Homemade Cleaning Products

I have been thinking a lot lately about making my own cleaning products. I thought that this would not only be a great way to be "green" but it wouldn't hurt to save a little bit of money too! I mentioned this here in my Top 2 Tuesday a few weeks ago.

I have mentioned before that I am kinda of OCD so I go through cleaning supplies pretty quickly!! Well yesterday I ran out of Windex glass cleaner and my multi-purpose cleaner so, I decided that this would be the perfect time to try making my own products...eeekkk!

I had previously researched recipes for these products and I found the "Making Chicken Salad" blog which provided great recipes along with creative labeling for your homemade products. All of the recipes that I am using were adapted from the "Making Chicken Salad" blog.

I made my supply list and I headed out {meaning walked} to my local hardware store and market. I purchased the following ingredients:


32 oz. trigger spray bottle for multi-purpose cleaner - $3.99
Recycled Windex bottle for glass cleaner - FREE
Distilled Water - $2.00
Distilled Vinegar - $1.59
4 lb. box of Borax - $5.19
16 fluid oz. bottle of Dr. Bronner's Lavendar soap - $9.99
0.5 oz. bottle of Nature's Alchemy 100% Pure Essential Oil "Lavender" - $9.99
TOTAL = $32.75
*Remember that you will only use a portions of these ingredient for one batch of each of these cleaning products and you can save the rest for future use*

Recipe for Window/Glass Cleaner:
2 cup distilled vinegar
2 cup distilled water
6 drops lavender essential oil

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together in the recycled Windex bottle

Recipe for Multi-Purpose Cleaner:
32 ounce trigger spray bottle
2 teaspoons borax
4 tablespoons distilled vinegar
1/2 cup Dr. Bronners Lavender soap
20 drops lavender essential oil
Hot water (enough to fill bottle)

Instructions:
Fill bottle 1/4 full with hot water then add borax. Shake to completely dissolve borax. Next add vinegar, home soap, and 20 drops essential oil. Fill the rest of the bottle with hot water. Gently shake mixture.

Now you have made your own cleaning products!!



*I decided to make my own labels, much like "Making Chicken Salad", and I love how they came out.

Now onto how much money I saved. I can't really estimate the exact cost of each bottle of cleaner, but when you see the amount of supplies that you have left {unused} I think that the money savings is obvious. A bottle of window cleaner and a bottle of multi-purpose cleaner, when bought at the store cost at least $6-7 each. So I would estimate that the supplies purchased above can make at least 3-4 batches of each cleaner. The most expensive products like the essential oil and Dr. Bronner's soap will last you a long time!

I hope that you enjoyed this post, and I hope that you too try to make your own cleaning products!! Keep checking back with me because as other cleaning products run out I will be switching to homemade.....I will be tackling homemade laundry detergent soon!

Be Clean and Be Green!