Try It Out Tuesday: Homemade Cleaners

Welcome to the first installment of "Try It Out Tuesday"!

What is that?

Well...Try It Out Tuesday came about during a knit night with two of my best gals.  We were chatting about Pinterest...ah yes, the evil time sucking bandit that is Pinterest!  We all agreed that Pinterest is certainly fun, definitely addicting, but also a little intimidating.  I lamented that I loved to pin all these wonderful ideas, crafts, recipes, et al...but wondered when I would ever get the time to try them.

We put our cute little heads together (I think it was more their idea...I just jumped on the bandwagon!) and came up with our own little blog hop we're calling "Try It Out Tuesday"!

Every week we will choose at least one "pin" that we've been wanting to try and, well, TRY IT!  (Hence TRY it ou...well, you know.)  Keep notes and take pictures to document your experiment, then on Tuesday morning, blog about your experience.  Seems pretty simple, huh?  We'll eventually have a linky tool if we get enough people interested in participating, but for now Kelly, Mary and I are linking to each other.  If anyone else reading this is interested in joining us, please feel free!  Snag the graphic I made and TRY IT OUT!!! :)

Go see what my other gals are up to:
Mary: Book Review, "Being George Washington"
and
Kelly: DIY Suncatchers

Now, without further ado, my first "Try It Out Tuesday":

HOMEMADE CLEANERS

I've been wanting to try homemade cleaning products for some time now, as it seems to be "all the rage".  Actually I'm just sick of cleaning with foul smelling chemicals and spending a fortune on them!  Lots of people I know are into making homemade laundry soap and fabric softener, dishwasher soap, etc.  I'm not that far into it yet (although I did just order some organic soapnuts to use in lieu of commercial laundry soap. That'll be another post.).  

I came across a few different pins that were recipes for homemade cleaners.  I started with All-Purpose Cleaner (my recipe is one I tweaked from several different places). 

All Purpose Cleaner

1 Cup white vinegar

2 Cups hot water

2 tsp dish detergent (for added grease cutting power)

2 tsp lemon juice (to cut the vinegar smell, most recipes call for using essential oils to fragrance and boost antibacterial/disinfecting properties, but I just worked with what I had on hand)

A "splash" of rubbing alcohol (for that streak-free shine!)

I mixed it all together and got to cleaning.  However...I neglected to take pictures!  DOH!  It works wonderful on all my kitchen AND bathroom surfaces.  I even sprayed a light mist on my laminate flooring in the living room and gave it a quick damp mop and it worked great.  

My second experiment this week was using baking soda to clean.  

I have a glass top stove in the apartment we just moved into.  The previous owners were obviously as fastidious as I am about things being clean, and there were several spots on the cooktop that wouldn't come off no matter how much I scrubbed.  I read about baking soda being a great scrubbing cleanser without being too abrasive, so I decided to try it.  I dampened the cook top, dumped a bit of baking soda on the grungy part and scrubbed my little heart out with a damp sponge.  It took some doing, but I think the results speak for themselves.  Before: 

See the uckiness?  And after:

Not perfect, but much better!

I've also started using baking soda in the bathroom as toilet cleaner.  I know, I was skeptical too.  Come to find out, if you sprinkle a generous amount on your not so fresh toilet and let it sit for about 15 minutes, then spray it with homemade all purpose cleaner and scrub as usual, it will be sparkly clean and fresh as a daisy.  Seriously.  See?

Before:

And after:

Oh yeah, that IS a disposable coffee cup, repurposed as a baking soda shaker for the bathroom!!!  

So...there you have my "Try It Out Tuesday"...all about homemade cleaners!

Do you use homemade cleansers or have a tried and true DIY home tip?  Post it in the comments for us all to try!