Do We Really Need That Many?
TV pours a constant stream of ads for cleaning materials. They are in almost every ad slot. They are so commonly seen that they have become ever so annoying. I personally don’t like big corporations telling me what to use on my kitchen worktop or bathroom floor. Why are these companies constantly pushing a million and more different brands of plastic trigger spray bottles towards us? New ones are getting created every day and joining the army of the existing domestic cleaning brands.
Well, the answer is very simple. Money! Why I am not surprised to find out that many of those “cleaning miracles in a bottle” can successfully substitute each other. You’d be surprised to learn that you actually do not need that many products in order to maintain cleanliness in your home. As a matter of fact you would need a storage room with the size of a decent living room if you wanted to store all the cleaning materials advertised on TV. Of, course you wouldn’t do this. This is ridiculous and not economically viable.
If you take a trip to the local supermarket, you’re bound to find a huge range of cleaning products. Sprays for this, polish for that, cream for the other thing. It’s easy to buy bottle after bottle of specialist stuff and spend a small fortune.
One For All
Does it have to be this hard? Do you really need one product for your toilet, one for your kitchen bench, another for the fridge, another for the shower walls, another for the… Well, you get the idea! But it doesn’t have to be that way at all. All you need is a few basics and you can make your own.
One of the real benefits of making your own cleansers is that home-made ones are usually gentler on the environment and much less toxic. Some of them are even edible, though not particularly palatable. And they do a pretty good job of round-the-house cleaning, even if they do need a touch more elbow grease to work. Mentally replace “elbow grease” with “burning calories” and you’ll find these dirty jobs are a lot easier to face up to.
Get Started Making Your Own Cleaning Materials
Basic ingredients you will need for making your own cleaning products are probably already in your kitchen or 
bathroom cupboards. Baking soda and vinegar make excellent cleaners. So do lemons, but doing home cleaning with lemons can be a bit expensive unless you have your own lemon tree that produces prolifically. Toothpaste is another handy ingredient, as is dishwashing liquid (not the sort you put in dishwashers, but the sort you do dishes in the sink with). Biological washing powder is another very handy basic cleaner.
Baking soda
Baking  soda is by far the most versatile of these cleaners.. It doesn’t scratch delicate surfaces but it busts off the grime. It also absorbs smells somewhat in a refrigerator. Baking soda is perfect for washing down white-ware and cleaning the inside of the fridge. While I have heard that a very thick paste of baking soda can be used for cleaning the inside of the oven, I have never put this one to the test, so I can’t vouch for it. But you may be in luck.
Vinegar
Vinegar is an excellent cleanser for people in hard water areas. As it is an acid (and so is lemon juice, which can be used in the same way), it reacts with that annoying soap scum that has a tendency to stick to the side of sinks. In my experience, what doesn’t yield to baking soda will usually yield to vinegar – and you get a very satisfying fizz when baking soda and vinegar mix. Dilute vinegar works pretty well for windows and doesn’t leave streaks or residue. You can also use it as a fabric softener. My husband’s grandmother also recommended boiling vinegar in a saucepan to deter flies. It works.
Bio Washing Powder
Biological washing powder is quite harsh and should be handled with gloves, but it is useful in many more places than just the washing machine. To clean a really grubby bath, fill the bath with water and put a cup or so of biological washing powder in. Leave it overnight and drain in the morning. The enzymes will have done their work. This also works for burnt-on crud on pots and pans if you accidentally left something on the stove for too long.
Toothpaste
Toothpaste is a very effective cleanser but should really only be used for smaller areas, as cleaning larger things such as white-ware with toothpaste could become expensive.
Having said that, most of us could claim to use toothpaste to clean bits of the vanity unit and bathroom taps, as toothpaste smears are one source of the grubbiness in this area (or is it just my kids who get it all over the place?).
Jewellery (especially diamonds) respond well to being cleaned with toothpaste, as it is gentle and leaves no residue (use a soft toothbrush for cleaning jewellery with toothpaste to avoid scratches). Toothpaste also helps to get scribbles of ballpoint pen off wallpaper.
Dishwashing Liquid
Dishwashing liquid can be used for cleaning more than just the dishes. It’s great for mopping floors with. Use in a bucket of water at about the same concentration you’d use for doing the dishes, or maybe a bit stronger for really grubby floors. You can also use this for glassware, although it can leave a few bluish streaks – but seeing as it gets rid of handprints and fly spots and doesn’t have those unpleasant fumes that you get with commercial window cleaners.
