Monday 20 January 2014

Spray & Wipe, Schmay & Wipe

My mum gave me a lovely book about making your own household cleaners using natural ingredients. I love it - it sits neatly on my bench next to my collection of pristine unused cookbooks. I even give it a little spray with my Mr Muscle every now and then to get the pasta sauce splatters off the pretty cover.

Yep, that's right. I use Mr Muscle. And Viakal. And Domestos. And some kind of blue liquid that cleans glass. And a black one that's something to do with car interiors I think. Not a hint of Ecover to be found. I haven't bought it since my husband decided to get involved with grocery shopping. Now we have to buy 10 of whatever's on special offer.

I feel guilty about it sometimes - like I'm simultaneously destroying the environment and covering my children with chemicals with every spray and wipe....but obviously not guilty enough to read the book or change my behaviour.

Then I found this....



An idiot's guide to making your own cleaning products on the back of an empty spray bottle. It even has named coloured cloths inside for forgetful people. The recipes (I know that's the wrong word) are so simple I am actually using them. 

So, for those unfortunate souls with plain old spray bottles, here they are...

General Cleaner
2 tablespoons of baking soda and 16oz warm water (16oz is about 450mls)

Window Cleaner
1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar and 16oz warm water

Disinfecting Cleaner
10-20 drops of tea tree oil and 16oz warm water

Floor Cleaner
16 oz warm water
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
1/2 teaspoon borax
Squeeze of lemon
Splash of vinegar
Spray floor and mop as usual.....actually sod it, that's ones too hard,

Linen Spray
5 drops of scented oil and 8oz water to freshen linens etc.

That's it! All done.

PS. Sorry it has been a long time since my last post