plastic vinyl cleaner

1 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons liquid soap

wood cleaner

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup liquid soap
1/4 cup water

Mix thoroughly and store in a clean labeled bottle out of the reach of pets and children. Use 1/4 cup of wood cleaner to a bucket of water.

scouring cleanser

As a general rule I don’t recommend scrubbing or scouring surfaces on a regular basis – it does eventually damage the material.  But there are occasions when it must be used if we are to rescue the surface in question.

For those times I like this cheap and easy creme scouring cleanser which is safe for a multitude of materials including glass, enamel, fiberglass, plastic, wood, stone, and metal with one exception.  This scouring cleanser contains baking soda.  NEVER use baking soda on aluminum surfaces. It attacks the thin unreactive protective oxide layer of this otherwise very reactive metal and the finish will oxidize and become cloudy and whitish.

1/4 cup liquid soap

1 Tbsp borax

3 Tbsp baking soda

3/4 cup very warm water.

Mix the water and liquid soap.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until grainy.  The shelf-life of this scouring cleanser is 3-4 months.  Remember to clearly label your container and keep out of the reach of children and pets.

disinfectant spray

This is a much safer disinfectant that the commercial brands both safer for you and your family while you are using it and safer for the environment.  Remember, lemon juice (technically it’s the d-limonene in the lemons) kills a whole host of bacteria, viruses and fungi.

The shelf-life on this disinfectant spray cleaner is about 9 months.  Remember to label your containers.  And even though these are much safer than commercial products ALWAYS keep cleaning supplies out of the reach of children and pets.

1/2 cup liquid soap

4 Tbsp. lemon juice

3 cups warm water

Mix the ingredients in a clean, empty spray bottle and shake well.  Use your disinfectant regularly on surfaces people touch a lot, like faucet handles, door knobs, etc. – ESPECIALLY during cold and flu season!

homemade glass cleaner

This is the quickest, easiest, safest and cheapest glass cleaner you can make.  There is no need for hazardous chemicals like ammonia or ethyl/isopropanol alcohol to make your windows and mirrors shine.

Mix all the ingredients in a clean empty spray bottle and shake well.  Label your bottle.  I use a permanent waterproof marker right on the bottle.  Paper labels get wet and smear or come off.

1/2 cup white vinegar

2 tsp. liquid soap

3 cups warm water

homemade dishwashing liquid

This dishwashing liquid may not be as thick or suds as much as the store bought varieties but it cleans just as well, is much less expensive, and contains no ingredients that are harmful to people, pets, or the environment.  Remember — suds are like hype — it may make it seem as if a product producing lots of suds is doing a lot of work but the bottom line is that suds don’t clean. It’s the water and soap in this recipe that does the cleaning.  The glycerin is an emollient to protect your skin.  The lemon juice dissolves grease and kills germs and bacteria.

The essential oil of lemon is optional.  You can get many essential oils at very good prices at Mountain Rose Herbs.

1/4 cup soap flakes
2 cups hot water
2 tsp. glycerin
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
4 drops lemon oil (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a clean empty squeeze bottle. Cover, and shake well to blend. Label your container. I like to use a permanent waterproof marker directly on the bottle.  This dishwashing liquid has a shelf like of 3 to 4 months.

universal solvent

Water is a very strong solvent and often referred to as the universal solvent. A solvent is a liquid or gas that dissolves another substance resulting in a solution. Substances that dissolve in water, like salts, sugars, acids, and alkali are called hydrophilic (water-loving) while those that do not mix well with water, like grease or oil, are called hydrophobic (water-fearing).

Water is, of course, the substance created when two molecules of hydrogen form a chemical bond with one molecule of oxygen – commonly abbreviated as H₂O. Water is a polar molecule. The oxygen has a negative charge while the hydrogen has a positive charge giving the water molecule a strong dipole structure – like a magnet with it’s north and south (positive and negative) poles. And just like a magnet’s poles, a water molecule’s poles are attracted to the opposite charge in other water molecules. This weak interaction causes both water’s cohesive property and adhesion property and is responsible for the high surface tension of water. If you’ve seen water bead up on a surface you’ve seen surface tension. This tension also exhibits another of water’s properties and that is capillary action – or the tendency of water to move upward in a tube against the force of gravity.

Unlike a bar magnet with a single positive and single negative pole the water molecule has two positive poles (the hydrogen atoms) and one negative pole (the oxygen atom) so a U shaped magnet with the bend of the U being the negative pole is a better model. Because magnetic poles attract the opposite charge, if you had 100 water molecules, the negative poles (the oxygen atoms) would be attracted to one of the negative poles (a hydrogen atom) of one of the other 99 water molecules. What about the second hydrogen atom on each of the molecules? They attract other negatively charged molecules. Guess what has a negative charge? Dirt.

Have you ever wondered why fine particles of dirt settle on all the surfaces in your home? Yes, dust is just fine airborne particles of dirt. Well, our planet is constantly bombarded by waves of energy that we can’t see. Besides the UV (ultraviolet) rays that cause sunburn, there are longer wave lengths of energy called Gamma Rays. Unlike UV rays, however, which can be blocked by materials (like a hat) or chemicals (like a sunblock lotion), gamma rays go right through everything – including us. When the gamma rays pass through objects they knock electrons out of the atoms the object is made of. And when atoms lose electrons they become slightly positively charged. Since this occurs constantly, most objects in our homes have an overall positive charge. Along comes a breeze that disperses some fine dirt particles in the air that are negatively charged and – you guessed it – the negatively charged dust is attracted to the positively charged surfaces and sticks there.

So let’s imagine a dirty surface, a counter-top for instance, and think what would happen when we spread some water on the counter. Firstly, the “extra” positive poles (hydrogen atoms) would be repelled by the slight positive charge of the counter-top so that the water molecules would be positioned like a U with both positive poles upward and the negative pole downward. The dirt particles on the counter-top, because they have a slight negative charge would be attracted to the “extra” positive poles at the “top” of the water. The dirt particles have now be separated from the surface of the counter and in effect are being held in suspension by the water. Now we simply wipe away the water and the dirt in solution right along with it. In my humble opinion, water certainly deserves the moniker of universal solvent.