Comments on: Tightwad Tuesday: More Homemade Cleaners

By: Nicki D

Nicki D — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:51:39 +0000

Another alternative for Oven cleaning – I recall as a child helping clean the oven. Soak a large bath towel in amonia. Wring slightly and place in the oven for an hour or so. Baked on scum will remove easily from oven and racks. Use warm water, and small towels to wipe down and rinse as you wipe down the inside of the oven.

By: fanny

fanny — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:36:27 +0000

I got rid of an old grease stain (cooking oil) that I have on my pants I rubbed it with alcohol and then to the washer it worked perfectly

By: ams

ams — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:27:54 +0000

Lynnae-

For any of your reader interested to make their own laundry detergent,
the kit is available at a website SOAP GONE BY.

You could technically get the washing soda, borax at the regular supermarket. However, the Fels Naphta soap, SOAP GONE BY sells it
grated already, or you could buy them in bars. It come with 2-3 recipes
for making those. I am pleased with the result, and I used to rent out
rooms in my house to college students…boys..Those laundry detergents
are excellent cleaning out the bed sheets once a week. It lasted me
almost 1.5 – 2 years per kit.

Fels Naphta soap is great to clean out poison ivys off my hands, rubber gloves etc in the summer, when I have to cut out the poison oaks and poison ivys in my backyard…I kept one bar in the laundry area, where
I could wash my hands, skins immediately after gardening. It works like
magic! Also, Fels Naphta is a powerful stain cleaner…I just clean
the stain directly by rubbing the bar hard several time, and wash it off.

Voila its gone!

By: Connie

Connie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:49:59 +0000

To clean out your drains use baking soda and vinegar. Put a little baking soda in the drain then add vinegar. The vinegar cause the baking soda to foam up quite a bit but cleans the drains out following with some hot water

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:18:18 +0000

My fiance was concerned when I made the switch to homemade because he was afraid we’d get sick due to the lack of antibacterial power. Well, after much browsing, I found that to make homemade cleaning products antibacterial, add a few drops of tea tree oil. You can add it to anything, and a little goes a long way. My 2 oz bottle that I bought from Trader Joe’s was $6.99 and has lasted about a year, and there is still some left. The smell is strong, but it has grown on me. I add it to my surface cleaner, toilet cleaner and dish soap (all formulations I use are similar to the ones on this blog … one other tip: I kept a store-bought foaming hand soap dispenser and use it for the dish soap. It makes it last a really long time!)

I even use TTO (diluted with olive and/or jojoba oil) on my acne and as deodorant. I’m proud to say neither of us has gotten sick at all since I started adding tea tree oil to my routines. I love multi-purpose ingredients!

By: Saturday Round-Up | The Happy Housewife™

Saturday Round-Up | The Happy Housewife™ — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:45:19 +0000

[...] Being Frugal shares tips on how to make cleaners. [...]

By: Save Time and Money in the Kitchen

Save Time and Money in the Kitchen — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:08:31 +0000

[...] 9. Clean your kitchen with homemade cleaners. You can use one lemon to clean half your kitchen. Use half the lemon to clean your garbage disposal and the other half of the lemon to clean your microwave. Here are some more homemade household cleaners. [...]

By: Molly

Molly — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:52:13 +0000

To the poster for the silver polish tip. DO NOT USE THIS ON REALLY GOOD AND FAMILY SILVER. This method will stip the natural silver patina quickly. I would approach this tip with caution. Great way to ruin your sterling jewelry or family silver.

By: Janet Wendy Spiegel

Janet Wendy Spiegel — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:16:06 +0000

Great suggestions. Not sure if you’ve ever tried this one for cleaning silver before:

Line sink or a glass pan with aluminum foil. Put your silver on the foil so that at least one part of the silver touches the foil. Sprinkle baking soda over the silver utensils and then pour boiling water over all so that the utensils are covered by the water. Almost instantly the tarnish will transfer from the silverware to the foil. Doesn’t last as long as silver polishing, but it is SO easy, you can do the whole process in about 5 minutes once a month.

Great site. Thank you!

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:56:19 +0000

These are great ideas–absolutely will try them out!

I’m fixated on vinegar. It’s the best stuff for cleaning that light skiff of grease that settles on a kitchen counter & that you can’t get off with anything else. It also works wonderfully to clean bathroom mirrors and windows. The odor doesn’t bother me much, since it seems to air out quickly and leaves no residual perfume.