Household Cleaners: Cheap, Safe and Effective

Clean on the cheap!

• Killer chemical cleaners
• Half-price homemade cleaners
• Recipes for better cleaners
• How to remove specific stains naturally

Household cleaners - we can't do without them, can we? But they're notoriously expensive and believe it or not, according to Ethical Consumer, can contain as much as 90% water!

Once again, clever marketing seems to have tricked us into buying overly-expensive products.

The good news is, there are plenty of cheaper, effective and environmentally-friendly alternatives!

Killer cleaners

Not only are they draining our purses, but research is beginning to show that these products contain toxic chemicals which may build up in our bodies over time. 

When you’re scrubbing a poorly-ventilated bathroom, you're inhaling the fumes given off by those cleaning products. And if you're holding a cloth soaked with cleaning fluid and you're not wearing rubber gloves, you may be absorbing some of that product through your skin.

So - if you're worried about the list of unpronouncable ingredients on the back of your cleaning bottles, or you just need to hoard a few extra pennies, follow our natural cleaning tips and save your cash and your health.

Going au naturel

Many pre-war household cleaners were made from food items such as vinegar, lemon juice and beeswax. In the current climate, when we're all tightening the purse strings, these cheaper alternatives are suddenly sounding like a realistic option again.

Using these sorts of traditional ingredients, you can probably make all your cleaners for less than a fiver.

Warnings:

Before you start reliving your Year Ten Chemistry class, follow these safety tips: 

• Natural does not always mean safe.
• Keep all cleaning products out of reach of children.
• Always use rubber gloves to protect your skin when cleaning.
• Always mark your homemade cleaner containers with the list of its ingredients so you can tell the poisons centre if any has been swallowed.
• Only use recipes from a reputable source (like us!) and avoid those with hazardous ingredients such as bleach, ammonia, alcohol and turpentine.
• Dispose of your toxic household products responsibly - not down the sink or in the rubbish. Ask your local council for the best way to do this.

Natural household cleaners

Start concocting recipes that would make Granny smile:

So, when you compare those cheap ingredients and easy recipes with chemical cleaners, what's the impact on your wallet?

Your total saving is £4.88 - and most of us would have the natural ingredients in our cupboards already.

We used MySupermarket to search for the best prices of the natural and chemical cleaners described here. MySupermarket can also tell you which supermarkets have special offers or 2for1 deals.

Mix a few of your home ingredients for even more cleaners:

Note: Do not use these directly after using a chemical version of the cleaning product, as it can cause a reaction.

• Scratch remover: Mix lemon juice with vegetable oil and rub with a soft cloth.
• All-purpose cleaner: Mix vinegar and salt to use as a surface cleaner. Alternatively, pour some baking soda and vinegar on a damp sponge.
• Natural deodoriser: Boil a cup of water with 1tbs of vinegar, great after cooking smelly food.
• Oven cleaner: Mix vinegar and water into an old spray container and spray the oven. Then apply a layer of baking soda and gently rub with steel wool. Wipe off and rinse dry.
• Toilet bowl: Sprinkle baking soda in the bowl, drizzle with vinegar and scour with a toilet brush.
• Rust stains: Soak for half an hour with a solution of one heaped tablespoon of salt with the juice of a lemon. Rub well, wash and dry outside in the sun to bleach.
• Drain cleaner: Pour half a cap of baking soda down the drain, then add half a cup of white vinegar, and cover the drain to allow the clog to wash down the drain.
• Tile cleaner: Wipe with vinegar and follow with baking soda as a scouring powder.

Removing specific stains

• Beetroot: Cover the area repeatedly with salt or press the stain between two pieces of dampened bread until all the fluid is absorbed. Wash as normal.
• Blood: Immediately pour salt or cold soda water on the stain and soak in cold water before washing with biological detergent. For a more stubborn stain, mix cornstarch with talcum power and apply the mixture. Allow to dry and brush away before washing.
• Chewing gum: Put the article in the freezer for an hour, crack the gum off and rub the mark with distilled vinegar or egg white, then wash.
• Coffee and chocolate: Mix egg yolk with lukewarm water and rub on the stain. To remove coffee stains from cups or counters, rub with baking soda paste.
• Curry: Hold the stain under warm running water until the water runs clear, dab with glycerine and leave overnight. Soak in biological detergent and wash.
• Fruit juice: Blot the area with kitchen paper to absorb as much of the stain as possible. For silk, blot dry then sponge on distilled vinegar, rinse with cool water and dry clean. For non-silk items, soak in lemon juice for thirty minutes, then launder as usual.
• Fruit and white wine: Immediately pour salt or cold soda water on the stain and soak in milk before washing. It’s a good idea to keep some soda water in the fridge, just as a stain remover.
• Ink: Rub with a cut lemon and sprinkle with salt or rub in a paste made from milk and baking soda before rinsing and washing.
• Grease: Strain boiling water through white cottons and follow with dry baking soda or rub with washing powder in water. For other materials, blot with a towel, dampen the stain with water, and rub with soap and baking soda. Follow by washing in water as hot as possible using extra soap.
• Lipstick: Rub with cold cream or bicarbonate of soda then wash as normal.
• Mildew: Pour strong soap and salt on the spots, or spray with vinegar and place in sunlight. Keep the spots moist and repeat as often as necessary.
• Red wine: Apply salt repeatedly until it no longer absorbs the wine, or cover the area with white wine before washing as usual.
• Rust: Saturate with sour milk (add 2tsp/10ml of vinegar to a cup of milk to make it sour) or lemon juice and rub with salt. Do a test first to check for colour fastness. Place in direct sunlight until dry, then wash.
• For dry clean-only fabrics, rub the stain immediately with an ice cube rather than a cloth to prevent the stain from setting. Try to deal with stains on the reverse of fabric when possible.

Useful links

• MySupermarket
• Ethical Consumer

Now go to...

• Save £100s with 50 Money-saving Tips for Families
• 50 Ways to Save Money and the Planet
• Being Green Means Making Savings

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