All Natural Household Cleaners

Several years ago, we began a quest to see how many everyday household necessities we could make from scratch from a few raw ingredients. I discovered skills and recipes that have helped us reach this goal and it has been such a satisfying experience. Because several members of our family have allergies or chemical sensitivities, making our own cleaning products and soaps has helped us avoid the skin reactions that we used to struggle with. Making our own products with all natural ingredients has also saved us a great deal of money. Of course, we like the fact that we can be more self-sufficient and less dependent on a big store to supply our needs. We can mix a large batch of whatever we are making, and it lasts our big family much longer than most store bought cleaners or soaps would.

Our all purpose cleaner is a very simple combination of white vinegar (I have also used apple cider vinegar, which we make ourselves), water, Borax, and essential oils. Vinegar has natural antibacterial properties and is wonderful for achieving a streak-free shine on windows, mirrors, and chrome fixtures. Here is the recipe with the amounts I generally use:

All Purpose Cleaner

1 c. vinegar
1 T. Borax
10 drops essential oil (My favorites are tea tree, lavender, orange or lemon. I have just recently started using Young Living Thieves as well.)

Place the above ingredients in a spray bottle and add warm water to fill the bottle. Shake well.


All natural oven cleaner is something we discovered fairly recently, and we have found that it actually works much better than the chemically laden versions.

Oven Cleaner

Baking soda
Water
Vinegar

Make a paste with baking soda and water. Spread on the inside of the oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Spray inside of oven with vinegar and water mixture (equal parts) and let the fun foaming action begin. Then wipe the inside of the oven with a sponge. It should come off fairly easily, though you may have to apply some elbow grease as well.


Today was laundry detergent making day. We make a five gallon bucket of laundry soap every three months or so for our family of eight.

Laundry Soap

1 c. washing soda
1/2 c. Borax
1 bar Fels Naptha

Grate Fels Naptha into small saucepan. Add water to cover grated soap. Heat over low heat, stirring continually until all the soap is melted. Put washing soda and Borax in 5 gallon bucket, then add melted soap. Stir to mix. Add water until it reaches the top of the bucket, stirring mixture until completely combined. Let sit overnight. In our extra-large capacity washer, we use about 1/2 cup per load.


Homemade dish soap is something we have only recently started to make. It does not suds up like the conventional type, but I see that as a good sign that there are no harmful detergents included in the ingredients.

Dish Soap

1 3/4 c. boiling water
1 T. Borax
1 T. grated soap (I use my own homemade soap, but any kind of regular bath soap would work)
15- 20 drops essential oil (lemon or orange oil are perfect for this)

Mix Borax and soap, then pour boiling water over the mixture. Wisk until soap is completely melted. Let cool 6-8 hours, then transfer to a squeeze bottle. Shake to combine.


None of these recipes takes much time or effort, yet it is so satisfying to make our own versions of each of these things. And did I mention that it saves a lot of money?