How to Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies and Save Money

From Everything Finance

How to Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies and Save Money is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!

With everything going on in the world these days, a lot of us are trying to save money wherever we can. But, that only works out well if we don’t have to put an exorbitant amount of time and energy into the process. One of the ways we have found to save money recently is by making some of our own cleaning supplies. Not only do the cleaning products ultimately cost us a lot less, but they require very little work for us to create.

Multisurface Cleaner

One of the first products we attempted to make ourselves was a multisurface cleaner. We just got tired of paying such high prices for what was primarily vinegar. Not only that, but we figured we didn’t need to purchase a separate glass cleaner if we could make a product that worked for both hard surfaces and glass. So we went to work and created a very simple solution.

First things first though. If you have existing cleaning bottles that are empty, I would suggest reusing those before buying anything else. You need to make sure to clean the existing bottles out very thoroughly before putting anything else in them though. But once you have done that, you have a clean receptacle to use for your new cleaning product that you didn’t have to pay anything more for.

If you don’t have an existing spray bottle you can use, then I suggest going to the Dollar Tree to pick up a few. They are only $1 and can last for quite some time because you will be reusing them each time you make the product. Which helps to offset the initial $1 investment.

We use a 28 oz spray bottle that can regularly be found. But if yours is a different size, then adjust the recipe accordingly. Once you have a clean spray bottle to use, all you need is:

• 1 cup White Vinegar (can also be found at the Dollar Tree)
• Essential Oils (Cinnamon Bark, Thyme, Peppermint, Lavender, Lemongrass, Tea Tree, Black Pepper, Oregano, Clove, Orange, Coriander, Copaiba)
• Water

We use about 35 – 40 drops of essential oils per spray bottle. The essential oils listed have antimicrobial properties and are used specifically to kill certain things. We usually put in 5 – 7 different oils, making sure to hit each virus or bacteria. Here is the list of which essential oil works for what:

• E. Coli – Cinnamon Bark, Clove & Thyme
• Influenza – Cinnamon Bark, Coriander, Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Tea Tree & Thyme
• MRSA – Orange
• Pneumonia – Cinnamon Bark, Coriander, Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Tea Tree & Thyme
• Staph – Black Pepper, Cinnamon Bark, Copaiba, Coriander, Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Tea Tree & Thyme
• Strep – Cinnamon Bark, Coriander, Lavender, Lemongrass, Oregano, Peppermint, Tea Tree & Thyme

After you have chosen which essential oils to put in, and how much of each, then add the vinegar to the spray bottle. Swirl the bottle around like a fine wine to help blend everything. Then fill up the remaining part of the bottle with water. Put the spray top on securely and shake gently back and forth to finish blending.

We have been using this concoction for quite some time and have found it extremely useful and so much cheaper than anything else on the market. Plus, it doesn’t have any extra ingredients in it that aren’t needed. It’s just simple and clean.

Foaming Hand Soap

Foaming hand soap was something that we figured out simply due to the sheer cost and waste issue. We were using the fancier hand soap bottles and just refilling the soap. But the kids kept getting it everywhere and were complaining that it didn’t bubble enough.

So, we decided to come up with a solution. We bought some of the foaming hand soap from the Dollar Tree (do you see a theme here?) and put one in each bathroom. Once the soap was out though, that is when we got creative. We purchased one of the bags of hand soap refill for $3. It was supposed to refill 3 hand soap dispensers.

But what we did instead was to wash out each foaming hand soap dispenser. We then added a small amount of the hand soap refill (approximately 1 Tbsp, depending upon how big your foaming hand soap dispenser is) to the dispenser. Turn the water on at a very low speed and slowly fill up the foaming hand soap dispenser the rest of the way. Once it is close to being full, put the top back on and swirl the container around a bit to mix the two.

If you put too much hand soap into the container, you will know because it won’t foam as much as you would like and will be harder to dispense. Sometimes this is trial and error, but ultimately we have saved a ton of money. That one $3 soap refill bag is still going strong and we have had it for almost the entire year.

Dish Soap

Once we figured out how to save a ton of money on hand soap, we figured we would tackle dish soap. After all, with a household size of 7, we do a lot of dishes! The dish soap usually runs between $4 – $5 per bottle and we were going through a bottle approximately every 3 -4 weeks.  So we decided we would try the same tactic with the dish soap as we did with the foaming hand soap.

We purchased one of our regular bottles of dish soap and a foaming hand soap dispenser for $1. We put approximately 1 Tbsp of dish soap in the dispenser and fill the rest of the way with water. Since we are using a foaming soap dispenser, we are already using much less soap. It stretches further every time we squirt the soap out because it is less concentrated, but still just as effective.

Plus, we are only having to replace the full bottle of dish soap every 3 -4 months now, instead of weeks. That is a ton of savings for us!

Making your own cleaning supplies can save you money!
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Ultimately, making your own cleaning supplies can be a great area to help you save money in the long run. Not only are these things used all the time, but the cleaning supplies are also easy to make. Some of my favorite cleaning supplies to make are:

• Multisurface Cleaner
• Foaming Hand Soap
• Dish Soap

If you start with these you will have a great base for other potential cleaning supplies down the line. So you not only get easy to make customized cleaning supplies but save a ton of money also.

What are some of your favorite cleaning supplies to make that helps you save money?

How to Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies and Save Money is a post originally published on: Everything Finance – Everything Finance – Its all about Money!

This post was published on Everything Finance