Spring Cleaning

I am thinking about the end of winter.....the sooner the better in some places for some of you.  When it does end, I love to open up my whole house for a day, turn up the music and clean like a crazy person!  We have all been locked in for way too long by the end of winter and our houses need to be aired out.  With this in mind, I am thinking about it a little early this year because I plan on making my own environmentally safe cleaners.

Now, I know this sounds like a lot of work, but have you priced the majority of the cleaners?  Crazy what the word "green" does these days to the price of anything!  I plan on spending very little and getting a whole lot of clean.

Here is my first recipe.  I have tried this and LOVE it.  My kitchen is glowing.  My cabinets, which are very old and need to be replaced look great.  I won't be re-thinking the replacement, but honestly, they look better than when we first moved in five years ago, just from this one cleaning.  I have been trying everything for five years and nothing worked even close to this well!

Save the peels from 4 oranges (I put the peels in a ziplock in the fridge every time someone ate one.  You can also use lemon or lime, but only the peel, no pulp at all.)
1/2 cup plain white vinegar
Half gallon of tap water

Bring the water to a boil and add peels.  Turn of heat and let cool with peels steeping in the water.  Once cooled to just warm add the vinegar and strain.  I used a kitchen funnel to pour it into an empty milk jug.  It is just that easy and gives you a half gallon of cleaner.  I used this on everything in my kitchen, dinning and living room.  It smelled a little like vinegar for a little while and then you could only smell the oranges.  As with any cleaner, be careful with surfaces you normally clean gently.

Fancy right?  I put mine into a spray bottle and used my new Sham-wow.  Now I know you are laughing at the last. I was when we got ours in a gift basket for Christmas from Mark's work.  They always throw in some fun quirky stuff.  I really thought, hmmm, what the heck am I going to do with this thing?  So, thinking this way, I went under the sink for a rag (I recycle clothes and socks this way) and saw the Sham-wow.  It was fate.  That thing cleans like a champ!  It is so big and holds so much I only rinsed it maybe ten times.  I would have had to rinse it at least 30 or more if it had been one of my rags.  The time it saved was great!  So, WOW, lol.

Here is a great link to some other cleaning recipes: http://www.chachingqueen.com/2011/01/cleaning-products-you-can-make-at-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ChaChingQueen+(Cha+Ching+Queen+-+Helping+you+Make+and+Save+Money)&utm_content=Google+Reader  I have not tried any of the recipes the Cha Ching Queen has listed yet, but I will be giving them a try.  I am pretty sure my mother and grandmother used some of these and positive my father used the same oven cleaner.  My Mom had asthma, so he would clean the oven that way for her.  That way she did not have to smell fumes from the commercial cleaners and possibly have an attack.  I have done a past post on the homemade laundry soap we made and we love that, use it almost everyday. You can look that up under cleaning recipes and tips on the left bar of this blog.

Any who, enjoy your spring cleaning this year, I know I will.  Just in case you need a Shamwow, lol, here is a link.