Three Easy DIY Cleaning Products

If you had told seventeen year old (or even twenty-two year old) me that one day I would be making my own cleaning products, I would have thrown a bar of Fels Naptha soap right in your face. Well, I would have if I had known what it was.

The desire to save some dollars and the desire to clean my home as safely and naturally as possible has driven me to pursue the making of home-made cleaning products. I thought I’d share my favorite three with you. The prep time is minimal, though you do have to suffer through some delayed gratification.

First, possibly my favorite Pinterest find in the whole world of cleaning related pins – The Orange Vinegar all purpose cleaner. There are many websites online that give the recipe, and it’s terribly easy. Get a jar. Over time, fill the jar with citrus peels. As you fill the jar with peels, add vinegar to cover them.

Once the jar is filled, stick it on a shelf and let it sit for four to six weeks. The longer you wait, the more syrup like and orange smelling it will become. Mix two parts water to one part vinegar orange mixture and you will be impressed with yourself and your new found home made cleaner! I pretty much use it for everything. In addition to this jar, I have one other this size and three other smaller ones in the works. I LOVE IT.

Next is laundry detergent. I won’t lie and tell you that I don’t miss the wonderful smell of our former laundry detergent. This guy doesn’t have a lot of smell (although you can make it if you want to), but it gets the job done! We use this recipe but we leave out the OxiClean and the Purex Crystals (which are for scent). The most time consuming bit for this cleaner is grating the Fels Naptha soap. We have a food processor, I just don’t want to use it, since the Fels Naptha is so strong a soap. So, I grate! And by “I” I mean I did it as far as this right here and then made Micah do it because grating is exhausting to me.

We mix all the ingredients in a big tupperware tub and call it a day! The last time we made a batch was about six months ago, so this stuff is worth the effort for what you get!

I think my favorite thing is that the Fels Naptha looks like cheese. I don’t know why but it makes me happy.

The last cleaner, is dish washing tablets! Now, I’m going to tell the truth. I haven’t actually used these yet. If it ends up not going well, I’ll let you know but I have a good sense that Jillee knows what she’s talking about. It took all of ten minutes to whip these guys up. Tomorrow they will harden in the sun and then we’ll give them a try!

So, those are my favorite make them yourself and feel awesome cleaning products! If I spend too much time looking at all the things I could make myself – sunscreen! Lip balm! Shampooooooooo!!!! – I kind of start to lose my mind. So, right now I’m going to stick with these cleaning products. And probably sunscreen. That’s my next venture.