Do y’all make your own cleaning products? I do and there are so many benefits!
- Low cost: instead of spending a few dollars on a bottle of all-purpose cleaner, I buy one giant jug of vinegar that gives me several spray bottles full of homemade cleaner
- Low waste: When your bottle of Windex is full, you toss it in the recycling, right? Or you buy a big refill bottle, but when that refill bottle is empty you have to recycle that. When you make your own products, you reuse your containers.
- Cut down on asthma triggers: This right here is the reason I started making my own cleaning products. It is so difficult to find cleaning products that are ammonia free, and ammonia is a major trigger for my asthma. When I make my own cleaning products, I have absolute control over what products I’m spraying around my home.
- Convenience: That giant jug of vinegar lasts a really long time around my house, so I’m rarely without the materials to get some cleaning done.
The only commercial cleaning product that I really miss is disposable wipes. I’m not one to hide the fact that I am a lazy housekeeper, and wipes are a blessing to lazy housekeepers the world over. Unfortunately, all the wipes I’ve been able to find were terrible asthma triggers. This included all the “green” brands!
For a few years, I made my own disposable wipes using an old Clorox wipes container and paper towels. That worked fine, but the paper towels really didn’t hold up as well as the commercial wipes. Plus, I was still throwing out those paper towels when I was done, which didn’t feel very green to me.
So I’ve switched to these reusable wipes and, to paraphrase Robert Frost, it has made all the difference! The wipes are so much stronger than the paper towels, so I’m not worried about them disintegrating in the cleaning solution. And they’re reusable so I’m not being so terribly wasteful! Making these seriously couldn’t get any easier too. You basically just soak some microfiber cloths in your cleaning solution and then use them when you need them. I’m showing these to you in a Mason jar, but you can use any glass container with a tight-fitting lid.
But I write step-by-step instructions here, so I’m going to break this down for you. Feel free to be embarrassed for me!
Reusable Cleaning Wipes
- Microfiber cloths
- Half-gallon Mason jar
- Single-piece jar lid
- Lavender Mint all-purpose cleaner (see below)
Stuff as many of your microfiber cloths as you can into your container. I fit eight of mine into my jar, but I smaller cloths would probably have worked a lot better.
Now pour in your cleaning solution. You’re going to to want to do this slowly because it takes a little while for the liquid to make it to the bottom of the jar. (It will make a fun farting sound that you will laugh at if you are immature like me)
And that’s seriously all there is to it. When you use these wipes, wring out the excess solution back into the jar. That way you don’t need to remake the solution very often. Once you’ve used each cloth, you just throw it in the dirty laundry.
Lavender Mint All-Purpose Cleaner
To make one liter:
- 500 mL water
- 100 mL rubbing alcohol
- 400 mL distilled white vinegar
- 10 drops Lavender oil
- 10 drops Peppermint oil
Mix all the ingredients together. That’s it!
