Homemade Air &Fabric Freshener

I have successfully made some cleaning products over the past year.  At our MOPS meeting this week I tried out a new one, homemade air and fabric freshener AKA Febreze.

Here's how to make your own...

Combine 1 ounce of a scented fabric softener with 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a plastic spray bottle.  Fill the rest of the bottle with water.    

The smell of this homemade Febreze will depend on the scent of the fabric softener chosen.  

I also chose to make a new batch of my favorite soap scum cleaner at our meeting.  

This stuff is a-mazing!  

Someone mentioned putting this cleaner in a handheld dish scrubber and keeping it in the shower - brilliant!   

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For printable labels and more homemade cleaners see Sarah at Little Ms. Robinson.  

  

Airing Dirty Laundry

Clare wears a uniform to school and also has to follow some other dress-code guidelines.  One of which is that socks must be white or navy.  I bought good-quality socks for her last year and they still fit her.  But after one year on the mulch playground, the white ones weren't looking so white.  

I had already soaked them in oxiclean without making much progress.  Then after I saw this pin on pinterest and I wondered if the dish soap / hydrogen peroxide combination would work on dirty socks.  

I soaked each of the socks in a 1 part Dawn to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide solution, scrubbing extra dirty spots with an old toothbrush dipped in baking soda as suggested.  I let the damp socks sit for over an hour, then washed in hot water.  

They were MUCH cleaner this time around!  

We just gained back 3 pairs of white socks for 1st grade!  

Linking here.

Detangling Doll's Hair

Rapunzel's hair was looking a bit tangled lately.  

I read several ways to repair a doll's hair on pinterest, but all involved fabric softer which I don't use.  So I came up with my own strategy that worked great.  

First I detangled the hair as best as I could.  Then I added some dish soap and rubbed it in the hair.  

Next I soaked the hair in HOT (heated in the microwave where it was almost boiling) water.

Added a few drops of regular conditioner and combed the hair out.  Then I soaked again in the HOT water.  I brushed the hair again and left it to dry overnight.  

In the morning the hair was soft and smooth and brushed easily.

Clare is happy to be brushing Rapunzel's hair once again!  

(And now she's longing for a Flynn Rider doll!)

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Cleaning the Dishwasher...Inside and Out

Sharing some of my favorite dishwasher cleaning goodies today...  In no particular order, here are some of my favorite ways to keep my dishes, and hard-working dishwasher, sparkling clean!  

1. I discovered Weiman Stainless Steel wipes after we upgraded our dishwasher 2 years ago. 

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They keep the front of my stainless steel dishwasher looking like new.   

2. To keep the soap dispenser clean, I run a packet of lemonade kool-aid through a short cycle as needed.

3. My favorite dish washer detergent:

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Finish dishwashing tabs leave everything spick and span!

4. And for a shiny finish, I love adding OxiClean Dishwashing Booster to a load of dishes.

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Everything looks like new!

Happy Dishwashing!

Homemade Disinfecting Wipes

I pinned this idea for homemade disinfecting/clorox wipes a few weeks ago and recently made some of my own.  

I made 14 wipes so I used smaller quantities of the suggested ingredients:

1/2 cup of water

1/8 cup rubbing alcohol

1 T. Dawn dish soap (*author says to only use Dawn)

Mix everything together in a container that has a lid.  (I washed out an old baby wipes container and used it.)  Then add the wipes, put the lid on, and flip the container over so the liquid can be absorbed into the rags.  I had 14 cotton rags (old white undershirts) that absorbed this amount of the liquid mixture perfectly, not too wet, but just  moist enough.

I like using these to wipe down my bathroom sinks and toilets in-between regular cleaning.  (And they are great for wiping off, around, behind, below and underneath the toilet that is used by a little boy!)  

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New Cleaner that Stinks...Literally.

I tried this homemade cleaner the other day after my older sister highly recommended it...and now I can only highly recommend it to you.  It was A-mazing!  

photo credit...I was too excited about this to stop and take my own.  

To make, heat 1/2 cup of vinegar in microwave for about 90 seconds.  Add 1/2 cup of regular dish soap.  (Any 1:1 ratio is fine.)  Pour into squirt bottle.  Spray anywhere you want to get rid of soap scum (I used this on my shower, including glass shower doors) and let sit for a few minutes.  Return and wipe down with a microfiber cloth (or I love using magic erasers).  Stand back and be amazed as your shower shines back at you.  I seriously kept going back to look in disbelief at the loveliness that was my clean shower.

Little elbow grease required...but you may need a nose plug as you work.  Worth it to me.

Here are some of my other favorite homemade cleaners:
Window Cleaner
Multi-purpose Cleaner
Laundry Detergent
Baby Wipes

Linking here.
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Homemade Window Cleaner

We have had an unseasonably warm winter this year (unlike the snowpocalypse of last year!).  So we spent some time outside yesterday morning and then...I got the urge to do some early spring cleaning, specifically windows.  I had windex on my grocery list, but wasn't planning on doing any shopping yesterday.  So I made my own window cleaner and it worked very well!

Simply combine equal parts white vinegar and water.  You can also add a few drops of dish soap or liquid castile soap.  Pour everything into a clean spray bottle and shake to mix.    

I did the 4 downstairs windows facing the east side of our house (even though you're not supposed to wash windows on a sunny day) and we enjoyed the winter sunshine even more!  

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

I saw the recipe for making your own laundry detergent on pinterst awhile ago.  (Found here.)  It seemed to get rave reviews and since my husband calls me cheap (I prefer using the title "bargain shopper") I wanted to give it a try.

I normally use Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent with Oxiclean.  I usually buy the 32 load container for around $6.  I didn't keep track of the cost for the ingredients for this detergent, but the original post says the cost was around $20.  I've done about 5 loads of laundry with it already and haven't made a dent in it, so I'm sure it's going to last awhile.      

Ingredients for the detergent are:

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax 

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda 

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) 

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap

2 small containers (3.5 lbs. total) of Oxiclean (optional)

I have to admit that the messiest part of doing this was grating the soap.  (At first I tried using my small food processor, but didn't have much luck.  And I also feared that my next batch of basil pesto would end up tasting a little sudsy.)  

I combined everything and put about one third of the detergent (along with the scoop that came with the oxiclean) in a big plastic container.  You can use 1 - 2 scoops per load.

So far so good.  I figure we really threw this laundry detergent straight to the fire because Ellen had the stomach flu and we used it on several important loads over the weekend and it worked like a champ!

  

And I like the mild smell of the detergent, too.  

*Use at your own risk.*


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Bathrooms...Swimming and Cleaning

It was supposed to rain here on Friday...of course all we got was a handful of sprinkles.  It looked dreary (and was humid) out all day, so we stayed indoors.  

While Ellen napped Clare and Jude wanted to swim...in my bathtub.  So they donned their bathing suits and I made up a big tub of bubbles for them.  

And I cleaned my bathroom while they "swam."  

I like using Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castille Soap on my shower.  Pour the soap directly on a wet sponge and go to town.  (This stuff goes a long way...this bottle has lasted me almost 2 years!  And I love the peppermint smell...yum!)

I make up this mixture in spray bottles for sinks and toilets:

1 gallon of hot water

1 tablespoon baking soda

2 tablespoons Dr. Bronner's      

To keep my glass shower door clean I put plain old dish soap on a sponge (or a magic eraser works well, too) and scrub the door.  It gets all of the soap scum off and leaves the door streak-free.

By the time I had finished cleaning, Clare and Jude wanted to get out their beach towels and play "beach" with the beach box.

Good times!