Cleaning supplies on the cheap

Yesterday, Kate, posted a comment on one of my posts, in which she asked if my budget included

cleaners and personal care items?

To answer simply, no, because I make many of my own cleaning supplies. The personal care items, like cologne and such, since I don't use them much, I have enough to last me for at least 3-years. Meaning, I really only need to purchase bath soap and shampoo.

Now, I said that I make my own cleaning supplies. Take a look at some of my recipes.

Drain Cleaner


1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar
Boiling water



Pour baking soda down the drain. Add white vinegar and cover the drain, if possible. Let set for 5 minutes. Then pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain. (The vinegar and baking soda break down fatty acids into soap and glycerin, allowing the clog to wash down the drain.) Do not use this method if you have used a commercial drain opener and it may still be present in the drain.

or how about my favorite laundry soap recipe?

Your Own Laundry Detergent


* 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like.)
* 1 cup of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
* 1/2 cup of borax (this is not necessary, but I’ve found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch - one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent - if you decide to use this, be careful)
* A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters - ask around - these aren’t too tough to acquire)
* Three gallons of tap water
* A big spoon to stir the mixture with
* A measuring cup
* A knife



1. Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.
2. Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool. And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry.

One thing I found works well and makes the process easier is to use soap scraps. On top of that, I put 2 cups of in the pan and the other 2 cups in a blender with the soap scraps. After letting the soap sit in the blender overnight, I then liquefy this in the blender before pouring it into the pan with the other 2 cups. I then follow the directions as above.

My homemade Cleaning recipes

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go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






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