Homemaker's Journal

  

Clean House!

There is no reason to have a cupboard or closet full of cleaning products. For a couple of bucks within a few minutes you can have a gallon of cleaner that you can clean most everything but woodwork and carpet ... and it leaves a shine that can't be beat.

Keep reading and I'll tell you how to clean the woodwork and carpet too.... for pennies.

1 (16ounce) bottle rubbing alcohol

1/2 cup sudsy ammonia

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap, (I use Dawn)

Mix the ingredients in a gallon jug to use to refill spray bottles. I keep a spray bottle in each of the bathrooms and in the kitchen for quick cleanups. This mixture will clean mirrors, windows and shower enclosures with no streaking; as well as clean the floors and fingerprints from the walls.

For the wood, as a rule I dust with a damp soft cloth, because commercial dusting products tend to cause static electricity that actually attracts the dust in the air causing the need to dust more often. The feather duster typed dusters only through the dust back into the air.

Once a month I use the following mixture to help preserve and protect the wood.

1 quart mineral oil
10 drops lemon extract

Mix together mineral oil and lemon extract. Spray lightly on furniture and polish with a soft cloth.

As for the carpet. I fill the container of the carpet cleaner with hot water then add 1/2 cup of pine cleaner and 1/2 cup of fabric softener. 

The hot water and fabric softener work much like conditioner on your hair to soften and separate the individual strands of carpet thereby allowing the pine cleaner to dissolve more of the dirt and the suction of the machine to lift more of the dirt out of the carpet.

Those are about all of the cleaning supplies that you'll need in your home , so clean out the closet or cupboard and find a better use for it.