More Homemade Household Cleaners

So we've talked about Homemade Laundry Soap and Making Your Own Foam Soap, so I thought I'd mention a few other cheap and easy ways to make your own household cleaners.

For mirrors and windows, I use the following:

1 cup rubbing alcohol

1 cup water

1 T vinegar

Mix ingredients into empty spray bottle.

That's it.

And I really like it. It doesn't streak and it cleans really well. Rubbing alcohol is a great sterilizer and vinegar disinfects and deodorizes as well as removed mildew and grease.

Speaking of grease, one great way to clean greasy areas of your home, like a stove top, is by using 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup vinegar. The soda not only deodorizes, but it works as a mild abrasive that helps when scrubbing a surface without scratching. This combination will leave a white residue, but can be wiped off with a damp cloth.

One more: Wood Polish!

Mix 1/4 cup lemon juice and a few drops of olive oil.

Apply onto wood with soft cloth.

Love using this on my piano. It makes it shine and it smells yummy too!

For more information and recipes, click HERE to see my handout.

72-hour kit: Clothing

As far as clothing goes this is what I recommend for EACH family member:

1 shirt
1 pair of jeans (I use old, holey ones)
1 pair socks
1 pair of underwear (or 12-16 diapers for baby...and don't forget wipes!)
1 sweater
1 pair shoes

You can get clothing from your local thrift store. I save ALL my boys' clothes, so most of the stuff is used from their older brother. For my daughter, I have some pajamas that are the size bigger than she is currently in.

In the image above, I had all the clothing in a large, rolling suitcase. Since I took that photo, I have made separate kits for each member of the family. Do what works for you.

I also have a set of clothing in the car for each of my children, as well as a bunch of diapers and wipes. There have been MANY times that I have needed a new pair of underwear and pants for one of my kids who got in mud or had an accident while at a friend's house or even out doing errands.


While you're thinking of clothing for you 72-hour kits, you may want to consider the following items as well:

Ponchos
Blankets
Work gloves
Hats

This is Step 3 on the PLAN 9 pamphlet put together by the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.

Previous Steps...
Step 2: Food
Step 1: Water

Homemade laundry soap

For the last TWO years, I have not bought laundry soap. I make my own. It is easy, it's fun (in a nerdy way) and it's CHEAP!

Here's the "recipe" I use:

 

 

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated       

1/2 to 1 cup washing soda*            

1/2 to 1 cup Borax

5 gallons water

5 gallon bucket and lid

 

Boil 4 cups water. Turn to medium heat. Add grated soap til all soap is melted. In the meantime, fill 5 gallon bucket half full with hot tap water.

 

 

Add washing soda and Borax to water. When soap mixture is melted, add to water as well.

Fill rest of bucket with hot tap water and let sit for 24 hours, covered, before using.

 

 

Use 1/2 cup- 1 cup of soap for a regular load of laundry.

*Washing soda and baking soda are different, but baking soda is cheaper. To convert baking soda into washing soda, bake baking soda at 250 degrees for 1 hour.

 

 

EASY, right???

Here's some more info and photos...

 

Fels Naptha is a bar of soap that can be found with the stain removers.

Borax is a natural cleaner that can also be found at the store with the stain removers.

 

Grated Fels Naptha (looks like cheese!) and box of Borax.

4 cups water with grated soap...

 

 

 Baking soda turning into washing soda....

TA DA!

 

 

 

 

You can use the soap straight from the bucket, you funnel it into old liquid detergent bottle.

 

Some recipes say to dilute the mixture with water and then use it. I just use a little less of the undiluted soap.

 

For normal cleaning, I use about 1/2 cup of soap for a load. For rags or other dirtier loads, I use from 1 cup to 1  1/2 cups of soap.

I do A LOT of laundry, at least 10 loads a week, and a 5 gallon bucket of soap lasts me about 3 months. I figured that without the initial cost of the bucket and lid, spend $12 a year on laundry soap.

 

FOR REAL!

And I really like it.

I have had several friends try it and they don't like that there is no scent to it. I just use nice smelling drying sheets and that's enough for me.

3-month supply: Cleaning supplies

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

 

Let's talk about a 3-month supply of CLEANING SUPPLIES!!

 

OK, first of all...why store extra cleaning supplies? If you remember my post from earlier this year titled, "Why I Prepare," you'll have the answers.

 

Here's a summary. With food, hygiene products, cleaning supplies, etc., it is always CONVENIENT to have extras on hand. Even someone who plans ahead might reach for the window cleaner and find that it's almost gone. I don't know about you, but I don't go to the store for ONE product. I try to wait until I absolutely HAVE to go. But because I have extras on hand, most of the time that works out for me.

 

Also, you cannot plan for a natural disaster or economic hardship to come along. If you stock up on cleaners that you use most commonly and have a month of unexpected expenses, you may not have to worry about spending precious resources on a box of laundry soap.

 

A personal example with convenience as well as something unexpected: A while back, our church building was vandalized. There was paint and other things all over the walls in the hallway as well as in many of the rooms. The damage was pretty extensive. Several members of our church were asked or volunteered to go in and do some initial cleaning before the professionals came in to clean, repair and replace. With little kids at home, I wasn't able to help, but a friend who was helping there called and asked if I happened to have any if those cleaning pads that "erase" marks on walls. I had 3 or 4 from a box I had purchased on Amazon, so I was able to contribute those to the clean-up effort. It wasn't inconvenient for me to give my extras away and no one had to run to the store to grab some.

 

In addition, if you watch sales, you can purchase several of one product at a lower cost than going out and buying the product every month.

 

So WHAT kind of products should you store?? Every household will be different, depending on the preferences of those doing the cleaning. Here's my list:

 

Laundry soap*

Stain removers, dryer sheets, and other laundry items

Glass cleaner*

All-purpose cleaner

Toilet bowl cleaner

Disinfectant wipes

Dish soap

Dishwasher detergent

Bleach

Vinegar

Rubbing Alcohol

 

*You may want to make your own cleaners, so you would need to store the products necessary to make them. I will post more about homemade cleaners soon.

 

Once you have determined WHAT you want to store, you can decided HOW MUCH of each items to store. The best way to get started is to simply have ONE extra of each item. From there, you may find that you need more than that for a 3-month time period.

 

Remember, keep it simple! Do what works for you.

 

Making your own foam soap

About a year ago, I started feeling annoyed at the amount of hand soap our family was using. With 3 young boys using the bathroom, it seemed like I was always refilling the soap dispensers or cleaning up little mounds of dried soap.

On top of that, at Wal-Mart, the generic brand, Equate, has gone from a 64-oz bottle to a 44-oz bottle for the same price.

So I looked around online and I found that you can make your own foam soap with regular hand soap and I decided to give it a try.

The verdict: I'm hooked! In over a year I have gone through only TWO 44-oz bottles of liquid hand soap.

Here's what you need:

Foam soap dispenser

Liquid hand soap

Water

Here's what you do:

Mix ONE part liquid hand soap with FOUR parts water. Ta da!

 

Here I am, pouring some soap into an empty bottle.

 

 

 

Adding water. You may need to shake it a bit as well.

 

 

And that's it. As long as you have a foam soap dispenser (which they sell for less that $2 each in the same area as the hand soap) you are set!

 

 

 

Here is the current dispenser in my bathroom.

There are only TWO draw backs that I have found. One is that the dispenses don't work for more than 6 or 8 months. I just recently bought new ones to replace the first ones I purchased. Even with this, I think that the savings MORE THAN out ways having to replace the soap dispenser once or twice a year.

The other draw back is that you have to make sure your family scrubs there hands together a bit before putting them under the water because the foam soap is so much lighter than straight hand soap. This has worked out fine for us, but is something to consider.

 

Please note: I am not endorsing the Equate brand...I am just cheap and that is the cheapest brand at Wal-Mart currently.

72-hour kit: Food

It's been a whole year since we talked about 72-hour kit food. And sadly, I did not follow my own advice this year and rotate the food every 4-6 months. And I learned my lesson.

 

I don't like to waste food. At all! In fact, even though I love trying new recipes, but I don't like to try stuff if I haven't tasted it. Probably silly, but I just don't want to waste any food.

Well, Saturday my husband and kids helped me over-haul our 72-hour kits. The kids were excited to be able to eat some of the food, but unfortunately several things were NOT worth eating. I guess if we had been in a real emergency we might have eaten it. Maybe. But I learned that I would rather have things in my 72-hour kits that my kids would be excited about eating. Would I really want to cause myself and my kids more stress by forcing them to eat some nasty protein bar when we are in the middle of a stressful situation? Or would it be better to have some snacks that they are familiar with?

 

So, I removed the protein bars and added 2 granola bars. I also put two packs of crackers instead of just one. Raisins don't stay soft long, so they aren't really worth it unless you rotate your food once a month. And I still haven't added jerky or other dried meat. I really need to add that, at least to my husband's pack.

 



Here's my oldest eating some of the spoils of last year's kit.

They mainly ate the hard fruit snacks. Haha.

 

Here's my new 72-hour kit food

minus the fruit snacks that didn't make it in the photo.

 

Here's a list of what I have:

 

1 Mylar pouch tuna



1 tuna snack pack

2 packets of Kool-Aid for water bottles

2 packages of Ramen Noodle

2 packs of instant oatmeal

2 granola bars

2 peanut butter cracker snacks

a few hard candies

2 spoons

1-2 fruit snacks (not pictured)

Again, I stored eat kit in gallon-sized freezer bags.

And this time, I wrote down in my planner to switch the food out in April. My kids are already excited about eating their food.

In April, I plan on adding a little more food to the kits for my husband, myself and my older kids.

Remember, not matter what you have, have something. Something is better than nothing. Also, keep it LIGHT.

3-month supply: Toiletries

Let's talk about building a 3-month supply of toiletries!!

First of all, what in the world is a toiletry??? A toiletry is any product used for grooming and personal hygiene. This includes the following:

Hand soap

Toilet paper

Facial tissue

Toothbrushes

Toothpaste

Body wash

Shampoo

Conditioner

Deodorant and Anti-Perspirant

Feminine products

Hair spray, gel, and other hair products

Make-up

Lotion

And so on...

Also, the following are important items to store, even though we may not think of them immediately when thinking of toiletries:

 

Diapers

Wipes

Medicine (including over-the-counter and prescription)

 

Some toiletries are more important than others. For example, it is more important to have a storage of hand soap before you stock-up on eye liner. Similarly, feminine products are much more important than hair spray.

That being said, the first thing to do is make a list starting with the most important items. (The list above is roughly in order of what I feel is most important.

Next you need to decide how much you want to store. Here's my list and amounts for my 3-month supply:

Hand soap- One bar of soap per person AND one 48-64 oz. container of liquid hand soap.

Toilet paper- 90 rolls (one per day). 

Facial tissue- One box per person.

Toothbrushes- One extra per person. (I count my 72-hour kit toothbrushes for this.)

Toothpaste- One tube per person. (Again, these are in my 72-hour kits.)

Body wash- One extra bottle per person.

Shampoo- 1/2 bottle per person.

Conditioner- 1/2 bottle per person.

Deodorant and Anti-Perspirant- 2 for each adult.

Feminine products- 100 count of your product of choice.

Hair spray- One extra.

Gel- 3 bottles.

Make-up- One extra of most used items.

Lotion- One large bottle or several small ones.

Diapers- The number of diapers you use usually gets a little smaller as your child gets older. If you are honestly wanting a 3-month supply, you will want to store about 360 diapers for toddlers and about 500 diapers for infants. These numbers are even a little high for me. Maybe just having two extra packs or boxes on hand would be a good start. Because of size issues, you won't want to store just one size.

Wipes- One extra box (about 10 packs) is good. My goal is to have 3 boxes on hand soon. (I will have two in diapers for a while.)

Medicine- In my 72-hour kits, I try to always have one, unopened adult Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen  as well as one of each of these for children. If you have an infant, you may want to store an extra one of each of these as well. Although these are in my 72-hour kit, they will last me for several months if I can't get to the store so they work for my 3-month supply as well. As far as presciption meds, I only have about a week's worth in my 72-hour kit. Depending on your needs, you may be able to get an extra presciption or two to have extra on hand.

Many of these products are generally low priced at a place like Wal-Mart or Costco and Sam's Club, but there are a few that you can watch for deals on Amazon or at your local grocery stores. Smith's will often have deals on toothbrushes and toothpaste. Amazon sometimes sells large amounts of toilet paper and facial tissues for good prices.

Here's a price list:

Hand soap- Bar- $.13/oz or about $.50 per bar. Liquid- abt $.70/oz.

Toilet paper- Around $.20 per single roll.

Facial tissue- $.50- $1 per box.

Toothbrushes- Less than $2 per brush.

Toothpaste- Abt $.20/oz or about $1 a tube.

Body wash- $.10-.15 per oz.

Shampoo & Conditioner- Abt $.05/oz or less than $1 for a small bottle.

         (Suave and VO5 go on sale at my local grocery store about once a year.)

Deodorant and Anti-Perspirant- From $2-4 per bar, depending on brand.

Feminine products- From about $.15-.20 per item.

Hair spray- From $.15-.20 per oz.

Gel- Abt $1 per bottle. (My husband actually like the brand from the dollar store.)

Diapers & Wipes- See THIS post.

Medicines- prices vary.