Homemade Clorox Cleanup

I love Clorox Cleanup.  It cleans, it whitens, it disinfects, and it leaves a nice smell that is more than just the smell of bleach.  What I don't like is the price.  

I found a great recipe to make this wondrous cleaner at home at the blog HERE.  I modified the ingredient amounts just a little bit, but otherwise the recipe is just the same.  Best of all, it works just as well as the original product, but at a fraction of the cost. 

You will need: 

1 empty spray bottle 

1/2 Cup bleach

2 tablespoons dish soap 

Water*

Pour bleach into empty spray bottle.  Fill the bottle almost all the way full of water, leaving about 1 inch of room.  Then add the dish soap.  Insert the sprayer, seal the bottle, and then gently tip the bottle back and forth about 20-30 times to mix the ingredients.  If you add the dish soap and then pour in the water, your ingredients will bubble out, so it's best to fill the bottle then add the soap.  

*We have hard water, so it always requires a bit more cleaning ingredients than most recipes establish.  If you have relatively soft water (i.e., with very little mineral content), you might be able to reduce the bleach to 1/4 cup and the dish soap to 1 tablespoon.  

That's all it takes!  Now you can clean, freshen, and disinfect your counter tops, sinks, and bathrooms, but without all the expense! Happy cleaning!

Homemade Glass Cleaner

I rarely, if ever, buy glass cleaner.  Actually, I can't remember the last time I bought it.  Instead I make my own.  It's much more economical, and it's easy to make a batch whenever you want.  Every time I make glass cleaner, I am baffled at how expensive it is in the store compared to how inexpensive it is to make at home. 

You can either use an old glass cleaner bottle that's been rinsed out or pick up a couple of spray bottles at the dollar store. I have two different recipes I use.  One is for harder to clean stuff (like doggie nose slobbers), and the other is for mild cleaning just to freshen up the windows. 

Here are two recipes: 

Fake Windex 

2-3 tablespoons nonsudsing ammonia*

1/2 cup (4 oz). rubbing alcohol 

Water

1 drop dish soap, no more, no less (can omit but solution doesn't clean as well)

Put ammonia and alcohol in a spray bottle.  Fill almost full with water.  Leave about 1/2 inch of space below the top, then add the 1 drop of dish soap.  Put sprayer on the bottle and tighten.  DO NOT SHAKE.  Instead, tilt back and forth about 20-30 times to mix.  It might be temping to dump all this in the bottle, but if you begin to add water, the dish soap will foam up, and your ingredients will start spilling out of the bottle.  You will recognize the smell of this, as it will smell just like Windex.  You can even add a drop or two of blue food coloring, just for fun.  

Window Cleaner Recipe #2

Approximately 1/2 cup white vinegar*

Water

That's it!  Put the vinegar in a spray bottle and add enough water to fill the bottle.  Cap with the sprayer mechanism, then shake to combine.  This works great but can smell like vinegar while you're using it.  The vinegar smell leaves once everything dries.

I currently use the vinegar solution with microfiber cloths.  These work great because they only require a small spritz of cleaner to clean a whole  window, and they're very absorbent, so you only need one cloth to clean many windows.  Combine the two, and you only need a small squirt of cleaner, and the windows come out clean, shiny, and streak free. 

*Keep in mind that if you have hard water (i.e., water that contains a lot of minerals or metal particles) you may need more ammonia or vinegar.  These recipes are flexible enough that you can adjust them for your cleaning needs.