As I mentioned previously, I recently purchased a small, self-published, hand-written and illustration book called Make Your Place by Raleigh Briggs. . It's small, inexpensive and one of the best purchases I've ever made. If you are ANY type of DIY-er, order this little piece of wisdom.
The middle of the book is full of recipes for homemade cleaning solutions. The reason I am putting this up is two-fold.
1 - I am not a germaphobe. I am so strongly against bombing your home with chemicals that destroy germs and bacteria that I can't express it enough. If you are bombing your home with cleaning products like bleach and extra-strength anything, you are killing bacteria that is vital to the success of your immune system. You NEED exposure to some germs in order to be able to avoid becoming sick! The killing of germs is not what prevents viruses. Your immunity to the germs IS, and you cannot become immune unless you've been exposed to protective bacteria and germs in small amounts. (Also take your Vitamin C!)
2 - Cleaning products are FREAKING EXPENSIVE. Alex and I regularly live on $50 per week for groceries. But if we have to add ANY kind of cleaning products - window spray, floor cleaner, dish detergent, laundry detergent, bathroom cleaner - our budget immediately jumps $20 or more. Bathrooms cleaners run on average $4-6 per bottle. Glass cleaner is $3. Add an additional dollar to those prices if you choose to purchase the 'green' cleanings products, which I promise you, are a scam.
On the other hand, you can get a box of baking soda for .75, a bottle of white vingar for $1.29 and a bottle of lemon juice for $1.99 at the local grocery store - all store brands too, of course - and clean ALMOST every room in your house for a month. You do the math my friends. And guess what green living fans? It's ALL NATURAL - a gift from Mother Earth herself.
Today I decided that I've had it with my kitchen sink. Since we have moved into our house I have been unhappy with it and have always had it in the back of my head to replace it someday. The bottom of the sink has always been stained a nasty dark brown. Sometimes it looks better with a good scrubbing but most of the time my usual cleaning products have no effect on it's filthy evils.
I wish I had thought to take before and after pictures my friends. It would have been a genius of an idea because that sink is now almost it's actual color of 'almond' porcelain. I couldn't believe it! Now, I had to SCRUB. I'm talking about serious elbow grease here. But it actually worked better than what I normally use - which is usually Soft Scrub or Scrubbing Bubbles. But I took this idea onward to our equally filthy stove.
As you have already read, yesterday I had a rather unfortunate mishap with my first attempt to make strawberry jam. My stovetop was coated with sticky scorched fruit. Although it took 5 times longer than it should have (because I had to wear rubber gloves, which cause my hands and arms to break out in a rash due to my latex allergy so I kept stopping every 5 minutes to remove the gloves and rinse my hands before continuing), I did eventually get all the goo and burned on crap off of my stove top! So, feeling pleased with myself, I might just go ahead and scrub down the rest of the kitchen. That will please my hubbers when he gets home.
One thing I will say about myself - I don't ever just sit around at home watching soaps and snacking all day. Even useless experimentation has a purpose in my daily routine.
The recipe for today's cleaning experiments goes as follows:
Make a concoction of equal parts of vinegar, lemon juice and water and put it in a spray bottle.
Sprinkle baking soda over ever attainable filthy surface.
Spritz and spray the vinegar solution alllllll over the baking soda.
SCRUB!!!
And may you have as much success and be just as happy with the outcomes as I am!
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