Homemade Cleaning Stuff

I did an article in our newsletter at work talking about the laundry detergent and Febreze I've been making at home to save money.  I found the "recipes" through Pinterest and love the blogs I found in the process.  There are others that I've tried since then.  Although my kids think I'm crazy, I'm having a blast making stuff.  And, you would be amazed at how much I've saved!

I've gotten a lot of feedback from co-workers.  Several have tried the recipes from the newsletter.  So, I thought I'd share them on here, too.  And, some of the others I found.

First, the laundry detergent...
This is by far my biggest money-saver.  I've tried several, but this is my favorite.  I found this one at http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html
It's pretty easy to make, which is always a plus in my book.  Here's what you need:
1 bar of soap (I like Ivory, but whatever you want is fine)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of Washing Soda
2 gallons of water
-- You just grate the soap into a large pot.  Add a gallon of water and cook until the soap dissolves.  Then, add the Borax and Washing Soda.  Bring it to a boil.  Then, turn it off and stir in another gallon of water.  After it cools, divide and pour into two gallon containers.

Second, the Febreze...
This comes from http://fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com/2011/07/fake-febreeze.html
And, it comes in super handy with the two dogs.  With only 3 ingredients, it's amazingly simple!
1/8 cup of your favorite fabric softener
2 Tablespoons of baking soda
-- Put those ingredients in an empty Febreze bottle.  Then, add enough water to fill the bottle.  Shake and you're done!

Third, dryer sheets...
I'm usually a Bounce Dryer Sheets kinda gal, but I had all that extra liquid fabric softener from the Febreze experiment.  So, one of the ladies I'm following on Pinterest had posted her dryer sheet alternative.  I tried it.  I love it.  You can find her description here:  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/08/giving-bounce-dryer-sheets-bounce.html
She cut up some dish towels, put them in a container with liquid fabric softener, and sealed them up.  Anytime she needs one, she just grabs one out, squeezes the access, and tosses in the dryer.  When that load of laundry is dry, she drops it back in the container for the next time.  So convenient and keeps me from finding used dryer sheets all over the place.  (My boys do not know how to put them in the trash.)

Finally, my new favorite stain remover!!!  This one I didn't believe until I saw it with my own eyes.  It's what I was talking about in my previous post (the one I made Will and Logan come see).  Yesterday, David was home so I made him sit and watch me make the stain in his rug disappear, too!  This comes from Jill's blog, too:  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/12/homemade-carpet-stain-removerno.html
white towel
spray bottle with equal parts ammonia and hot water
Iron on high (steam) setting
-- spray the stain with the ammonia/water.  Put a white towel over it.  Run the iron over the towel.  You will begin to see the steam pull the stain through the towel.  Too cool!  I have some pictures of a icky stain by my dresser in the bedroom.

Here it is... yuck.  I had just ran the vacuum and thought of the tip from the "One Good Thing" blog.  So, I took a picture.

This is after a few minutes of running the iron over the stain.  It steamed a bunch and the towel looked pretty bad, so I thought I had it.  But, I could still see some of the stain.

This was my final picture.  You can see where the carpet is wet in that area, but the ugly nasty is gone!  I was so excited, especially about the NO SCRUBBING part.

I'll try to remember to post more things I try on here as I find/try them.  I thought my blog was going to be all about recipes and crafty things, but these tips are too good not to share!