I’ve been playing around with DIY cleaning at home and thought I’d share my current setup. Love to hear suggestions or other tips
Equipment
- I bought a couple of glass spray bottles from amazon but you could reuse old ones (mine had all broke)
- box of rags - I like microfibre but also old tshirts and tea towels (tea towels are great for drying off surfaces)
- old toothbrush for fiddly bits in the bathroom
Basic cleaner - option 1 : Grease / shiny things / tough surfaces
- fill up bottle with 3:1 white vinegar to water
- add a good bloop of dishwashing soap
- I add in a few drops of eucalyptus oil (optional)
I use this for most things. People caution against using it for stone top benches. I haven’t had an issue but if you want to be cautious use this
Basic cleaner - option 2: Gentle and deodorising
- fill up bottle with 100% water
- add a good bloop of dish washing soap
- add a couple of teaspoons of bicarb
- I add in a few drops of eucalyptus oil (optional)
Don’t mix the vinegar + bicarb. They will neutralise each other and add nothing.
If you are sensitive to smells etc - use option 2 for everything
In the bathroom
Not quite basic glass and metal cleaner and disinfectant
You can use the vinegar mix for this but I have a fair bit of glass so I bought a litre of isopropyl alcohol from amazon and mixed this in a separate bottle that lives in the bathroom:
- 70% Isopropyl alchohol
- 30% water (you want a 70% mix for disinfecting)
- Bloop of dish washing soap
- optional drops of oil - again I do eucalyptus or clove oil but doesn’t matter
toilets and drains
- a tablespoon or two of bicarb in the drain or in the bowl and flush with water is simple gentle cleaner
- For the shower I have one of those squidgy glass wipers and a refillable dish cleaner wand thing for the shower - filled with dishwash soap and some drops of clove oil). I wipe down the excess water after every shower and once a week give it a scrub with the dish cleaner wand and dish soap.
I do still use a name brand toilet cleaner once a week and maybe once a month use some oxygen cleaner or bleach on the shower tiles but I’d like an alternative.
Hard floors
I’ve got a spray mop and am still working through a bulk by of some eco floor cleaner but I’m thinking i’ll just use mix #2 (bicarb) above when that runs out - suggestions welcome
These are very good, I use the dish soap and vinegar or dish soap alone for a lot of things.
Sometimes an old kitchen scourer sponge gets a second life as a shower scrubber if it’s not smelly.
Another one is citric acid powder for limescale and soap scum. (Sold at Colesworth in small containers. Basically generic Barkeepers Friend.)
I clean my washing machine by sending bicarb through on a long hot wash, then running vinegar through in the rinse.
I also add vinegar to the wash cycle for smelly laundry (seems to work better for odours than using it in the rinse - though it is a good alternative to fabric softener too).
I will say there is a risk of the vinegar damaging rubber pipes or seals, so you might not want to do it very often and/or at least run an extra rinse after the vinegar to dilute or wash it out. Don’t leave it sitting.
Edit: Filling sink drains with bicarb soda to sit overnight and then pouring a kettle of boiling water down helps get rid of smells, kills fruit flies living there and helps keep them clear. Pouring vinegar in the sink drain is also effective.
I use plain white vinegar in the generic 2L bottles for all of this.
But for fruit fly traps I get an empty plastic water bottle with a narrow mouth, pour a small amount of apple cider vinegar in and add a drop or two of dish soap. The acv attracts the insects with the smell, the narrow opening of the bottle makes it hard to fly back out, and the dish soap breaks the surface tension of the liquid so the fruit flies sink and drown.
Tip stolen from Smeg - mixing powdered icing sugar and borax in equal parts and leaving them around in tinfoil bowls is a good cockroach bait. It’s safer than poison and Borax has other uses around the house but please put these baits in places kids and pets can’t get to them. Borax is still toxic/not to be ingested.
Undiluted eucalyptus oil will also remove sticky adhesive residue like from price tags. This may also remove gum or ink stains. However be careful not to use it on plastic or laminate etc because they will be damaged or dissolve.
Also if using it on a reusable rag you might not want to send that through the dryer after washing in case any leftover volatile oil ignites.
Read up on using eucalyptus or orange oil in this way for full warnings.
Oh yeah great tips. Thanks.
I also pop a cup half filled with vinegar on the top shelf of the dishwasher when its looking a bit festy. Just a short cycle with that and no detergent is good. Then a normal wash gets rid of any residue
We make our own spray cleaner that we use for pretty much everything. Dissolve 1 tbsp lectric soda crystals in warm water, add 1tbsp dishwashing liquid, 1 cup vinegar and 1 tbsp water soluable eucalyptus oil or lavender oil. Add it all to a 2lt bottle and fill it with water. Use this to fill a spray bottle. We use it on everything including the bathroom, glass and stone bench tops.
