Witchy Green Cleaning – All purpose Cleaner

All-Purpose Cleaner Ingredients

This is the third post in my Witchy Green Cleaning series; click here for information on a simple bathroom cleaner and here for information on two simple window and glass cleaners. I am testing all of these products in my own home before I post about them here.

Today I am writing about an all purpose cleaner. This recipe is a little more involved but worth the extra effort.

For a 1 gallon container you’ll need the following:

3 teaspoons of liquid Castile Soap (I found this at Target in the bath soap aisle)

2 tablespoons Borax

2 tablespoons Washing Soda

2 Cups white vinegar

12 cups of hot water

Gallon jug - I bought a gallon of drinking water at Walmart so I would have a clean gallon jug to store this in.

Directions:

Mix the Castile soap, Borax, washing soda and vinegar in a large bowl. Slowly add the water and stir Allow the mixture to cool. Using a funnel, pour the mixture into a gallon jug.

You can add essential oil to this mixture as well. I chose to only add it to the mix once I poured a portion into a spray bottle for use. This allows me to change up the scent and purpose multiple times without having to make lots of mix.  This all purpose cleaner is also disinfects so you can use it just like you would Formula 409 or similar products.

Cost Breakdown:

3 tsp Liquid Castile Soap = .33

2 Tablespoons Borax = .05

2 Tablespoons Washing Soda = .06

3 Cups White Vinegar = .48

12 Cups Hot Water = .17 (from my purchased gallon jug)

Total 1.09

Cost per ounce = .008 – yes that is less than a penny per ounce!

Comparison

Formula 409 is roughly .18 per ounce. That is a huge savings and the homemade product is environmentally friendly, easy to make and safe to use.

My total initial cost for all of the ingredients that I am using for ALL of the cleaning products I am making was less that $40. It you are just starting out I recommend White Vinegar and Dawn Dishwashing Liquid! Those two will give you plenty of cleaning power for the money! The two most expensive items initially are the liquid Castile Soap and the Vegetable Glycerin which is used as a preservative in the scouring powder I’ll be talking about in my next Witchy Green Cleaning post. While their initial cost is higher than the other ingredients, the amount you use is so minute they will last you a very long time!

Witchy Add-Ins:

With an all purpose cleaner you have so many ways to use it that the essential oils you can use are pretty endless.

Once the weather warms up and the chance for freezing is past I plan on making a small batch to clean the interior of my car and just keep it in there. I’ll be putting in Oregano Essential oil for its protection, happiness and tranquility properties – there are some days when I am driving home in rush hour traffic that some tranquility would be welcome! As you experiment with adding essential oils to your cleaning products always make sure they are safe for skin contact and long term use.

Some other essential oil ideas:

For All-Purpose

Oregano – Happiness, protection and tranquility

Rosemary – Purification, protection and alertness

Peppermint - Rid areas of negativity, create change

Bedroom:

Lavender– lavender is great for love, protection, happiness and peace

Peppermint – this is also great for sleep, love and healing

Patchouli – this one is great when you want to spice it up - properties: sexuality, power and passion

Bathroom:

Grapefruit – to increase energy, this is especially nice to use to clean the shower during the long winter months!

Lavender - peace and emotional tranquility

Car:

Oregano – protection, happiness & tranquility

As you can see from the list above, it is worth making a large batch and putting it into smaller spray bottles so you can personalize the scent or you can just use the base recipe as a fantastic cleaning product!

Next up: A Green Soft Scouring Powder Alternative

*Note* I found this recipe on Cajun Joie de Vivre: http://amybayliss.com/. For my witchy readers please note that her Christian views are very much a part of her blog and could be quite contradictory to your own views, however, we are all entitled to our beliefs and her site is a wonderful resource for anyone looking for natural cleaning ideas.

Witchy Green Window and Glass Cleaner

This is the second post in my Witchy Green Cleaning series. Click here to see the first post on a simple bathroom cleaner. For this post I experimented with two green window and mirror cleaners.  Both are simple to make and the ingredients are very similar.

Window & Mirror Cleaner 1

This recipe was listed on the Being Frugal website: www.beingfrugal.net

·         2 Cups Water

·         ¼ C. Vinegar

·         ½ tsp. Original Formula Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

Add all ingredients to a spray bottle. Gently shake to mix.

Window & Mirror Cleaner 2

The second recipe is super simple, very similar to the one above and was found on the Daily Green Website: www.thedailygreen.com

·         2 Tablespoons White Vinegar

·         1 Gallon Water

Mix and pour into a spray bottle.

With both formulas you spray the mixture onto your window or mirror and then wipe clean with newsprint, not paper towels since paper towels tend to cause streaking.

My results: Both cleaners worked beautifully. The mirrors were sparkling clean and were streak free.

After the first use I decided to add a tiny bit of essential oil to the second formula. The reason I chose to experiment with this particular formula was because it did not contain the Dawn Dishwashing Liquid and I am pretty confident that if the oil does not leave a file with this formula it will also be fine in the first formula.

Since this product is for windows as well as mirrors I chose to add Bergamot oil for its protection, prosperity and luck properties. I added 10 drops to the 25 oz. spray bottle of my solution.

My results were fantastic. No residue, no smearing and no streaking.

Cost:

Formula 1

2 Cups. Water = .12

¼ C. Vinegar = .04

½ Teaspoon Dawn Dishwashing Liquid = .01

Total:  $.17 per 18 oz batch roughly .01 per ounce

Formula 2

2 Tablespoons Vinegar = .02

1 Gallon Water = .88 (cost for 1 gallon of bottle water at Walmart)

Total= .90 which breaks down to .007 or less than 1 penny per ounce!

Cost Comparison

Windex = $3.49 for 20 oz = .18 per ounce

While saving money is awesome, the fact that I can whip up a batch from ingredients I almost always have on hand, in less than a minute, can personalize the scent to suit my taste and can add some additional magical mojo to my cleaning is exactly what I needed. One more safe cleaning alternative for my home. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to do this. Seriously!

Next up an all purpose cleaner, this one is a bit more involved ingredient wise but it is very versatile, still a green choice, inexpensive to make and again, I can add some extra oomph to it!

Time for a Witchy Green Cleaning Change

     

As the year begins I always feel like cleaning, well, pretty much everything! I really like to start the calendar year off with a deeply cleaned house but over the holidays(the day before Thanksgiving) I managed to do some serious damage to my hands because I forgot to wear gloves while cleaning my oven(yes I acknowledge that it was my own fault)! It has taken almost 6 weeks for my hands to be almost healed.  After that horrible experience I decided to make the switch to green products that are economical, easy for me to make at home and safe to use around my family, my pets and in my house.  Above is a picture of some of the ingredients I will be talking about over the next couple of weeks as I make the switch from chemical cleaners to homemade. 

The first recipe I choose to try was for a Bathroom cleaner that I saw on the www.beingfrugal.net site.

This bathroom cleaner is an easy one to make. You’ll need the following
Spray Bottle
½ Cup Original formula Dawn Dishwashing Liquid and

      Vinegar (I used white vinegar, it is easy to find and very inexpensive)

Pour the Dawn Dishwashing liquid into the spray bottle and then fill the rest of the way with white vinegar. Gently shake to mix and you are ready to go. Like I said – easy peasy!

Cost for this batch (Based on the prices at my local Walmart and Lowe’s stores) –

½ cup of Dawn =  .24

18 oz of Vinegar =  .36

22 oz Spray Bottle = $2.28 at Lowes

Total Initial Cost = $2.88 (cost decreases each time you refill since you don’t have to purchase a new spray bottle)

Cost for the cleaner comes out to about .03 per ounce (I did not include the cost of the bottle in the per ounce cost because it is reusable and not part of the actual cleaning recipe). Formula 409 is roughly .18 per ounce

A great money saver and making this product is easy on the environment and on me!

The first time I used this I was thrilled. It did an excellent job cleaning the tub, toilet and counter tops - in the bathroom my boys use – ‘nuf said! It was also easy to make and did not of require tons of scrubbing. There was a very strong vinegar odor at first but that only lasted about 10 minutes. Once the tub was dry the vinegar smell was gone. After that first use I added 25 drops of essential oil to my bottle of cleaner. The result, the vinegary smell dissipated much quicker and there was a very light, lingering fragrance of my choosing, over all - I LOVE it!

Another benefit – I did not cough, my eyes did not burn or water and my still healing skin did not get red, cracked or become sore, in fact, after cleaning all three bathrooms in my house I am surprised at how soft my hands are. I will definitely not be going back to chemical cleaners. 

Now, for the Witchy add-ins…

The fun thing about making your own cleaning products is that, as a witch, you can add a little bit more oomph to the recipe just by the essential oil you decide to add. Of course you want to make sure it has a scent you like as well as a purpose that is compatible with what you are using it for.

A couple of ideas:

Add 20 -30 drops of peppermint oil to clear a room of negativity. This will also help get rid of the tendency to procrastinate and during the holidays it smells very festive.

Add 20 -30 drops of Lavender Oil to balance and calm an area, this is great for bedroom windowsills (mine are tile) and bathrooms, imagine taking a nice warm bath in a room that has been cleaned with a lavender charged cleaner!

Add 20 -30 drops of Sage Oil for overall purification and cleansing, this is a great way to purify spaces between uses of your sage smudge stick!

The variations are limitless! I love working with oils so this was an added benefit to making my own cleaning products. I chose to add Clovebud Oil to my cleaner due to its purification properties, ability to drive away negative forces as well as its tendency to invite abundance. It also has a smell that I find very pleasing!  

What I noticed about adding the essential oil was that there was no oily residue, only a very light scent of the oil that I added. I would imagine that this is due to the small amount of oil used, the fact that I used essential oil AND the fact that it is combined with a really nice grease cutter in the Dawn dishwashing liquid.

One thing to add, vinegar has been proven in many scientific studies to be an effective disinfectant.  Here are some of the sites I visited while researching green cleaners which discuss the effectiveness of vinegar.

http://www.rodale.com/natural-disinfectant

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/12/26/48hours/main259812.shtml

http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2012/02/02/3407024.htm

Coming Up Next:

A  Witchy Green window and glass cleaner