Homemade Cleaners and The Gang

Hi everyone!  Well... I'll admit it... I'm addicted to making my own cleaners.  I have found wonderful resources online which I will link to as I speak about them.  None of these were my original idea so no one go off thinking I'm a genius or something.  I am enjoying the homemade laundry soap and hand soap so much that I thought I'd try dishwasher soap too.  I've been using Trader Joe's "environmentally friendly" powder for a while.  I like it a lot... but I think it's pretty close to what I just made tonight using almost the same ingredients that I used with the laundry detergent... so if you have the stuff.. you might as well make this too!

Mine is in the bowl, Trader Joe's is in my palm.  I looked at the ingredients and they seem almost identical.  So.. Here goes!

Dishwasher Detergent

1 C borax
1 C washing soda (NOT baking soda)
1/2 C citric acid (I bought mine at Whole Foods today, but you can apparently find it at breweries or specialty beer stores... hum)
1/2 C kosher salt
1 tsp dry rice (to help prevent clumping and no, it won't hurt your dishwasher)

you put 1 Tablespoon per load and put white vinegar in the rinse compartment.  There ya go!  I have not tried this yet...but will give a full report when I do.  If you'd like to read more, this is where I got the idea in the first place:  http://www.diynatural.com/simple-effective-jabs-homemade-dishwasher-detergent-rinse-agent/

Homemade Windex


1/8 C white ammonia
1/4 C Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol
1 drop laundry detergent
water to fill spray bottle up

*I made this and tried it today and it is just like Windex.  Isn't it amazing how much we pay for water??  This cost me nothing because I already had all the ingredients.  If you'd like to read more, here's where I got this: http://fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com/

Fake Febreeze


1/8 C your fav fabric softener
2 T baking soda
hot tap water to fill spray bottle

I got this again from this site: http://fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com/  I have not made this yet because mysteriously I found a bottle of febreeze with a little bit left in.  I'm going to use that up and then fill it with the fake febreeze.  I put the febreeze beside the diaper trash so when the stench demons come out I can attack!!

Today is my Ben's birthday.  What do you do on your birthday?  My hard working husband takes off of work to mow the grass, go on errands with me, consoles me when my $10 extra care bucks won't work at CVS and sorts the whole mess out, and takes us to the pool only to discover it is closing in 30 minutes.  That's just the kind of guy he is.  I couldn't ask for a better husband, friend and father.  Is it sad that he didn't get a cake?  I am now on the healthy eating starvation of sweets diet now, so I couldn't be trusted to bake anything at this point.  Here are some pictures of the kids watching their daddy.  They adore him and so do I.