Save Zillions On Cleaning Products

ceridwen

Am halfway through using up my old "chemical" cleaners at present and starting to make up more environmentally-friendly/cheaper cleaners.

Sharing the following link - which I am planning on basing my cleaning on (apart from the bleach!):

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-to-make-your-own-cleaning.html#article

lil_me

I use WD40 on steel etc, great stuff

Dave, yep you can use it in that way, I think I use it with about 1 part stardrops to 10 parts water but it's pretty much a guess now. Too strong when I did half and half, depends what you prefer and what you use it for.

As mentioned the other 'Star' products are also good like starpine if you want a traditional disinfectant, starclen is you want a good strong ammonia based cleaner. Cheapest place I have found them all in is Home Bargains.

Soda crystals are something I use a lot of, helps boost laundry stuff, doesn't contain phosphates, bleaches etc and has been used from what I read for over 200 years. It is great on grease! Works fab on removing blocked drains. It's usually under 60p a bag, I just got lots in my Wilkinsons order but Tesco, Asda, even a lot of chemists stock it. Bio washing powder is also good for grease shifting, soaking grills from ovens and BBQs in them tends to shift even the most stubborn of ick!

Borax and bicarbonate of soda are a must have in my cleaning cupboard.

Taken from another webpage

By simply mixing a paste with water and bicarb you can remove stubborn stains from cookers, worktops and floors. Water marks from baths, stubborn stains in the toilet and stains on pans will all remove with this mixture, for very stubborn stains simply use more Bicarb. Chrome comes up clean and shiny with Bicarb applied on a damp cloth. Be careful on very delicate surfaces, as the mixture is abrasive and might leave scratches. Bicarbonate can be added to your laundry dispenser to brighten whites and will remove sweat,odours from fabrics.

Borax is a natural mineral found in the earth. It has many uses for cleaning and for laundry but care must be taken to always rinse away residue after use. Borax is especially good for cleaning and deodorising the toilet and is safe to use with septic tank systems. Use in the washing machine to boost your normal laundry powder, Borax will also soften your clothes, as it is a water conditioner.

Essential oils - tea tree powerful anti fungal, anti viral and antibacterial properties, can be added when cleaning if you want antibacterial cleaning, eucalyptus is known for its degreasing properties and its ability to remove mould when used neat....you can add some lemon or orange oil to a vinegar spray to disguise the colour as long as you don't use on furniture it might mark.

If you google any of those you will come up with many cleaning uses and more, there are books on 1001 uses for bicarb and vinegar.

Pink.

davetaylor wrote: »

Just been reading about this Stardrops. So all I need to do is mix some in water in an old spray bottle (I have an old Flash kitchen spray bottle) and then use that for kitchen tops, bathroom and toilet? If thats the case it sounds fab!

What sort of quantity should I mix with water would it be half and half for example?

Dave

Hi davetaylor,

I don't user stardrops in a spray bottle so can't help, but if you have a read through this thread you should find all the information about stardrops that you'll need:

Stardrops: A Users Guide

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Pink.

Hi teacup,

There's an older thread on Old Style cleaning products that should help you so I've added your thread to it to keep all the suggestions together.

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Ephemera

Ref snail problems -
Have you tried eating them? Most land snails are edible.....
Just starve them for a few days to get rid of anything nasty they might have eaten, there are recipes online but they are nice cooked in garlic butter... mmmmmm!

If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

moanymoany

Every so often the question of making cleaning solutions and cleaning regimes comes up. I think one of the first steps is one of the fundamentalist Christian housewifes sites, she has some excellent recipes for cleaning solutions.. Here is the link and links to some of her recipes. By the way, 'rubbing alcohol' is 'surgical spirit' in the UK.

http://brandy26.lifewithchrist.org/permalink/36220.html - this is a link for washing powder

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-make-laundry-detergent.html#article this is for washing liquid.

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2007/10/dishwasher-detergent.html#article

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-to-make-your-own-cleaning.html#article

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/ Do read about her unassisted home births - real wacky stuff. I read that there has been an increase in deaths and serious problems for both mothers and babies because of this fad. (It isn't like our homebirths).

There is also this site http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/channel/clean

I recently discovered it and it is very good. It does use commercial preparations, but combines well with home made stuff. I like the way the site is laid out - very easy to follow. The ideas are also good, and I've used some of them.

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Hi moanymoany,

I've added your post to the main cleaning thread so that other Old Stylers will be able to find the links easily.

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Stephen_Leak

davetaylor wrote: »

Just been reading about this Stardrops. So all I need to do is mix some in water in an old spray bottle (I have an old Flash kitchen spray bottle) and then use that for kitchen tops, bathroom and toilet? If thats the case it sounds fab!

What sort of quantity should I mix with water would it be half and half for example?

Dave

The mix is one-third each of Stardrops, white vinegar and water.

lestinch

Ok.

I've tried to make softener from vinegar, bicarb <?> & water. I used (as recommended earlier in this post) 2 parts vinegar, 2 parts bicarb & 4 parts water. I used cups for it all, figured I'd keep it simple, but now I have a bottle full of water & vinegar with about 2 inches of bicarb in the bottom.:mad:

What's gone wrong!?!?!?! I'm assuming I've added too much bicarb but I only followed the instructions?

squeaky

As fabric softener? All you need is the vinegar.

About the same amount as you'd use of fabric conditioner.

As for your mixture - I've no idea what went wrong - I've only ever used it as a cleaning paste and with nothing like as much liquid in it.