair trays, etc.

Window Cleaner Total Cost--Less than 1 cent

I've tried a lot of homemade window cleaners, including vinegar based ones and they all left a streaky film on the glass. Not this one!

4 C water
2 drops Joy brand concentrated dish detergent (I can't promise any other brand will work. But for $1.12 you have a life time's worth of glass cleaner.)
1 drop blue food coloring (otpional)

Combine in a 32 oz spray bottle and shake to combine. Use as you would any glass cleaner. Surgical Huck Towels are the best wipers!

Dusting Spray and Wood Polish Total Cost $.04

This next recipe can be used to clean pretty much anything. I've even seen it as a window cleaner, but I didn't have good luck with it used that way. It won't harm your wood floors or leave vinyl ones slick. Sprayed lightly on a surgical huck cloth, it makes the perfect dust attracter. If you want to also polish wood add a couple of drops of olive or linseed oil to the cloth. I've seen it recommended to add oil to your wood floors also, but this sounds down right dangerous! I don't have wood floors in this house to try it on. If you decide to try it, test it for slickness in an out of traffic place first.

The essential oil is optional, but helps it smell better. Peppermint is a great inexpensive choice. Orange or other citrus flavors are also good.

2 C water
1 C vinegar (white or orange-above recipe ) $.04
5 drops essential oil (optional)

Mix in a spray bottle and use as you would commercial cleanser.

Commercial Floor Cleaner Total Cost $.06

This recipe is not natural, but if you are loyal to a particular brand, you can still use it and save money. The traditional way of cleaning a floor is to fill a bucket with a gallon of water and add 1/4 C of commercial cleaner. Used this way, a normal 32 oz bottle of cleaner will give you 16 cleanings. If your floor is particularly dirty, you will need to change water partway through. Otherwise you will be depositing the dirt from the water back on your floor. To test and see what I mean, try taking a white towel and drying your floor after you clean it in the traditional way (eww!)

A better way to clean your floor is to fill a 32 oz spray bottle with 4 cups of water and 1 T cleaner. (I add a drop of red food coloring and label the bottle well.) Wet down your microfiber towel with water, spray the cleaner and wipe working in small sections. You can rinse your cloth periodically in the sink, or carry a bucket with plain water to rinse in. Changing your water this way is practically free, and your 1 T of cleaner will wash your floor many, many times!

If you are using a Clorox R Ready Mop R or other similar device, try using the microfiber cloths in place of the disposeable ones. They should pinch right in! I used my above formula to refill the cleaner container with great results.


Microwave Cleaner Total Cost: Practically Free!

Harness the power of steam! Fill a glass measuring cup with a cup of water and a dash of salt. (The salt prevents exploding water syndrome.) Microwave on high for 2 minutes and let set with the door shut for 5-10 minutes. The microwave will wipe clean easily, even the baked on stuff. This works great.

Soft Scrub

This non-scratching formula works really well for baked on greasy stuff, like the stuff that accumulates on the front of a stove hood, or the stuff baked on around the burners.

Make a paste with baking soda and handwashing dish detergent. Rub in with a stiff brush or non-scratching pad. Rinse well. Adding water to this to clean really dilutes the cleaning power. Save the water for the end.

Tub and Shower Cleaner Total Cost: $.04

The best homemade cleaner for the tub and shower is the good old 2 C water with 1/4 cup vinegar. It works well on soap scum and hard water deposits. If it has been years since you last scrubbed your shower (you know who you are) you will save time with a bottle of Tilex. But this recipe is a great maintenance shower cleaner. Be warned that undiluted vinegar
(not this recipe) will dissolve grout. Diluted (like in this recipe) and rinsed well, it will do fine.
{Baking soda is scrubby and may help too. I had a hard time rinsing my tub completly clean of the baking soda, and it left a gritty residue. Rinsing with vinegar at the end would have helped.}


Toilet Cleaner 1 $.27
Add 1 Cup Borax to the toilet bowl and leave overnight. (Protect your pets and babies who like to drink from the toilet.)

Swish with the brush in the morning and flush--Voila!

This is more expensive than buying "The Works" and works slightly less well, but a lot of people love that it is less chemically.

Toilet Cleaner 2 $.05

A squirt of cheap shampoo! {I tried it and it works great as a maintenance cleaner and smells even better!} It is not disinfecting, but I'm not overly concerned about that unless someone has the flu. A drop of tea tree oil on the rag works great in that case.


Caution: This will save you alot of money, so you may find yourself {overjoyed} at the thought- time and time again! I know I am!

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Happy Cleaning!