What do baking soda, vinegar, Borax and pure castile soap have in common?
When they’re mixed together they can create a natural all-purpose cleaner just as effective as the chemical laden, store bought cleaning supplies! In the picture above, you’ll see my natural cleaning kit. Everything pictured there is what I clean my entire house with.
In the bottle on the left, is my all-purpose cleaner that I use for the kitchen and bathrooms. The bottle in the middle with the purple cloth on top, simply holds water for my window and mirror cleaning. (The purple cloth is a Norwex cloth.) The big jug on the right is my club size white vinegar. The blue Norwex mitt is what I dust my entire house with. Finally, the little jar is what holds my scrub for when I need to put a bit more elbow grease into cleaning something. (Bathtub, tiles and sinks)
I almost lied to you. I’m not entirely chemical-free yet. I do still use conventional laundry detergents. I would possibly like to try my hand at making it from scratch one day though!
Here are the reasons I’m in love with my little cleaning kit:
- I know I’m not putting anything dangerous down the drain
- It costs pennies to make and has saved me so much money
- Smells wonderful, without burning my nostrils like conventional cleaners do
- I’m keeping me and my husband safe (and future children who are curious) by using natural ingredients
Are you interested in trying out your own natural cleaning kit? I’ve got recipes!
All-Purpose Cleaner (makes a 16oz bottle)
- 2 tsp Borax natural detergent – Find this at your local grocery store in the laundry aisle
- 3 Tbsp Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap – I’m using the lavender scented one I picked up from Well.ca.
- 4 Tbsp White Vinegar – a natural disinfectant! I always buy the club size because I like to have it on hand for its many uses.
- Distilled Water (or boiled water)
Mix the borax, white vinegar and a little bit of hot water. (Must be hot water to incorporate the borax.) Add the castile soap, then swirl the bottle to incorporate. Once it’s all mixed, add the rest of the water to fill up to 16oz. It will be slightly white and opaque.
All-Purpose Cleaner II
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 15 drops of essential oil (tea tree oil is also a natural disinfectant)
Add all the ingredients to a spray bottle. Shake. Get cleaning! 🙂
Drain Unclogger & Freshener
- 1/2 cup baking soda
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- a kettle full of boiling water
Add the baking soda to your sink drain. Pour the vinegar over top. Watch the magic. Once it’s settled down, pour your kettle of boiling water down the drain to rinse!
Homemade Soft Scrub
Make this in small batches as it can dry out when stored. The recipes makes enough for 2-4 uses.
- 3/4 cup baking soda (a bit heaped)
- 1/4 cup castile soap
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp vinegar
Mix the baking soda, castile soap and water in a bowl or container. Stir. Add the vinegar last, once the other ingredients are mixed. The mixture will fizz a little. Stir to make a nice soft, paste-like, consistency. (It’s important to add the vinegar last if you want a creamy paste and not sludge.)
Use for cleaning tile, toilets, and sinks.
Window & Mirror Cleaner
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups vinegar
Add the ingredients to a spray bottle. Use as you would any other window cleaner.
Floor Cleaner
- a bucket of hot water
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- essential oil to your liking
Add all the ingredients to your floor cleaning bucket. Start wiping up those floors!
Homemade Disinfecting Wipes
- an old t-shirt cut into square pieces (or use the thickest paper towel you can find)
- 1 cup of water
- a squirt of castile soap
- a few drops of tea tree oil (tea tree oil is toxic if ingested at full strength)
- some vinegar
- a resealable container of some sort (possibly an old baby wipe container?)
Add your t-shirt squares to the container you have chosen. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl or measuring cup. Pour over the cloths. Use just as you would a Clorox wipe, then throw in the wash and repeat the recipe!
Homemade Jet Dry and Fabric Softener
This one is really simple. All I use is white vinegar! Simply pour the vinegar into the rinsing agent section of your dishwasher or the fabric softener slot/downy ball for your washing machine. Works like a charm!
My all-purpose cleaning sprayAre you currently using homemade or store bought natural cleaning products? What do you think of them? Do you have any homemade cleaning recipes to add to the list?
Source List:
- Spray bottle and small jar: Planet Forward
- Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap: Well.ca
- Purple window/mirror cloth: Norwex
- Essential oils: local natural food store and Well.ca (I have lavender, peppermint, tea tree and the one that came in my Planet Forward cleaning kit)
I make my own laundry detergent, very inexpensive, cleans well, and is hypoallergenic. It is low-sudsing which may be hard for some people to get used to. It blends washing soda, borax and a bar of soap such as Sunlight. Email me if you want the recipe – it makes a large amount, so save your liquid laundry bottles before you make it, unless you want to keep it in a 5 gallon covered pail !!
Norwex is awesome! Use the antibacterial enviro cloth with just water to sanitize your house. The Norwex laundry detergent is awesome too! For windows and mirrors all you need is the Norwex window cloth and water…it is also antibacterial…you don’t even need the vinegar 🙂
Norwex all the way for most of the house!
I have been using small planet products. They contain the exact same ingediants as these minus the borax. I am going to try making my own, just got the supplies today. They work great I have been using them for 2 years and honestly have never has anything work so well even chemical brand name garbage. Thanks for this u now have the recipe and can go from paying 10 bucks a bottle to prob 50 cents or less.
I have been doing homemade laundry soap for the better part of 2 years now. I am allergic to a ton of detergents, but this is safe on my skin. I use it in liquid form, but you can just do it in a powder.
1 cp borax
1cp Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (in laundry isle)
and 1 bar of your favorite soap or you can buy the sunlight bar.
melt grated soap in water on stove stir to make sure there are no lumps, place in a good sized container ( I have a 20L rubbermaid bin). Boil the kettle and have it sitting and waiting to go. Add Borax and Washing Soda to soap and then put in boiled water, mix to disolve. Top up comtainer with warm tap water and stir. Put the lid on and wait 24 hours and you will have a nice thick laundry soap. Use as normal. I store mine in old 5L detergent (cheer) jugs and I usually get 3 jugs out of a batch. If you are using it in powder form use only 1-2 tbspn per load for HE and 2-4 for regular machines. I tend to use more because I have a 12 year old so I use 2cps of each borax and washign soda lol..his clothes are always BAD in stains and smell lol.
I use DOVE for my bar soap..it smells great, but there are NO perfume smells on your clothign when they are washed. Also I use the blue dryer balls not fabric sheets. Clothes dry quicker and the chemicals in dryer sheets make your towels less absorbant and kids clothing is no longer fire retardent!!
I wanted to give this recipe a try. Just curious when you say leave it in the powder form, do you just mix those dry ingredients and that’s it? Is one more effective than the other? And does it matter what kind of bar soap you use?
As someone who has used a lot of natural stuff for all my life, I want to say that vinegar is strong and don’t use too much of it on floors and other surfaces that might be etched by it and less shiny. A dash of all purpose home made stuff is good.
We were raised in a television era to believe that all we had to do was buy some stuff and use it. How you clean is more important than what you add to the mix.
Another fave of mine is the microfiber cloths from the dollar store. They pick up a lot of crap without even needing any other product!
I don’t want to be excused of plugging myself here, but I am a regular subscriber to this wonderful site. I am responding to Nicole, as I also am not a fan of the vinegar smell. Shaklee has a Basic H cleaner that has literally over 1000 uses, and is cheaper than vinegar. One 15.00 bottle with taxes etc, will make over 5500 bottles of window cleaner alone! It also works as your all purpose cleaner and your degreaser etc.
If you want me to mail you a sample to try, just contact me at julie@juliedianne.com
I am all for ANY natural, environmentally better products that are out there – and kudos to anyone who is trying to impact the environment for the better!
Hi Julie,
My mom swears by Shaklee’s, but I don’t know how to get it. Would you send me a sample?
Thanks, Eleanor
PLease email me at steve.eleanor@gmail.com
Love this posting! crunchybetty.com also has some great recipes, including oven cleaner and a daily shower spray. Her main focus is making natural health and beauty products, but her cleaning products rock!
The smell of vinegar makes me naseous. Is there anything i can use instead of vinegar to clean everything? I dont like the toxic chemicals, but its a whole lot better than having the house stink like vinegar for 4 days.
My husband has the same problem with the vinegar smell. What I did was switched to Dr Bonners scented castile soaps, like the peppermint or the citrus. I find those two in specific strong enough to cover up the vinegar smell when mixed with it. I even use castile soap alone to clean, and for tough stains I mix with a little baking soda.
I am in love with vinegar for cleaning too, it’s been my main cleaner for years. Frugal, and green, it does a great job!
I started making my own laundry soap about a year ago, and am completely in love with it! Just a word of encouragement, in case you do want to try making your own, it’s EASY! I used the recipe I found in the Duggar’s book, and have copied on my blog too. (http://onepennie.blogspot.com/2010/10/laundry-soap-update-with-recipe.html)
This is so good! And, much less toxic than the stuff we usually get for cheap.
BTW here is a non-profit site with some other homemade ideas to replace the toxic stuff. http://lesstoxicguide.ca/