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All Purpose Cleaner
11/01/2009 | 
Posted by
Christy Taylor
Here is a very simple and inexpensive recipe for an all-purpose household cleaner. Leave a comment to share your own tips or cleaner recipes.
Ingredients
Combine with 2 cups of very hot water and use in a spray bottle. If you want a bucketful, use 1/8 cup each of borax, washing soda, and vinegar and combine with 1 tablespoon liquid soap and 2 gallons of water
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon Borax
- 1/2 tsp washing soda
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tsp. liquid soap (vegetable oil based if possible)
Combine with 2 cups of very hot water and use in a spray bottle. If you want a bucketful, use 1/8 cup each of borax, washing soda, and vinegar and combine with 1 tablespoon liquid soap and 2 gallons of water
Labels:
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Recipes for Laundry Detergent
Recipe #1
- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like)
- 1 box 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)
- 1 box 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
Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat 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 the entire bar. Then, stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some very soapy water.
Step Two: 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 the mixture for a while. Then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two. Next, add a half cup of borax, if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, and let the mixture sit overnight to cool.
Now 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 mixture 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. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and wash 288 loads of laundry. The total cost is around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.
Recipe #2
1 bar Ivory soap
1/2 cup washing soda (Not baking soda. I use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. This can be hard to find - I get it at Farm Fresh grocery store here.)
1/2 cup borax powder (Wal-Mart has it - it's called 20 Mule Team Borax)
Grate soap into a sauce pan, (I use an old Dutch oven type that isn't used for anything else).
Add 6 cups water & heat over medium heat until soap melts. Stir occasionally.
Add washing soda & borax & stir until dissolved. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a bucket (2-3-gal. size). Add soap mixture & stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water & stir. Let soap sit for a while - 1/2 day or overnight & it will gel. Stir to break it up & use 1/2 cup per load. I also put 1/4 cup non-chlorine bleach in light colored loads to keep things from getting dingy. I think this will vary depending on your water.
Laundry tip:
Instead of dryer sheets or fabric softener, I put a little white vinegar into a Downy ball and place it in the washing machine. Then I use blue dryer balls in the dryer. It really doesn't leave any more static than I had w/ dryer sheets. Plus, there is no chemical residue left on the clothes.
Recipe #3
1/3 Bar Fels-Naphtha
1/2 C. Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)
1 C. Borax
Grate soap into saucepan. Add 6 Cups water. Heat until soap melts. Add washing soda & borax, and stir until dissolved.
Remove from heat.
Pour 4 cups of hot water into bucket.
Add soap mixture and stir well.
Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups water & stir.
Put lid on bucket and let it sit 24 hours.
Use 1/2 cup per load.
After the mixture sits for 24 hours it gets really thick. Simply stir it really well, and it will be fine. It will still have "lumps" in it after you stir it, but that's ok.
- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like)
- 1 box 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)
- 1 box 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
Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat 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 the entire bar. Then, stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some very soapy water.
Step Two: 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 the mixture for a while. Then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two. Next, add a half cup of borax, if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, and let the mixture sit overnight to cool.
Now 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 mixture 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. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and wash 288 loads of laundry. The total cost is around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.
Recipe #2
1 bar Ivory soap
1/2 cup washing soda (Not baking soda. I use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. This can be hard to find - I get it at Farm Fresh grocery store here.)
1/2 cup borax powder (Wal-Mart has it - it's called 20 Mule Team Borax)
Grate soap into a sauce pan, (I use an old Dutch oven type that isn't used for anything else).
Add 6 cups water & heat over medium heat until soap melts. Stir occasionally.
Add washing soda & borax & stir until dissolved. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a bucket (2-3-gal. size). Add soap mixture & stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water & stir. Let soap sit for a while - 1/2 day or overnight & it will gel. Stir to break it up & use 1/2 cup per load. I also put 1/4 cup non-chlorine bleach in light colored loads to keep things from getting dingy. I think this will vary depending on your water.
Laundry tip:
Instead of dryer sheets or fabric softener, I put a little white vinegar into a Downy ball and place it in the washing machine. Then I use blue dryer balls in the dryer. It really doesn't leave any more static than I had w/ dryer sheets. Plus, there is no chemical residue left on the clothes.
Recipe #3
1/3 Bar Fels-Naphtha
1/2 C. Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)
1 C. Borax
Grate soap into saucepan. Add 6 Cups water. Heat until soap melts. Add washing soda & borax, and stir until dissolved.
Remove from heat.
Pour 4 cups of hot water into bucket.
Add soap mixture and stir well.
Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups water & stir.
Put lid on bucket and let it sit 24 hours.
Use 1/2 cup per load.
After the mixture sits for 24 hours it gets really thick. Simply stir it really well, and it will be fine. It will still have "lumps" in it after you stir it, but that's ok.
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