I’ve been sort of following a rule here at Cheaplander - I haven’t made too many posts about “homemade” things unless I’ve actually tried it myself. However, I’ve come to realize that this just isn’t the most efficient way to blog. In fact, it’s downright stupid of me. For one thing, there’s tons of Cheaplander-ish things out there to try out, and only 24 hours in the day to try them out.
For another, I’m just a plain lazy writer.
So I’m going to start putting up stuff that I’d be interested in trying out in the future. Hopefully, someone out there will have tried it already and can steer me away or toward it.
The other day I was looking up how to make various cleaning products at home. I haven’t really tried any of the suggestions out there yet. The one I found that I was interested in (can’t remember where it came from) was making your own glass cleaner. The big daddy in product names for this is of course Windex.
I’d already taken the first step of buying the non-name brand varieties of glass cleaner. But I was wondering if the “recipes” for it really worked as well as the store-bought variety. Here is what I heard: All you really need is some kind of ammonia and alcohol. The one I saw used equal parts of rubbing alcohol, lemon ammonia and water. That was pretty much it.
OK, so I’d be interested to hear if anyone has every tried something like that. Also, I know there are a ton of other cleaning products out there that you can supposedly make at home - so I’d be interested in hearing about that as well. One of the other ones I’ve been meaning to try one of these days is homemade laundry detergent.
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July 1st, 2009 at 6:09 am
I’ve refilled my swiffer mop with a mixture of half vinegar and half water. (I use a washable microfiber cloth instead of buying disposable ones.) It cleans about as well as the stuff that came with it, but with no weird chemical smell!
July 1st, 2009 at 9:43 am
@holly - I just got a new swiffer mop from my mother-in-law who had an extra one. Haven’t tried it yet, but if I do i’ll keep the vinegar refill idea in mind, thanks!
July 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
For windows/mirrors, I just use straight white vinegar. I’ve heard of some people using vinegar mixed w/ water, but I’m too lazy to do it. The vinegar works as well as Windex, and you can put extracts in it to make it smell, if you like.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
@allie - I’ve been meaning to give vinegar a try, that might be good to put some sort of extract in it because it does smell kinda strong. We have a hot water heater that needs to be cleaned with vinegar and when we run the cleaning cycle it sure smells strong. Do you find that the vinegar leaves streaks at all when cleaning windows?
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I’ve never seen streaks, and I’ve tried vinegar using newspaper, paper towels and cloths (microfibre and regular dish towels). I like the microfibre the best, but it’s more a personal preference thing than one thing works better than the other. Paper towels work the least well, but even they still work okay - they just tend to leave fibres on the glass.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I’ve been using “homemade” Windex for years because I use it to clean so many things in my house. It really does work just as well. I kinda miss the smell, but oh, well.
1/2 cup sudsy amonia (there are two kinds)
2 cups rubbing alcohol
1 teaspoon diswashing detergent (I use Dawn for the degreasing agent)
water to make 1 gallon
I make it up and store it in a gallon apple juice jug. I re-use windex or other spray bottles.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Hi! Just found your blog and it’s great. [Going to read Cheap Eats next] Anyway - we really like this glass cleaner - cheap and it works great. I strongly recommend lemon ammonia, but that is because I like the smell
As for the laundry soap you cannot go wrong. We make up a large batch every few weeks and it costs pennies a load and works really well. If you need to boost the cleaning power a bit [extra dirty work clothes for example] you can add a bit of borax [which you will have on hand as it goes in the original mix] or a teaspoon of oxiclean. We have not had to do that, even with teenagers. Also, we like the to make the liquid form of the laundry soap and if you can find fels naptha soap to grind you can always use one whole bar of Ivory soap [I use my own goat’s milk soap tho’] Good luck. And if you need a good recipe just drop me a line
January 20th, 2010 at 7:37 am
I realize this is an older entry, but I’m online today looking for a windex recipe, so no review there. You asked about more than just the windex & I have a few favorites.
Homemade Dishwasher Detergent
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
1/2 cup Kosher Salt
1/4 cup citric acid powder or 3 packets unsweetened lemon Kool-aid
Simply put in a plastic container with a lid & shake to mix. Fill detergent cups as normal. Fill jet dry dispenser with white vinegar.
This couldn’t be easier. The citric acid does cause the powder to clump a bit, but no more than store bought powdered detergent. I used lemon kool-aid because it’s what I had at home. Homemade detergent needs the combination of the salt & citric acid (the main ingredient in kool-aid) so that they do not leave any film on the dishes. A word of caution on many sites was not to use any other color of kool-aid or the inside of some dishwashers could become stained.
Homemade Laundry Powder
1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated
1 cup Super Washing Soda
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light or small loads, use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons. Cost per load is estimated at $0.13.
Add 1/2 c vinegar in the rinse cycle to prevent any build up of film on the clothing, the inside of the washer or the pipes.
Homemade Fabric Softener
2 cups water
1 cup vinegar
2/3 cup of any hair conditioner
Stir together until well mixed. Don’t shake. Will thicken slightly.
To the rinse cycle, add a little less than 1/4 cup (or fill a Downy Ball to the fill line) per load of laundry.
Depending on the brand of the conditioner you choose, cost is less than 1/2 cent per load!
I love this stuff.