Despite the ever-growing range of industrially made cleaning products available commercially, for lots of cleaning jobs, there is no need to head to the store and part with your hard-earned money. There are plenty of homemade, natural solutions that you can put together yourself, more often than not, with ingredients that you are likely to have to hand in your home already. We’ve made a short guide to get you started: of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list, and you can adapt these particular solutions to your own specific purposes.
With no further ado, here are our five homemade cleaning solutions that have been shown – properly shown – to work.
Vinegar Cleaning Solutions
Vinegar crops up a lot in lists like these, and for good reason. Not only is it more environmentally safe than lots of the disinfectants that you find in supermarkets or home improvement stores, it is quite often cheaper, too. Vinegar’s utility in cleaning is due to its high levels of acetic acid. This acid – though not in quantities high enough to be corrosive to human skin – is able to dissolve all the usual stuff that constitutes household ‘grime’: fat, mineral deposits, dirt. Equally, the acetic acid kills bacteria, so vinegar can double up as an antimicrobial, as well.
There are a lot of different types of vinegar, but it’s the acetic acid content of the stuff that we are concerned with when cleaning, not the substance that it has been distilled from. White distilled vinegar has an acidity of about 5%, emulating the acidity levels of many multipurpose pre-made cleaning products that you can buy in the store. It also lacks colouring, so there’s no chance of it staining any porous surfaces that you’re cleaning. (It also happens to be one of the cheapest sorts of vinegar you can buy.)
Anyway, onto the vinegar cleaning solutions: here are two solutions to get you started.
1. As an all-purpose disinfectant
Mix equal parts vinegar and water together. Next, transfer it into a spray-bottle. Or, if you don’t have a spray bottle, or if you don’t plan to keep your disinfectant for longer than the specific cleaning task ahead of you, a bowl in which you can dip your cleaning cloth into would work perfectly well, too.
You can then use the liquid as you would with any other disinfecting substance: apply it to the areas that you want to rid of bacteria, and wipe down.
It’s good for all sorts of disinfecting jobs, but you might want to avoid using it heavily on things that you are likely to have your face close to in the close future after cleaning: things like toys or phones, perhaps: vinegar obviously has a pretty intense smell, so close contact with surfaces cleaned with vinegar can potentially be a little overwhelming in the hours after cleaning. It doesn’t stick around long, though, don’t worry: your whole home won’t smell like a chip shop! If the smell does bother you, then you can mix in some essential oils that you like the smell of, and use as normal.
2. As an all-purpose cleaning fluid
This recipe uses a more specific quantity rather than just a ratio than the disinfectant discussed above, and contains a much smaller relative amount of vinegar. Combine 705ml of water with 235ml. Then mix in two teaspoons of lemon juice, and 10 drops of lemon oil. The citric acid in the lemon juice also helps break down grease and dirt, like the vinegar; the lemon oil has a brightening, shining effect. Put the liquid in whatever vessel you want – spray bottle, mop head, bowl – and use as you would any other cleaner: kitchen surfaces, floors, metalwork, and so on.
This cleaning fluid is particularly great for cleaning windows and mirrors: the lack of suds produced by this from of natural cleaner means that your surfaces will stay clean and shiny, untarnished by soapiness.
Bicarbonate of Soda
Like vinegar, bicarbonate of soda is another commonplace in homemade cleaning solution guides. This article is no different: it has so many practical applications in cleaning: it’s a mild abrasive, making it great for scrubbing away and dislodging stubborn bits of grime, and also helps to dissolve said grime as well. We’re only mentioning two uses of bicarbonate of soda in this piece of writing, but its uses really are vast.
1. As a cream-cleaner
Just like limestone (the key constituent in most industrially-made cream cleaners), bicarbonate of soda produces a great cleansing foam. Simply add a small amount of the powder to a wet sponge, and get to work! Wipe away the foam with a cleaning cloth and the job is done!-you’ll also enjoy the absence of the harsh ‘chemical’ smell that can hang around with shop-bought equivalents.
2. As a substance to de-grease your oven door with
Your oven door is looking opaque and brownish: the task of cleaning it looms. But bicarbonate of soda is a useful ally. Turn your oven on and warm it up for a few minutes. In these few minutes, make up a paste with three parts bicarbonate of soda with one-part warm water. Turn the oven off, open the door (it shouldn’t be hot enough to be dangerous to you) and wipe the oven door with a damp cloth. Spread the paste across the glass part of the door, and leave for a couple of hours: it should have turned brown. Wipe both sides with a damp cloth, moistening the paste, and use a car window scraper or palette knife to remove the suds.
Salt, as a polish
For your copper and brass fixtures and fittings, table salt is a really great ingredient. Mix up equal parts flour, vinegar (our old friend!) and salt into a paste. Apply your paste to your metal surfaces and fixtures, and leave it to work its magic for an hour or so. Then wipe the application away with a cloth: the metal should be a lot shinier and cleaner.
It’s really that simple, next time your home is in need of a good wipe down, check the pantry before making a trip to the local supermarket to buy expensive commercial cleaning products. The environment and your wallet will appreciate it.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
