1.) All Natural
2.) Cheap
3.) Effective (as in, they work!)
Dish Soap was something I hadn't tried yet- it just seemed complicated to make anything "liquid", so up until now I have been buying Seventh Generation Dish Soap, which unfortunately comes in a plastic squeeze bottle.
I have been reading a lot of one of my new favorite websites, Trash Backwards, and found they had a list of 100 Things you Never Need to Buy (be still my beating heart). Lists like that get me excited. I love not buying! One of the things on there was dish soap, and the recipe was ridiculously easy : baking soda and essential oil ( I used a few drops of lavender). Baking soda comes in a cardboard box, and essential oil in a glass vile, so we have plastic-free dish soap!
I was skeptical, I didn't think it would work. My husband even said, "If baking soda cleans dishes, why are people spending all this money on dish soap?" to that my response was, "marketing?".
I didn't even have to nail holes into a jar lid as she recommended, because I had an old glass paremsan container just waiting to become a dish soap container.
The verdict? Holy guacamole! This stuff works! Even I was surprised, with a sprinkling of this and a scrub brush my oatmeal pot (pictured at left) was clean! An you know what it's like to scrub gummy oatmeal...
That just made my day. I love finding cheap, natural cleaning recipes that work : )
Do you make your own cleaning products? Would you try this?
This is marvelous. What were the costs of these items and how long might they last compared to a bottle of dish soap? I love that the plastic container can be so easily ditched! Well done, Katie!!
ReplyDeleteHi! The baking soda is cheap. You can get a box for about $5 that I think would last at least a month (or more it's hard to tell, because I use baking soda for everything. Even baking ;). The essential oils are more expensive ($8 a bottle?) but they last forever because you only use a few drops.. I have had my bottle of lavender for over a year. So I am going to say less than a dollar/container? I will have to pay attention better!
DeleteI have an old metal sugar shaker of baking soda under the sink. Nothing better for baked on mess. Love it! Still use dish detergent though - I buy it in bulk at the wholefoods shop so just refill the same bottle over and over.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had bulk cleansers. I can't find anywhere to buy bulk cleaning products near me.
DeleteI have tried lots of different homemade dishwasher detergents, but I always seem to get a slimy build up in the dishwasher.
I also refill a container from the bulk store (aka the coop) but it's not as good as the stuff I bought in the plastic bottle at the normal store.
ReplyDeleteI do use bicarb from baked on badless, but I like bubbles for a wash up, so it just won't work for me :p How's that for dodging my green hopes and ambitions?