4 Homemade Cleaning Products I Love

One of my good friends, Gabe, always calls me a hippie. Simply because I like to do things as naturally and as “from-scratch” as possible. Whatever. Doesn’t hurt my feelings to be known as a “crazy hippie.” (Besides, who calls someone that? Unless you’re from 1964 or something…)

Anyways, as part of my efforts to cut costs and do things as chemical-free as I can, I’ve found a few little projects around the blogosphere that I adore. They take almost no time to do, and they save a lot of money.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This is probably my favorite homemade “secret” of all!

I use this recipe, which I found at The Family Homestead. For less than $1, I can make a little over 2 gallons of laundry detergent. I only use 1/2 cup for each load. I don’t want to do that kind of math right now, but I think we can all agree, that’s cheap! Of course, I add a little bit of lavender essential oil to make mine smell even better.

To make things easy, I simply save my old milk jugs and pour the detergent into them. I keep a 1/2-cup measure hanging off the top of the jug, and it’s a cinch to do my laundry.

Homemade Disinfecting Wipes

I love to make homemade bread, pies, and such. This means my counter gets used a lot for rolling out. I was always somewhat grossed out, thinking about what other things could be on my counter. Ewww… Especially since my husband insists on using sponges, which absolutely disgusts me. (We compromised by me insisting the sponge go through the washing machine every day. We don’t have a dishwasher or microwave to kill germs on our sponges.)

So, for awhile I bought those disinfecting wipes. But it always bugged me a bit that the container says I have to rinse off my counters after using them. Isn’t the point that they should be making my surfaces safe? Enter this fabulous project from Live Renewed.

It’s so great. I no longer feel less safe from my disinfecting wipes. I store mine in a reused wide-mouth jug, since I haven’t got any of these handy wipes containers on hand. I keep them under the kitchen sink, and they’re quick to get when I need one. Even my husband is into using them. Afterward I just throw them straight into my wash. P.S. I love Live Renewed. Check out Emily’s blog, for sure.

Make Your Own Liquid Soap

Another easy project, very similar to the homemade laundry detergent. It’s a cheap way to stretch your soap. In fact, I saved tons because I used a bar of soap that I received as a gift. You really can’t beat having a gallon of hand soap for pennies. Find this tutorial at The Farmer’s Nest.

Stain Remover

I know this one has been floating around Pinterest a bunch. Let me just tell you – it works! It is a lifesaver. My husband always gets a ring around the collar of his dress shirts. This got it all out on one try. I even used it on his ties (He tends to spill his food on them. I still haven’t figured out why he just doesn’t take them off before he eats.) I’m not going to say we buy real high-class ties, but this got the stains out without ruining the ties. I just line-dried them.

So there you have it. Four great homemade cleaning product reviews. I urge you to check out the original blogs and get your own cost-saving products going.