Recipes to Make Your Own Household Cleaners and Detergents

This is something so easy to reject due to convenience: making household cleaners There are enough hours in the day, why do we need to spend time on this?! I am lucky to get dressed in clean clothes most days, this seems like over-achieving pressure.

But it turns out that, for us, making our own household cleaners and detergents don’t take that much longer and it saves a lot of money in grocery bills.

Plus, as parents trying to be good stewards of the environment, we feel better trying to control the toxins (as yet untested by generations of exposure) we actively live in. Who knows how much does it really lessen our environmental footprint? That’s also untested by generations of exposure. But given that the first two things are winning points (cheaper and just as easy), what’s the harm in trying, right?

Here are some recipes for your own household cleaners and detergents:

Hardwood Floor Cleaning Solution:

1. 1 gallon of water (can use distilled, tap is fine)
2. 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
3. 3 drops pH neutral dish detergent (recommended: Dawn Pure Essentials)
4. 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
5. 2-3 drops preferred essential oil

Granite Cleaning Solution:

1. 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
2. 3 drops pH neutral dish detergent
3. 1 cup water (tap is fine)
4. 5-8 drops preferred essential oil

All-Purpose Cleaning Solution:

1. 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
2. 1/2 cup distilled water
3. 5-8 drops preferred essential oil

Toilet Cleaning Solution:

1. Sprinkle baking soda in toilet
2. Spray distilled white vinegar on top
3. Allow to sit for a few minutes before scrubbing

With your toilets, prevention is key. Once you get nasty mildew build up, it gets a lot tougher to clean. So clean quickly yet often!

Homemade Wood Furniture Polish:

This one is the trickiest and, also, you want to test it on an inconspicuous spot before you spray it all over. Also, microfiber is important when polishing wood furniture. Remember that dusting and polishing are different, so be mindful of how often you actually need to polish and treat your wood.

1. 1/2 tsp Olive Oil
2. 3 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
3. 10 drops preferred essential oil
4. 1/2 tsp water

We add the water just to make it a little thinner but water on wood is always risky, so we go light!

Homemade Dryer Sheets:

(inspired by View from the Fridge)

1. Fabric scraps – cut into approximately 4×4 squares
2. 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
3. 10 drops preferred essential oil
4. 2 TBSP water (tap is fine)
5. Place everything in a resealable container, allow fabric to soak through, add 2 scraps to wet clothes in the dryer before starting the cycle

You will have to add more liquid to the scraps after some time, that length depends on how often you do laundry! Just feel free to add the same ratios of liquid to the jar and fabric scraps.

NOTE: We did this for awhile but then found these dryer balls in a local store and they work so much better.

Homemade Laundry Detergent:

This hasn’t worked for us yet. Washing Soda proved to be elusive until recently and although we used the recipe from Still Being Molly that you can get here, it didn’t seem powerful enough for our two little sons.

Happy environmentally-friendly cleaning!