Haven't bought cleaning products...

Those of you who know me well, know that I am not crazy about cleaning the house. My house is always messy. There is always dog hair on the floors. My tables are often dusty and my laundry is never done! I have not had a change in my attitude about house cleaning. But since Kendall has been born, I must admit that I clean more than I ever did before. Mostly I spend time cleaning the floors. She is crawling now, so the floors need to be kept cleaner. I find myself vacuuming and mopping almost every day. Before Kendall, I was lucky to do this once a week!

Having said all that, I want to admit something else. I have not bought any home cleaning products since May. That's right - NONE. This is not because I have cut back on cleaning. To the contrary, I'm actually cleaning more! The thing is, I'm using so many DIY cleansers now that I really haven't had a need to buy any "ready-made" home cleansers in months! Now, I have bought other things in greater quantities - baking soda, vinegar, borax, essential oils, etc. I've bought things to USE in making the DIY cleansers that I am now using. All said, I've enjoyed making and using the DIY cleansers. I doubt I will EVER go back to using ready-made laundry detergents or floor cleaners or dish washing detergents. I really like the ones that I've made and am finding more to make as time goes on.

I hope everyone else is trying these ideas!

PS: Oops! Okay, so I did buy ONE ready-made cleaning product! I bought bleach drops to give them a try. These are drops that you add into the washer instead of liquid bleach. I like using them as I do not need to lug out that huge bleach container each time. Having said that, I am soon going to try a DIY bleach alternative. I'll post back afterwards and let you know how it works.

Fresh smelling bathroom

Want a quick and easy way to make your bathrooms smell better? Well you could tell your husband to stop using them. But that seems a bit drastic. So I've got another solution for you. You have some essential oil, right? I know you do!

Keep a small bottle in the bathroom cabinet. When you put on a new roll of toilet paper, put a drop or two of the oil right onto the cardboard tube of the roll. That's it! Every time you spin it, the smell is released into the room!

Ball Jar Air Fresheners

Well this morning I made these air fresheners I have been planning for weeks. It was really a VERY simple process.

I poured baking soda into the jar to see how much I would need. I made 4 jars, two of one scent and two of another. Then I poured that baking soda into a mixing bowl. I added SEVERAL drops of essential oil. (I used lavender in two and cinnamon in the other two.) Using a whisk I stirred the oil drops into the baking soda very well. You do not want so much oil that your powder looks wet. I probably used about 10-12 drops. Once it was whisked together I poured the powder mixture back into these small Ball Jars. I didn't use the metal lid. Instead I covered with a piece of wrapping paper that I then poked holes into. I'm sure they could be made prettier. I could either use a really pretty paper, fabric, or even poke holes into the metal lid and use that. I'll probably wrap a piece of ribbon around them to make them look a little prettier. (Use your own imagination here, folks!) Anyway, I've been working all day with one of them sitting beside me. I must admit it smells pretty good. I'll update at a future date so you'll know if the scent really lasts and is noticeable in a larger room.

But this was a very quick and easy way to make air fresheners. I think if they were prettier they might even make nice DIY gifts for your friends! Give this one a try, folks.

PS: I am now thinking of making a smaller one to use in my car. Any ideas on what kind of container I could use?

PSS: This really is just a quick take on the same recipe for making your own carpet powder, which you can get here in an earlier post. I just used less powder and more oil. (In fact, I'll admit that I ran out of my DIY carpet powder, and literally shook this out on the rug before I vacuumed last week!)

UPDATE: You really do need more oil to make these smell great throughout the house. They work fine in small rooms or cars. But add more oil drops if you have a large room!

Update on refilling scented oil plug-ins

I'm sure you read my post and learned how to refill your scented oil plugins. If not you can read it here.

I have a quick update. If you don't want to buy, or mess with essential oils, there is another, quick option.

Liquid potpourri oil will do the trick! You can buy this at most stores, like WalMart, etc. I've learned now that you can also pick it up at the Dollar stores as well. If you use this to refill your plug-ins, do not add additional water. Just fill up the oil container with this liquid and put the wick back inside. It will smell just as good as the actual essential oil, and this is much cheaper. I've now tried both and love both equally. One bottle of this liquid is anywhere from $1 to $3 depending on where you buy it. I'm not sure how many plug-ins it will refill, but I'd guess more than 20.

Let me know how you like it!

Update: The smell was not as strong or noticeable after a few days using the liquid potpourri. It worked well in our small bathroom, but in the living room I could not smell it at all after three days. I'd have to recommend this only for small spaces. The actual oils that I've used in the other plug-ins are still working. I refilled another one last week. That one has two containers. I put vanilla in one and cinnamon in the other. It is really a great combination!

Vinegar!

I have a healthy obsession lately with vinegar. I love it! I use it for everything! I know everyone out there wants to know what they can use vinegar for, right? So I'm here to get you started! Here are a few of the thousands of things vinegar is good for:

1. Use it to make your own fabric refresher (recipe in an earlier post).
2. Use it to make your own fabric softener (recipe in an earlier post).
3. Use it to mop the floor with - it works great, gets out smells, even pet stains and smells.
4. Use it alone as fabric softer in your washing machine...it will also stop lint from sticking to your clothes later!
5. Use it to clean your windows AND window blinds!
6. Use it with baking soda to unclog drains.
7. Use it alone, in a small cup or bowl to get rid of smoky odors in any room.
8. Vinegar washes away mildew! Yes - it really does!
9. Vinegar helps take of stickers and the sticky residue from them - even bumper stickers.
10. You should always use vinegar to clean the inside of your fridge as it also deodorizes it.
11. Run a mix of vinegar and water through your coffee maker (use a filter) to clean it out!
12. Apple cider vinegar is a great way to get rid of bugs - like those pesky little fruit flies and gnats. They love it. Put some in a shallow bowl and they'll fly right in and drown!
13. Use vinegar to clean in the bathroom, it even cleans and deodorizes the toilet bowl.
14. Dab a little onto bug bites to stop the itching.
15. Pat vinegar on sunburns to stop the pain - you can even put it onto small cuts as an antiseptic. (who knew?)
16. Clean your hot iron with vinegar to remove burned on grime.
17. Did you know that you can spray your dogs and horses coat with vinegar and brush to make them shine?
18. I didn't know this and its a new trick I just learned. But you can actually kill fleas if you add just a tad of vinegar to your dog's drinking water!
19. Of course everyone knows that you can soak and wash your fruits and vegetables with vinegar and water! 
20. I've updated to add this one! Use vinegar in the "rinse agent" dispenser inside your dishwasher! A friend turned me onto this recently. I tried it and my silverware is SO SHINY! I'm hooked! I will never buy rinse agents again!

I'll probably add more later...there are literally thousands more!