If the thought of making own cleaners is causing you to have bad flashbacks to high school chemistry, rest easy. The easiest way to make cleaners is to not mix anything! The best cleaners are baking soda, vinegar, and plain old soap. Do not mix vinegar and baking soda together: that will really remind you of chemistry class!

Baking Soda
Baking soda is your scouring powder. Scrub off dried on goop with it. Add it to your laundry as a fabric softener. Use it a carpet deodorizer. Dump it down your drain. Use it to soak up grease and anywhere there’s a bad smell. If you must mix, mix it with water to create a cleaning paste.

Vinegar
Vinegar is your liquid cleaner. It shines stainless steel better than any commercial product you can buy. Plastics were first used to contain acids, so acids like vinegar clean anything plastic better than base cleaners like ammonia and bleach. Vinegar can be used as a color-safe bleach to remove stains from fabrics and carpets–but be sure to test for color-fastness in an inconspicuous spot first! Soak a cloth in vinegar and leave it in place to remove stains from linoleum. Mix vinegar with water to clean glass: but realize that the first time you use it on your windows the vinegar will be removing the film left behind by other cleaners. Until this film is completely removed, your windows may streak. But vinegar will leave your windows streak-free. As a bonus, vinegar can be used to make your hair shiny: just rinse your hair with diluted white or apple-cider vinegar!

Pure soap
Need a “soft scrub”-type cleaner and vinegar and baking soda won’t work? Use soap. Just plain glycerin soap. It will not lather up very well, especially if you have hard water; detergents lather up well, but they are not as safe. Remember high school chemistry and all the silly-looking safety equipment you had to wear? Put away your gloves: pure soap is a gentle cleaner that can cut through most greasy messes without you having to worry about keeping it off your skin. Use pure soap on laundry stains and you will be amazed that you ever spent money on so-called “stain removers.” Shave off a little bit of the bar of glycerin soap and dissolve it in a little water to create a cleaner to use on easily-scratched surfaces.

Best of all, these natural cleaning products are as economical as they are safe, unlike detergents, bleaches, ammonias, and alcohols. Safe for you, safe for your family, and safe for the environment. And, oh, so easy to use, too!

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