#43 - Make Cleaning Supplies

I remember reading years ago about making your own cleaning supplies out of natural, easily available ingredients in Real Simple. I remember thinking, I should try that. And then I didn't. I put it on my list for years. And still didn't.

But this year, I did! I used the Google to find a blog called Keeper of the Home. I had to scroll through quite a few recipes. Most called for essential oils. In December, I had purchased a bunch of essential oils to make bath bombs and then my cat Mox got really, really sick, some kind of reaction to something. It could have been a lot of things: the kitten's food, my new laundry detergent, etc. I never figured it out. But right around then, there were stories floating around about essential oils making pets sick. And maybe they don't but it just seems like a lot to chance when I actually don't need essential oils.

Considering most recipes I found call for essential oils, I will likely rely more on earth-friendly, store-bought cleaners, but I did find a few without oils.

To start, I tried a drain cleaner that is just baking soda and white vinegar, both things I already had in my house. I was excited to try this one as recently at work someone made a comment about how once you buy your own house, you don't use certain types of drain cleaners anymore. Apparently some drain cleaners are so corrosive, they leave toxic build up and can harm your pipes.

This drain cleaner recipe was so simple. Put 1/4 cup of baking soda in the drain and pour in 1/4 cup of white vinegar after it. Wait about an hour and then pour boiling water down. (A lot of the recipes I saw have you leave the ingredients on for awhile, so the trade off seems to just be having some patience and time).

I used this on both drains of my kitchen sink. So far, it seems to have worked. The blog did say that if there's a lot of build up, it may take a couple rounds but if used regularly, it will only take once.

I'll add updates if anything exciting happens... with my drains... as I know you all are DYING to know.

The pics in this post were a bit boring, so here's JJ, my accidental kitten.

Update: I also did a very simple white vinegar application to clean my shower head. Game changer. I just filled a baggie with white vinegar and used a rubber band to keep the shower head immersed for 2 hours. I removed it, let the water run a little, and flow was much improved after all the gunk had been cleaned off.