Ok just bought white vinegar, borax, bicarb - now what do I do with them!!!???

[theexmrsbarryscott]

After seeing last nights program on Channel 4 with Sarah Beeny (cant remember what it was called), I've just given my chemical household cleaners away and bought white vinegar, borax, bicarb, lemon juice and tea tree oil - has anyone got any 'recipes' to put these together to make kitchen and bathroom cleaners?

Many thanks.

NannyL, just use whatever vinegar you have been able to find. The distilled malt vinegar seems to work ok for me, so far. Mixture of White Wine Vinegar and Distilled Malt Vinegar (had to mix them as didn't have enough of just one type) has worked great at getting limescale off the heating element of my food steamer.
I have also used the mix to make Anthea's Grime Buster - worked well on kitchen worksurface, coffee stains came up very easily.

The only use I have for borax is making slime. Kids love it.

apparently you can get white vinegar from chinese supermarkets, very cheaply - £1.99 for 5 litres, if there are any near you.

summernaturals also sell it but their postage is £7.50 minimum so unless you're buying a lot of other stuff from them it works out quite expensive.

Just to confirm Summer Naturals MAXIMUM postage cost is £7.50, reducing to £6.99 on orders weighing 15kg up to 27kg and not £7.50 minimum as stated above.

So 4 x 5 litres of vinegar would cost £15.16 + £6.99 postage = £22.25 = 20 litres compared to approx 75p cheapest squirty bottle 500ml x 40 = £30 not including postage or patrol or parking. Plus less waste incured with 40 plastic squirt bottles - and delivered to your door. And still cheaper than supermarkets chemical filled home brand 500 ml in glass bottles which comes in at approx £24 based on £0.60 a bottle and the waste of 40 glass bottles.

And other than cream of tartar you can get everything on Anthea's top list.

One of my local health foody type shops has white vinegar for sale in big 5L tubs.

They also sell things like the ecover range too(as opposed to selling only over-priced mineral and vitamin supplements) so if you have a shop like that near you it might be worth a try.

does anyone know where to get laundry borax from?

our local farm shop sells big tubs of wine vinegar. I'm still on the lookout for local suppliers of borax and bicarb, otherwise it will be the internet for me!