Five DIY Homemade Cleaning Products

Cleaning products can cost an absolute fortune and they’re usually not great for the environment either. The majority of us have a kitchen cupboard full of bottles and sprays all with their own individual purpose. But do we actually need so many products? Wouldn’t it be better both for our pockets and for the world we live in if we could create our own products? Well, we can! These five DIY homemade cleaning products are made from simple ingredients that the majority of us already have in our kitchen cupboards. And they do the job just as well as those expensive products on the shelf. So, whether you’re looking to save money or you’re trying to be kinder to the environment, these five DIY homemade cleaning products should help!

Five DIY Homemade Cleaning Products

These five “recipes” for homemade cleaners should save you money – hopefully you’ll find most things you need already in your cupboards.

You may want to think about investing in some spray bottles. You can get even get bottles with colour coded heads so that you can easily remember which mixture is which.

1. Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

If you only get chance to make one cleaner, then this is the one you need to do. An all-purpose cleaner does pretty much what it says on the tin – it can be used to clean pretty much anything.

There are actually loads of ways you can make your own all-purpose cleaner. I’ve included two here so you can rummage through your kitchen cupboards and see what you already have in.

Baking Soda

Making your own all-purpose cleaner with baking soda is really easy. You only actually need two ingredients:

• Baking soda
• Warm water

Depending on the size of the area you’re cleaning you might want to adjust the quantities, but work on the basis of 4 tablespoons of baking soda to one litre of warm water.

White Wine Vinegar

• 500ml warm water
• 1/2 white wine vinegar

Mix together and put into a spray bottle for a really easy-to-use cleaning product.

If you want to make the products smell GORGEOUS – you can add a few drops of an essential oil. Lemon oil makes the whole house smell fresh and works really well.

2. Homemade Glass Cleaner

Cleaning the windows is one of my least favourite jobs. No matter how I do it, they always seem to end up streaky! I’ve tried numerous products from windolene to glass cleaning sprays and I’m yet to find one that does the job properly.

I went through a phase of using vinegar and newspaper and amazingly it did the job pretty well. The windows weren’t completely streak free but they did look better than when I tried with the off-the-shelf products.

More recently, I’ve stumbled upon a secret ingredient that people are simply raving about online – cornflour!

What you’ll need:

• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 2 cups warm water

Put all of the ingredients into a spray bottle and shake well. Then, use in just the same way you would use a shop-bought glass cleaner. It’s good stuff!

3. Homemade Carpet Stain Remover

If you have children or pets, then the chances are that you’re regularly having to deal with carpet stains.

One really simple way to get your carpets clean is to mix a couple of tablespoons of salt in a cup of white vinegar. Scrub the stain, leave to dry and then hoover. It works really well!

4. Homemade Bathroom Cleaner

The bathroom is one area I’m really particular about. Along with the kitchen, it’s one of the main breeding grounds for germs, so it’s an area I feel it’s important to keep on top of.

Mould & mildew can be a real problem in the bathroom, particularly around the bathtub.

This simple mixture works really effectively at shifting soap scum and leaves the bathroom sparkling.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup liquid soap
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together until all lumps are removed and pour into a spray bottle. And then get to work! Spray onto the surface to be cleaned, scrub and rinse well.

5. Homemade kitchen cleaner

This is perhaps the simplest mixture so far, but it’s really effective all the same.

Simply mix together equal quantities of white vinegar and water. Use a spray bottle to spray the surfaces and wipe clean.