Planet Cheapskate

Clean out your House, not your Wallet

Cheap Housekeeping Comments (1)

T

ake a stroll down the cleaning supplies aisle of your supermarket. It’s a temple to expensive, prepackaged, consumer-branded come-ons, that exist only to part you from your money. Think about it from the manufacturers’ point of view: These products are designed to create profit for them first, and only incidentally to clean effectively. (Just why is Windex that attractive blue color anyway?)

You’ll discover, we promise, that with these simple, inexpensive solutions you’ll not only have a clean home, but a clean conscience due to the lack of scary chemical toxins in your immediate environment.

Stuff to have on hand:

Table salt
Baking soda
White vinegar (if the smell turns you off, add a couple drops of an essential oil)
Lemon juice
Hydrogen peroxide
Borax
Liquid soap: phosphate-free dish-washing liquid, or castile soap, or Murphy’s Oil Soap
washing soda
linseed oil
olive oil

Consumer brand supplies are designed to clean your wallet first, then your house.

Recipes: We recommend these combinations of the above for specific cleaning situations. Experiment — find out what works best for you.
Soft Scrub Cleanser: ¼ cup baking soda, add liquid soap to make a paste.
Tub ‘n’ tile: ½ tsp. washing soda, 1 ts. Borax, ½ tsp. liquid soap, 3 tbsp. vinegar, 2 cups of hot water, a dash of lemon juice.
Spray cleaner: 1 tsp. borax, ½ tsp. washing soda, 2 tbsp. vinegar or lemon, ½ tsp. liquid soap. Combine all this in a spray bottle and add 2 cups of hot water.
Toilet bowl cleaner: add 1 cup of borax to the toilet and let it sit overnight.
Glass cleaner: Combine one-eighth cup of vinegar with 1 cup of water. Wipe with clean newspaper or an old phone book page
Oven cleaner: Baking soda, water, liquid soap. Sprinkle water generously over the bottom of the oven, then cover the grime with baking soda. Let this set overnight. Use a mildly abrasive pad the next day, then wash up with a bit of liquid soap. Rinse thoroughly. For tougher areas, sprinkle a bit of baking soda and washing soda, but rinse VERY thoroughly.
Rust stains: Lemon juice
Drain cleaner: Pour one-quarter cup of washing soda or vinegar down your drains each week, rinse with hot water. Alternative: one-half cup baking soda and 3 cups boiling water.
Heavy duty rug cleaner: ¼ cup salt, ¼ cup borax, ¼ cup vinegar. Blend into a paste and rub into carpet stain. Leave for a few hours, then vacuum dry.
Burned-on food: dissolve 3 tablespoons of washing soda in hot water and soak.
Pet stain removal: hydrogen peroxide, water and liquid soap. This also works well for blood stains.

This also works well for blood stains.

Microwave oven: create a paste with water and baking soda. Rinse out thoroughly. For a great scent: Follow up by microwaving a bowl of water with a couple lemon slices for 3 minutes.
Anti-mildew scouring powder: 2/3 cup baking soda, 1/3 cup Borax. Dip damp sponge into mix and rub. If you really need to scour, use straight borax, let it rest for a couple hours, come back and rinse well.
Floor cleaners: 1/8 cup liquid soap, ½ cup vinegar, 2 gallons warm water; or 1 cup vinegar in a pail of water; or ½ cup borax in 2 gallons hot water.
Grease cutter: 1 tbsp. liquid soap, ¼ cup washing soda, ¼ cup in 2 gallons of hot water.
Wood floor cleaner: 1/8 cup liquid soap, ½ cup vinegar or ¼ cup lemon juice, ½ cup steeped herbal tea, 2 gallons of water.
Wood furniture/dusting: ½ tsp. olive oil, /4 cup vinegar or lemon juice applied with soft cloth
Wood cleaner/polish: 1/8 cup linseed oil, 1/8 cup vinegar, ¼ cup lemon
Refrigerator: Borax and water

Dusting, Sweeping & Vacuuming
For dusting, put old (clean!) socks on your hands and away you go. See above for a good liquid dusting recipe.
For sweeping, a good broom PLUS we love an old-fashioned sweeper. Avoid the new battery-powered contraptions that not only use up batteries, but they always seem to require special wipes and cleansers, that need to be replaced. This is brilliant on the part of the company that creates these — instead of just buying a sweeper, now you’re on the hook to constantly be replacing something. Of course, it will then be made obsolete, and you’ll have to “upgrade” to the new model that supersedes it. And on, and on. DON’T FALL FOR IT. Get the simple push type — it should last you forever, with nothing else to buy.
For vacuuming, Lady Frugal of Planet Cheapskate loves her (seemingly) indestructible vintage Electrolux. You can read about all of its virtues on our Vintage Appliance page. There were so many of them created, you’d be hard pressed not to score an affordable one on e-bay.

Bottom Line
Save money without sacrificing effectiveness by substituting common household cleaners for big name brands.
Old socks make great dust mittens (and dog toys, but that’s another story.
For energy efficiency, effectiveness and low cost, nothing beets a broom.

—the Editors, on February 26, 2009