DIY cleaning products.

It is possible to formulate strong and effective cleaning products for our home without using chemicals and still achieving the same results, sometimes even better ones.
The main ingredients that seem to work best for all surfaces in a variety of combinations are:

·       Alcohol (disinfectant and fast evaporation time)

·       Castile Soap (olive oil based soap made similarly to how it was originally made in Castile, Spain; you can easily find it at the grocery store)

·       Essential Oils (optional for give the product a different fragrance)

·       Lemon Juice (it has disinfectant properties)

·       Vinegar (dissolves grime, grease and mineral deposit)

·       Witch hazel (derived for the witch hazel plant can dissolve tougher dirt than vinegar)

You can pretty much make any surface cleaner by combining those ingredients in different ways. The recipes I will share in parts, so that you can make the amount of your choice by either choosing the base part unit (can be anything from tbsp to cup) or by deciding a total amount and then dividing by the total number of parts present in the recipe. I will show an example for both methods after the recipes.

All purpose: 1 part white distilled vinegar, 3 parts water, 0.1 part of castile soap.
Glass: 1 part alcohol, 2 parts water - or - 1 part alcohol, 1 part white distilled vinegar, 4 parts water.
Granite: 1 part alcohol, 4 parts water, 0.1 part of castile soap.
Heavy duty: 1 part white distilled vinegar, 1 part witch hazel, 3 parts water, 0.2 parts castile soap (I use this mix on all my kitchen surfaces: stainless steel, quartz and glass).
Veggie wash: 1 part white distilled vinegar, 1 parts lemon juice, 8 parts water (I use this to clean pets’ items like food bowls, water fountains and things like this).
Wood: 1 part water, 1 part white distilled vinegar (you can add a small amount of wood conditioning oil of your choice if you want, I personally didn’t like the streaks left on the wood surfaces after and the lingering oily residue).

How to calculate (if you are not a fan of math skip this paragraph and jump to Recipes Simplified).
Let’s take the alternative glass recipe that includes vinegar. If you chose 1/2 cup as a unit you will have 1/2 cap alcohol, 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar, and 2 cups (1/2 x4) water, making 3 cups total of cleaning product. If you chose instead to start form the total and you want to make 1 quart worth of cleaning mix you will have to divide 4 cups (which equals to 1 quart) by the total number of parts present in the recipe: 4 divided by 6 (1+1+4) -> which makes 0.66 cups per part, which translate into 2/3 cup roughly. So to make 1 quart of cleaning product you will need 2/3 cup alcohol, 2/3 cup white distilled vinegar, and 2 and 2/3 cup water (2/3 x4 or 0.66x4).

Recipes simplified.
I make my life easier and have 3 of these, and I absolutely love them. These are 16 oz. (1/2 quart) bottles and one full of heavy duty recipe lasts me over a month and I clean my kitchen surfaces at least twice a day. The recipes on the bottle are a little different than what I listed and the bottles does not have the wood cleaner one, but following the bottle’s proportions works just as great.

Cost breakdown.
Assuming you are filling a spray bottle the same size as the glass one I linked above, for the same recipe as the example, you will need 1/3 cup each witch hazel and distilled white vinegar each time you will refill each time. I will take Target store as reference for the cost of one refill, which could last more than 2 months depending on how often and how wide of glass surfaces you have. Both alcohol and vinegar come in 16 oz. bottles: the vinegar is $0.99 and alcohol is $3.49. 16 oz. = 2 cups which means you can refill the spray bottle 6 times with $4.48, so 74cents (+ taxes) per refill, compared to the environmentally friendly store bought alternatives that go from $3.59 for 28 oz. to $4.29 for 16 oz. (+ taxes).

Links: Cleaning Essentials