Save Money On Cleaning Supplies
Here are some random tips from Dining on a Dime and our e-books
- Save on cleanser. Spray cleanser on the rag to save money and time. This way the extra cleanser is not wasted and you save time by not having to rinse the extra cleanser off.
- Buy cleaning supplies at a janitorial supply store. There you can buy concentrated enzyme cleaners to remove odors for $16.00 per gallon which works out to only 1/4 the price of cleaners at discount stores.
- Purchase cleaning supplies at estate and garage sales.
- Use a fine tooth dog brush to remove dog hair from furniture, carpet and bed comforters.
- Disinfect and clean your telephone. It spreads germs easily.
- Use terry cloth tablecloths. They are attractive and they absorb spills so that there is less mess.
- Spray your ironing with water instead of spray starch. Water is cheaper and the items look starched.
For more easy cleaning tips to make your life easier, check out our How To Organize And Clean Your Home e-books.
photo by: trekkyandy
Why not make your own cleaning supplies from things like vinegar, baking soda, or even hydrogen peroxide? I am surprised this post did not include homemade cleansers.
We do have several homemade cleaner recipes on the site.
Fabulous idea to spray ironing with water so it looks starched. I don’t starch because of the mess. Come to think of it I can’t remember when I last ironed…
hehehehe.. me too grizzly bear mom …. in fact, i am not sure if my iron still works or what kind of condition its in .. its over 30 yrs old! . hehehe :D..
when we helped out at the dry cleaners i did make it a point to have my dress clothes (shirts/blouses/pants) starched and ironed .. this was nice and free bc we worked there ..
now bc we no longer work there we have to pay (of course) but i think its rather expensive .. $2.50 to $5.00/per item (depending on the item) ..
I love the cleaner I make. It resembles Seventh Generation Disinfecting Cleaner. I take 1/2 C Lemon Grass and 1/2 C Thyme, make a strong tea and strain out the herbs. I allow it to cool and pour it into my favorite sprayer. Sometimes I add some Rosemary essential oil or Eucalyptus essential oil. It smells so good and it is a powerful homemade cleaner for pennies per bottle.
For years we have sprayed our dust cloth with the cleaner and kept it in a sandwich bag. It is always ready to gather the dust off furniture and save on spray cleaner.
Look around on the web for recipes for things like rose or lavender water. You can use it as a really inexpensive to make your laundry and linens smelling great. You can spray it on your carpet, too, and make the whole room smell fresh.
Good suggestion Mich. You can make your own so easy and there are tons of recipes for it and all different ones but a basic is:
1 cup distilled water
1 Tbsp. rubbing alcohol or witch hazel
10-15 drops of essential oil
Mix in spray bottle.
You can also make it with fabric softener
1/4 cup fabric softener
Place in large spray bottle and fill with up with water.
I use a lot of vinegar and baking soda for cleaning, and make my own laundry soap, but I have a question about cleaning supplies, and other items usually bought with groceries that we can’t eat, like toilet paper, trash bags, bleach, etc. Do you include those things in your grocery budget, or do you count it separately?
I usually include them in my grocery but I’m not for sure about Tawra plus I buy so little of those things it wouldn’t make a huge difference if I did include them I don’t think. I don’t buy trash bags at all, 1 roll of paper towel a year, when I had kids at home 1 – 40 load thing of laundry soap lasted me about 6 months (and that was when I had a small washing machine) so it would last even longer now with a larger one), 1 gallon of bleach a year even though I do use it a lot.
I always use 1/2 of what is recommended in cleaning supplies or laundry things so they last a long time. I also get a lot for free from the recycling center or through rebates or different things.
What someone here suggested for a clogged drain: white vinegar and baking soda.
Remove drain cover and pour a little baking soda into drain. Follow with a few glugs of vinegar. Yes, it foams up, but a few rounds of that will get the water draining freely.
This does help for slow drains sometimes and I let mine sit for 5-10 mins. then pour a kettle of boiling water on top of it to wash it all down.
Love the new look of the website. I use very few cleaning products after years of trying just about everything commercially, and being disappointed with the results versus price ratio. Mostly I use baking soda, vinegar, soap and water and a little old fashioned bleach, now, and am quite content with that. Tri Sodium Phosphate, (or TSP) is a chemical that comes in a granular form here, and is very inexpensive. A few tablespoons to a large bucket of hot water, will clean just about anything really dirty, especially if it is greasy. You must rinse with clean water afterwards, and wear rubber gloves while you work with it. This is the same ingredient used to clean walls before painting. It does come in a pre-mixed spray bottle version, but the price is very expensive that way, and the results leave a lot to be desired. A 2 quart size carton of TSP granules cost about $8 here, and in it”s dry form, will have an indefinite shelf life. A tip to clean pet hair off of upholstered furniture, is to take a clean rag, get it wet with clean clear water, ring it out tightly, and then just rub the rag over the surface that has hair on it. The hair will roll up into little rolags that can then be removed by hand.
I recently started making our own household cleaners. They seem to clean just as well if not better, and there is no residue left behind as some commercial cleaners have. I have a question about myo laundry soap, I have heard that it may not clean as well as storebought especially in hard water. Does anyone have a good recipe?
One thing Tricia is that even store bought does not clean as well in hard water either. What you need to do in a case of hard water is to add some powder water softener (that is the same as washing soda) to each load or add extra to your homemade detergent which will help soften the water. The problem isn’t the detergent it is the fact that the hard water has so much minerals in it and they build up over time in the clothes.
I tried making my own after using Tide my whole life. I was skeptical but LOVE my new detergent. My clothes are softer and there is no smell. I used one bar of soap grated fine with a micro zester. It came out to a little over 1 1/2 cups grated. The soap was a glycerin based soap but only because it was the only single bar of soap I could find. All the recipes say you can use any kind of bar soap you like. To the grated soap I added equal parts 1 1/2 cups of borax and washing soda. Both of these are (in my store) on the bottom shelf in the laundry soap section. Mix well and keep closed in an air tight container. I have almost all of the borax and washing soda left. You use only 2 tablespoons to a load. My husband is in construction and it works amazing on his clothes. My guess is this will last about 3 months. We usually do 5 to 6 loads a week. A big box of Tide is over $15 and we go through one every 2 months. I spent around $7 for the ingredients and will only need a bar of soap every 3 months to remake. One thing I do miss a little is the smell of Tide but if you really want that smell you could always go buy a small box and add to your ingredients. I have read that this works on the newer machines. You just put it in the inside of the drum and not in the liquid dispenser.
Oh, I forgot we live in south Texas and our water is extremely hard water.