Homemade Cleaning Products

So, a while back, when I was going about my dusting business, I was cleaning and ran out of my wood duster (Pledge).  Well, this was an issue, because I was not about to go out just to get wood duster, and I was not going to skip dusting my house.  So, I figured hey I’ll ask Google what to do, which is pretty much my answer for everything.  And what do you know, I found all sorts of recipes for homemade dusting spray.  I mixed up a batch of an option, that I had all of the ingredients for, and got back to my dusting business.  Guess what?  I liked the new dusting spray better than Pledge.

I know you’re on the edge of your seat right now, this is pretty intense stuff.  I decided that once my other store bought cleaning products ran out, I would find recipes for homemade cleaners for those as well.

If you don’t know where I am going with this, I’ll help you out… I’m going to tell you all about my new cleaning supplies and give you their recipes.

Before you get jazzed about making your own cleaners, you’ll need some spray bottles.  I got a couple different types.

P1110529I found both of these options at Target.  The few above were $1.50 each in the gardening section and the 3 below were $3 each in the cleaning supplies area.  P1110533Now that we have the spray bottles covered, we can start getting crazy with some recipes.


Let’s start with good ol’ glass cleaner, which is my substitute for my old go to, Windex.

Glass Cleaner

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup water (I used distilled, since our tap water is pretty hard)
  2. 1/4 cup white vinegar
  3. 2-3 drops dish soap
  4. Spray bottleglass-cleaner-homemadeDirections:
  • Pour all ingredients into spray bottle.
  • Shake.

Congratulations, you have made glass cleaner!  I use this spray for all of my windows and mirrors, works just as well as Windex.  I made 3 batches, one for each bathroom and one for the kitchen/rest of the house.  Since one of my spray bottles was a bit larger, I just doubled the recipe.


Multi-Purpose Spray

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup water (I used distilled)
  2. 1 cup white vinegar
  3. 10 drops essential oils
  4. Spray bottlehomemade-multi-purpose-spray

Directions:

  • Pour all ingredients into spray bottle.
  • Shake.

You’re simply amazing, because you just created an all natural multi-purpose spray! For the essential oils, I used eucalyptus, because I had some on hand. Most recipes I found used lemon oil.  Any essential oil will work, so use whatcha got.  I use this spray for almost anything: kitchen counters, fridge shelves, my desk (which is not wood), the sink or spills on the floor.  Pretty much anything, hence the name multi-purpose.


 Dusting Spray

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup water (distilled for me)
  2. 1 cup white vinegar
  3. 1 tbsp olive oil
  4. Spray bottlehomemade-dusting-spray

Directions:

  • Pour all ingredients in spray bottle.
  • Shake.

Huzzah!  Another one down.  The olive oil kinda catches you off guard with this one, but it makes sense. It gives it the oily consistency that attracts the dust.  I use this on all of my wood surfaces.


 Bathroom Cleaner

Ingredients:

  1. 1 1/2 cup water (distilled, if you prefer)
  2. 1 cup white vinegar
  3. 1/4 cup lemon juice
  4. 1 tbsp dish soap
  5. 2 tsp baking soda
  6. Spray bottlehomemade-bathroom-cleaner

Directions:

  • Add baking soda to spray bottle FIRST.
  • Next, add vinegar to spray bottle slowly.  Let things fizzle out if needed.
  • Once bubbles have subsided, add water.
  • Add lemon juice and dish soap last.

This seems to be the trickiest concoction of the bunch.  You might want to use a larger spray bottle. I found that since my bottle was smaller, it overflowed when I added the vinegar.  You’ll want to mix this one over a sink, just in case.  I made 2 batches, one for each of my bathrooms.  I use it for my bathroom counters and my tub.


 Shower Cleaner

Ingredients:

  1. Approximately 1/4 cup dish soap
  2. Approximately 1/4 cup white vinegar
  3. Refillable dish scrubberhomemade-shower-cleaner

Directions:

  • Fill wand half with vinegar and half with the dish soap.
  • Shake her up.shower cleaner diy

This one is ridiculously convenient.  I just wet my shower walls down and then scrub away.  It works just as well, if not better, than my old cleaner (aka Scrubbing Bubbles).


Now that you have a plethora of homemade cleaning products, you’re going to want to label them.  You don’t want to be spraying that bathroom cleaner on your wood surfaces, not that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  For my labeling pleasure, I used washy tape and a sharpie marker.  Easy peasy.

labeling with washi tape

What do you know?  Those are some fancy labeled bottles!

The clear spray bottles live in my kitchen…

household cleaners diy

And for the bathroom, my more colorful trio…    bathroom cleaners diy

I think the best part about all of this is how much cheaper these options are.  They last much longer and if you haven’t noticed, they mostly consist of water (free) and vinegar (cheap).

Oh yea, they also can’t harm my Charlie Bean, if he decides to take a taste of the kitchen counter or toilet bowl, whatever floats his doggy boat.

diy-cleaners

Try these!  You won’t be disappointed.

So long dancing folks of the 1800’s

You don’t know any dancing people from the 1800’s?  I will share mine with you then…

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All in pink as well, with plaid trim to boot!  Look at them with their carefree dancing, looks like a blast.  In case you are wondering this is the border that our guest room was sporting.

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You didn’t know that their were dancing people on that border did you?  Lets get one more close up…

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The previous paint job is great as well, they didn’t get any of the wall color on the ceiling.

I decided my first step in improving this room would be to remove this border.  First things first, I had to select what method I was going to use to remove this wallpaper border.  My mom had told me that my sister had used liquid fabric softener diluted with warm water.  I had never heard of this before, but I had both of these things on hand, figured I should give it a shot.  Also, I would like to add that my sister purchased a home with wallpaper on every surface and has successfully removed all of it and lived to tell the story. I figured it might be a good idea to take her advice.  So, I got my supplies ready…

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and

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Pretty complicated stuff I’m working with here.

I just added approximately one part liquid fabric softener to 6 parts hot water and came up with this….

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Wallpapers worst nightmare!

First I moved all of our junk/furniture to the middle of the room.  This room is currently being used as an extra storage/junk room.  I then grabbed my step ladder and got to it.

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I just sprayed the concoction directly on the border and let it sit for a minute.  In the meantime I was wiping away all of the drippage. which you can sort of see in the unclear photo below:

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I grabbed a towel immediately and kept it with me the rest of the time to clean up the dripping of my fabric softener and water concoction.

From there I started peeling the border back with my metal putty knife.

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Like so.  Once I got a good corner up I just used my hands to pull the paper away from the wall.

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Most times this is what would happen…

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The top layer of the wallpaper would pull away easily but the glue and second papery layer still remained on the wall.

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So I went back and sprayed the second layer of paper, which seemed to soak up the fabric softener mix a lot better.

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This time around I was able to peel up an edge and pull the paper right off.  A few peices usually stuck on the wall but I just used the putty knife to scrape those right off.  I continued with this method peeling the first layer and going back to get the remaining paper backing in my second attempt.  After about a half an hour I was well on my way and had a good pace going.

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And I was also leaving a pretty decent mess in my tracks…

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After about an hour and a half total I was left with this…

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And this mess to clean…

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From there, I went to town cleaning up the shredded wallpaper that was everywhere.  I also cleaned the walls and all of the trim and then removed all of the switch plates and old nails from the walls.

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I now have a blank slate and I am ready to start painting!  Wahoo I am on my way to my own art/office/storage room! Would you like a list of to dos? Okay fine!

To do:

  1. Remove border.
  2. Clean walls and trim.
  3. Paint trim and walls.
  4. Update outlets and light switch.
  5. Make window treatment.
  6. Make shelves for walls.
  7. Get new desk.
  8. Figure out a storage system for all of my art/craft supplies.
  9. Organize all of the art/craft supplies.
  10. Add decorations!
  11. Enjoy my new room!

There you have it, a new to do list to accomplish.