Want to use home made cleaning products but need help...

[fustilarian]

Sorry I know it's been done before, but really short of time at the moment.

About to babyproof the house and have just been on a baby first aid course and am totally enthused to ditch all the household cleaners, so... calling all experts, what can I use to clean...

fridge,
polished wood,
marble worktops,
loos, baths, sinks, taps,
windows, mirrors,
carpet stains,
computers,
oven, microwave,
laminated, tiled and wooden floors,
painted walls...
dishwasher tablets (apparently v toxic- is there an alternative?)
think that's about it, anything else I might have missed to...

So far I have baking soda and vinegar, but don't really know what to use them on........

thanks in advance, from a currently v toxic mama

hi there i am in process of trying to this my self, have pinched this link from another thread, havent read much on here yet but may help you
here

i got some soap nuts for washing clothes

im sure in the leaflet it said they could be used in a diswasher too (thouh it did say not suitale for very havily soiled / baked on food etc)

google 'in a soap nut shell' get a free sample (costs about 70p paypal to cover paypal charge and P&P) and it will show u loads of uses for soapnuts and u can try them out too

Could you use vinegar in your dishwasher? Has anyone ever tryed?

Happy to give away a 500g bag of soapnuts, if anyone wants it. Dh has banned me from using them as he claims they do not get his white shirts clean. But if they work for you, I can wing them over.

I use white vinegar to clean the actual dishwasher, but not the dishes. Makes the dishwasher very sparkly.
Read somewhere that you can put a mixture of soda crystals and bicarb in to wash the dishes, but it didn't seem to work on mine. Got the very lightly soiled plates clean, but didn't touch the baking dish.

I use borax to clean the sink - I make it into a paste. Also use the same to get rid of stains on clothes.

Washing soda crystals to clean plughole and drains. Put down neat and pour boiling water down plughole.

Can't think of anymore at the moment, apart from I use a wash ball for the laundry and have also used soapnuts, which were good.

Will keep thinking.

There is a book called
"Thrifty ways for Modern Days" out of the Martin Lewis website, that has all these tips in, it's a little Bible really.

Suggests you use flat Coke for cleaning the toilet though, not sure on the toxicity of that!

Right, have looked up the following from a book I have called "Hints and tips from times past".

Stain removal from marble
1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Squeeze lemon juice into vinegar - wipe over marble with a soft cloth.

Wipe the inside of your fridge with a water and vinegar solution (4:1)

Clean tiles with white vinegar, then rinse.

Mirrors - hot water with a little white vinegar added. Strangely, it also states "alternatively, rub the mirror with a potato, rinse it with clean water and polish it with newspaper"!!!! I'd go with the vinegar if I were you.

In fact, I'd take shares out in white vinegar, sounds like you will need about a gallon to start with.

I have used leamon juice in the microwave, just pop a cut lemon and smooth around then pop on for 10 seconds and wipe clean.

We always used to polish cutlery with vinegar - brown vinegar and the cutlery came up nice and sparkly.

i sometimes use the dishwasher without anything - but i do rinse my plates as I go along as it takes me two three days to fill and they pong otherwise. It works fine without for a lightly smeared load

to clean microwave i just put a bowl of plain water in, switch on for 2 mins then wipe over with a cloth, anything stuck comes off!

great tips so far, thanks a lot, I think I will buy the Martin Lewis book... I also found some good stuff on the'about housekeeping' website...

Have tried lemon and water on microwave and works brilliantly, not tried the potato yet!

I don't think coke is going to be more toxic than bleach (you never know though...) so will try that too, but isn't borax quite poisonous?

Any further ideas greatly appreciated.....