YNAB You Need A Budget

[malisab]

... of the micro-savings thread.

I'd like to know what tools, products, and procedures people use for cleaning that are both frugal and environmentally friendly. I'm going to mine the Micro-Savings thread and put the existing posts here. As I was doing some kitchen tasks with a sponge this morning, I was reminded when I took DH's head off earlier this week because he used the NEW sponge I had just broken out to clean something really grubby (he did warn me that I probably didn't want to keep that sponge around for dishes). I have a hierarchical sponge arrangement, they move from the sink, to under the kitchen sink, to under the bathroom sink. But I want to get away from sponges at all. The problem is that when I've tried to switch to towels/dishclothes/microfiber clothes, I don't have a good 'system' for rotating in clean ones, where to hold the ones to be washed that are wet and gross, etc.

If I miss any from this thread feel free to drag it over.

I recently hung a towl rod on one side of the sink opposite our paper towel holder. Now my husband is reminded to use the hanging cloth towel to dry his hands instead of grabbing a paper towel. I also don't refill the paper towel when its emptied. Usually it takes him a couple of days to refill the paper towels, and so that's some savings there. Someday maybe I'll be able to convince him that we don't need paper towels at all...

We buy bulk liquid dish soap and hand soap from Sam's and refill our soap dispensers.

I'd love to do away with paper towels as much as possible. I've got a designated hand drying towel and a designated dish drying towel. What I want are suggestions on the administrative end of using something to take the place of paper towels for wiping up stuff.

I just started using my own homemade laundry detergent. Less than $2 and the batch makes 640 loads for my HE front loader. I wash most loads in cold water - only towels & sheets get warm. Laundry is line dried & then fluffed for about 10 minutes on low heat to get rid of the stiffness.

I made my own d/w detergent, but our d/w is so bottom of the line that I was wasting time & water rinsing & scrubbing before I put them in the machine. So, I keep my eye out for deals on Electrasol tabs (my favorite). Just bought an 80ct at BJ's - on sale with BJ's and manufacturer coupon, I paid $5.99 - $.07 per tab. I only need a half tab to get my dishes clean, so it becomes $.03 a load. Love that.

We rarely use paper towels. I bought microfiber cloths about a year ago. We've got about 50 - they make the perfect clean up cloths, wipe the toddler's face cloths, you name it.

Laundry Detergent (Dugger Family recipe):
Makes 10 Gallons
640 1/4 cup loads for front loader (~$.003 per load - yes, I typed that right)
180 5/8 cup loads for top loader ($.011 per load)

4 C hot water
1 bar Fels Naptha or Octagon laundry soap (I found Octagon to be cheaper & bought online - might be able to find either at your local stores)
1 C Arm & Hammer WASHING soda (NOT baking soda!!!!! Can find this in laundry aisle)
1/2 C 20 Mule Team Borax (again, laundry aisle)
5 gallon bucket w/ lid
Empty cleaned out bottle (like juice or laundry detergent)

Grate the soap & put in pot with 4 C hot water. Stir over medium low heat until soap is melted.

Fill bucket halfway with hot water. Add melted soap, washing soda & borax. Mix until powder is dissolved. Fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot water. Stir. Cover & let sit over night to gel.

Next day, it'll be gelled (could be watery, could be thick - just depends, but doesn't matter what it looks like!). Give it a good stir & then fill your empty bottle HALF WAY. Fill the rest of the way with hot water. Cap it & shake it up before each use.

After it is cool, you can add 10-15 drops of essential oils per 2 gallons. (I think I might add some lavender oil that I have on hand.)

I added a small amount of Biz (you could use OxiClean, too) to my load to act as a brightening agent. There are none in the detergent. Detergent you buy at the store has chemicals in it to brighten clothes, etc. Homemade is a great option for those with sensitive skin - a lot of people on the Grocery Game forums who use this & have people with eczema, etc. in their household said it was great. No chemicals, no nothing. I only used it for the first time yesterday and had great results! I even did the whiff test and no sweaty smell in the armpits of shirts!

So you just keep the bucket in the garage or wherever and fill the smaller bottle (1/2 way then fill with water) when necessary, right?

I keep a couple of cups or so of generic detergent diluted with water in the toilet brush holder (need a waterproof one for this) then use the wet brush to swab around the toilet every day - eliminates the need for expensive and caustic toilet bowl cleaners

I was doing this but I didn't feel like it was getting as clean. I broke down and bought some toilet bowl cleaner. Maybe I'll try again with a different soap. I got the idea from Flylady, "Soap is soap". I think I was using either old shampoo or body wash that didn't agree with me. Do you use dish soap?

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Anyone have other cleaning tips (what all do people use vinegar for?) and have suggestions for utilizing towels/cloths?

[dorothyc]

At the moment in the kids bathroom, I'm using some diluted Pine-Sol, and I have also used some diluted floor/general purpose cleaner that I got at the Hispanic market - I think it it's called Lavendoro. For a while, too, I was using diluted Method cleaner because I got a giant refill bottle from Big Lots. I usually dilute all purpose cleaner at about 1 cup to 1 cup of water.

If you just have rings round the water line from limescale, old, flat soda left in the bowl overnight will get those off - Coke, or Pepsi or the like. It works because soda has phosphoric acid in it. Or you could use a fresh can of soda, but that would be less frugal

Vinegar can be sprayed on neat to clean up chrome faucets and mirrors. You may need to let it sit for a few minutes to loosen soap scum. Clogged shower heads can be removed and soaked in a bowl of vinegar overnight to remove limescale. I buy the biggest bottle of white vinegar for cleaning purposes. Slightly off topic, but a teaspoon or so of white vinegar in a cup of milk and left to stand for 5 minutes makes a reasonable substitute for buttermilk for baking.

[lautzu]

malisa,

We put our sponges in the dishwasher when we run it, they last much longer, and we're going to run the d/w anyway, so there's no extra resource use. (BTW, ours go dish sponge -> counter sponge -> floor sponge )

Forgot about that one as a micro-saver!

[MALMomma]

For the 5 gallon bucket, I keep it under our utility sink near our washer. Easy access.

Sponges - you can wet one & zap it in the microwave for a minute to kill anything off.

Dishwasher detergent:
1 C borax
1 C washing soda
1/2 c kosher salt
1/2 c citric acid

(I've stopped using it because our d/w is so bottom of the line that I had to rinse & scrub our dishes BEFORE I put them in. Wasting water & time doing something the detergent & d/w should have been able to do. This IS worth a shot if you have a better machine! Only need about 1tbsp to do the job.)

All-purpose spray:

# Gorgeously Green All-Purpose Spray (I've never used this one - just heard about it from a forum. Supposedly was on Oprah.)
32-ounce plastic spray bottle
# 2 cups water
# 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
# 1 teaspoon pure castile soap (peppermint is a favorite)
# 3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
# 20 drops tea tree oil
# 20 drops of lavender or lemongrass essential oil
Simply fill a large 32-ounce plastic spray bottle with the water. Add the vinegar, castile soap, hydrogen peroxide, tea tree oil and lavender or lemongrass essential oil. Lavender is lovely for the bathroom spray and lemongrass for the kitchen, so make two separate bottles at the same time. In the hot summer months, add about 10 drops of citronella essential oil to the spray, as it is an excellent insect repellent.

“409” - 2tbsp Johnson's Baby Shampoo + 1 qt warm water Can use for windows, mirrors, stove top, etc. etc. (Haven't tried this one yet either)

Glass Cleaner: 16 oz bottle - half vinegar/half water - can add some essential oils to make a nice fragrance

Fabric softener - vinegar!

Microfiber cloths are great! Just remember, when you put them through the wash, do NOT use fabric softener!!

[malisab]

Okay, a couple votes for nuking sponges. I can do that.

And thanks for the other recipes Karen.

I bet people who use towels/cloths more have a laundry/utility room and have an easy spot to keep them in waiting to be laundered. Maybe?

[rollercoaster]

I use towels/cloths/rags for everything. It's nice to have paper towel around for pet vomit or accident, but that is pretty much all I use it for. A roll of paper towels lasts a long time around here.

As far as wet/dirty cloths, I just hang them to dry before I put them in the laundry sorter. Eg: kitchen dish cloths/towels are hung to dry overnight, then switched to clean ones in the morning when I toss the dry into the laundry sorter.

My laundry sorter is just a metal stand with 3 mesh bags on it - it lives in the master bedroom. One for towels, rags, two for clothes. Dirty bedding is just piled on the floor until washed folded, put away. Sometimes I will hang rags I've used to clean the bathroom or floor, etc. over the edge of the rack until they are dry, before I put them in the bag. If you use a laundry hamper, they can just be hung over the edge.

I use vinegar for all types of cleaning. It disinfects, so I use it for toilets, sinks, counters, floors, in my carpet cleaner instead of carpet shampoo...everything.

For smelly drains/garburetor, I pack them as full as possible with baking soda then pour vinegar over and let it fizz. I keep adding more vinegar after each "fizz cycle" until there is no more fizz. Then I rinse with hot water. No more smelly drains.

Vinegar in the wash machine helps get smelly clothes clean. Sometime I've had to wash DH's workout clothes (especially synthetic fabrics) a second time to get the sweat smell out, but if I remember to glug some vinegar in at the start of the cycle, I don't have that problem. Also helps for clothes/towels that have been forgotten in the washer and soured.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll add more later if I think of it.

[jjsouth]

I use diluted vinegar to clean my floors. And I use it in the "Jet Dry" holder in my dishwasher. Lots cheaper than Jet Dry.

I'm definitely excited to try it in my washing machine. I've run it with an empty cycle to clean out the machine, but never with clothes. I've got four smelly boys, so I'm excited to try it!

Dishwasher detergent:
1 C borax
1 C washing soda
1/2 c kosher salt
1/2 c citric acid

I have a question about this. Have you used it in an area with hard water? I have had to be a little particular about what dishwasher detergent I use so that it doesn't leave a bad residue behind and I'm wondering if you have any experience with that? I'm going to be getting the stuff to try my own laundry detergent, so it looks like I'll only need to pick up the salt and citric acid to give it a try, but still thought I'd ask.

Joyce

[MALMomma]

Joyce, yes, I do. I was having some residue on my silverware, but I don't know if I used too much (I was putting 2tbsp in) or if my machine is just cruddy (well, it is, LOL) or if it was because of the hard water. I have heard about a product called Lemi Shine helping with that, but I've not tried it myself.

I actually gave up on the homemade detergent because of my dishwasher and that residue. I figure that if I can score on my beloved Electrasol tabs, then I'm good. Actually, I went to BJ's last week. They carry my Electrasol tabs - an 80 ct normally is $12.99, but it was on sale for $9.99 that week. I had a $3 off BJ's coupon and a $1 off MFR coupon, bringing the price to $5.99. At 80 tabs, that's about 7 cents per load. However, I knew I could cut them in half and still have my dishes come out sparkling clean, so in actuality, it's 3.5 cents per load. And I am VERY fine with paying that!

[jjsouth]

That is a great deal on the tabs. I was using Electrasol powder and having no trouble. Then I bought some Walmart brand (first time in this house with this water) and it was awful! White powder all over the dishes. Yuck. So I got some Lemi Shine and ran it through a couple of times. Since then I've been using Cascade (it was what was on sale) and haven't had any problems. I'll run the Lemi-Shine every now and then just to try to make sure the gunk doesn't build back up, but I'm pretty sure it was from the detergent since we've been in this house for 8 months and only started having trouble when I used the Walmart brand.

Live and learn, I suppose.

I miss BJs. I didn't buy a whole lot of stuff from them, but I liked that they sent me coupons from time to time and would take regular coupons. Sam's just isn't going to do that. Oh well. I get great prices on several things I use all the time from Sam's so I need to stop complaining.

Thanks for letting me know about the residue. Like you, I'll stick to trying to find good deals when I can.

Joyce

[Ambar]

I bet people who use towels/cloths more have a laundry/utility room and have an easy spot to keep them in waiting to be laundered. Maybe?

Well, I do. And I Do Not Like Sponges (I do use green/white scrubbing pads, but not sponges). Clean dish, hand & washcloths go out in the kitchen each night. The dirties go in the hamper if they aren't soggy; if they are they sit in the mop bucket in the laundry room until white laundry load time.

I also have a "rag pile" of ratty towels, etc that live in the cleaning closet (these started out as Cat Towels, from when I showed cats a lot and was bathing and drying them regularly. I love my pets, but sharing towels with them Doesn't Work. ) When Accidents Happen (eg, visiting child throws up on floor), those are used for the mopup. I will either launder immediately or store dirties as above, depending on volume.

[sarahspangles]

I find it difficult to get the ingredients for DIY cleaning products so I've never really tried any.

What I do is minimise the number of different cleaning products. There is always something "new" out. Saying something is specially for bathrooms is just a way for companies to sell "soap" in different ways. As soon as something is advertised, the price goes up to cover the ads. The old-fashioned brands that aren't advertised may look a bit dated but the contents are basically the same. I definitely don't buy the tablets and gels that are sold now, they are more expensive to start with, plus you can't use a lower dose. I always try to halve the recommended amount of any product - it usually works just as well.

I can manage with a grease-cutting detergent for surfaces (baths, kitchen), bleach for sinks and toilets, a furniture polish with beeswax, a laundry soap bar for stains and a window spray with vinegar. I buy do dishwasher powder, rinse aid and and washing powder. The machines seem to be fussy. A lot of dirt responds to biological washing powder made into a paste and left to soak.

If you have fewer products you can fit them in a cleaning trug and dirty cloths go in one compartment. I put them straight in the washing machine so they aren't hanging around and they get washed with whatever goes in next. I can always bleach them white, I do this when I soak the sink and sponges overnight.