Homemade Multipurpose Cleaning Solution

After many dollars spent on various cleaning products to scour my sinks, scrub my counters, table, to mop my floor, I decided I'd had enough.

Enter Homemade Multipurpose Cleaning Solution

About two years ago I on Studio 5 (a local morning show in Utah), they made a simple homemade cleaner in a spray bottle. I wrote it down, then made the marks on my spray bottle and got rid of the recipe. Do not despair, as the exact measurements are not key to this great solution. I decided I would make the recipe and write down what I put in it so that you the reader would know what I put in it, if you are one who is not comfortable with just pouring ingredients and like to measure.

What you will need:

spray bottle
borax
white vinegar
hot water
liquid dish soap

In the spray bottle put 3-4 tablespoons borax, 3/4-1 cup white distilled vinegar, and a squirt of dish soap (about 2-3 tablespoons). Fill the spray bottle to the top with hot tap water. Shake lightly to mix ingredients.
I am one who doesn't measure so if you are like me, just pour away and it should work out just fine. :)

Lets just say that I love this cleaner! It works so well. I use this homemade cleaning solution for most everything. It is a great disinfectant. I love that I can scour my sinks and not worry about the chemicals left behind because there are none. I can bleach my sink and not worry about us all dying from chemicals mixing if I didn't rinse the sink well enough. I love that there are no fumes left by this cleaner, less head aches and no danger while cleaning if you're pregnant. For those of you with pets and small children it is great to know that it is safe to use around them and economically friendly.

Programmable Thermostat

I must apologize for not posting in such a long time. Lets just say, morning sickness is not my favorite.

In December while at Costco, we picked up a new thermostat for our house. It is programmable by day and time. It was around $50. We came home and installed it and programed it.
I love that we set the temperature to go down to 62 degrees around 10pm every night. It gets cold, and gets us to bed sooner. :) We have it set to go up to 68 degrees at 7:30am. By then we are usually all awake and up and going. (Know that we have horrible windows in our house so you may be able to set your thermostat even lower than we do and be comfortable.)

I must say that the saving we have had on our bill are quite significant. I suggest that if you own a home, and don't already have a programmable thermostat that you look into one. They are definitely worth the investment.

Dish Washing Detergent

Because I have been struggling with morning sickness, things go unattended to and I've not made it to the store as often as I have needed. That being said, necessity is the mother of invention.

I ran out of dish washing detergent for our dish washer. I hopped on line and searched for a home made recipe.

Behold, the world's cheapest way to wash dishes!

What you will need:
washing soda
borax
white distilled vinegar

Mix equal parts washing soda and borax together (both two of the cheapest washing products under the sun). I did a half of a cup of each in a plastic Tupperware. Mix/shake ingredients together so they are mixed well. To wash a load of dishes dump 1 tsp of mixture, yes folks, only 1 teaspoon of the mixture into the bottom of your dish washer. Fill the compartment that is labeled for detergent, ( the one that pops open to release the stuff, not the one that has the holes for the detergent to leak out) use with distilled vinegar. (I put some vinegar into a squirt bottle and don't even measure this out just squirt until it is almost full. I can't imagine that i use fore than 1/4 C vinegar for each load.) Then run your dishes as you normally do.

Know that your dishes will NOT smell like vinegar after they are washed. Trust me, I currently have a pregnant nose and would know if they did. This has been wonderfully helpful and it took awhile for me to perfect. The measurement was not right on the recipe I found so I had to come up with what would work. If you use too much borax/washing soda mixture, your dishes will be covered in subtle white residue. I also poured my vinegar into the rinsing boost place in my dish washer and there was the same white residue. Be sure to follow the directions I outlined and your dishes should come out nice and clean!

Try it out. It will save you $$ and tips to the store. :)

Minty

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