Non Commercial Cleaning Products

[Toast]

A catchy title, I think you'd agree. Quite likely a contender for the most interesting thread of the year too. I expect it will bring TC back at the very least.

Anyway. Does anyone want to talk about natural or homemade cleaning products? I use a lot of bicarb. and white vinegar but I'm interested in the use of citric acid and sodium percarbonate too. I watch a lot of Japanese and Korean vlogs on YouTube and they use both of these a lot. Percarbonate doesn't seem that easy to find here although Amazon do carry it and I've just ordered some. I think the closest thing to it that's easily available is Oxy bleach or Napisan. I do use Napisan a lot for whites already but I don't think that actually brightens whites that are already dull, just keeps them white. I might be wrong about that.

I don't have a question as such but I'm interested in whether other people use these things and what you think, whether they have replaced ready-made products for you, etc.

[Morganna]

My foray into non-commercial cleaning products started and ended with home-made loo-cleaning tablets. With all the enthusiasm I reserve for new projects, I bought citric acid, bicarb and an ice-cube tray with star-shaped moulds and set to, weighing and mixing, and feeling all virtuous. I pressed the mixture into the moulds and left the little stars to set, waiting impatiently for them to be ready to use, so that I could see them fizz and froth in the manner of the ones in the video I'd seen. The time came, and I forced a reluctant M to come and watch the show.

The first hurdle came when they wouldn't come out of the moulds. The tray was silicone, and in theory all I needed to do was push from the bottom to release the tablets, but no. They were stuck fast. M found this mildly amusing, so I became irritated in equal measure.

In the end, I got a tea knife and hacked them out with that, and dropped the crumbs into the loo. They fell to the bottom, with not a hit of fizz. Nada. M started to snigger, and I muttered threats at him. They sat there, even when I flushed repeatedly, with no fizzing or cleaning taking place. They didn't even dissolve. In the end, I smashed them with the loo brush, threw away the tray of moulds, told a (by now hysterical) M to STFU, and put the ingredients at the back of the pantry, where they still sit, unused.

HTH.

[Cerise]

Morgs

[ParisGal]

I really wanted to do everything with vinegar & bicarb, but I'm too lazy to clean frequently enough for them to be efficacious. I do use vinegar for descaling kettle etc rather than specific products though.

[Kenickie]

Morgs.

I used vinegar, bicarb etc for years and was really insistent that they were just as good as actually cleaning products. Then I used an actual bathroom spray and realised I'd forgotten how much easier and less effort it all was so now I'd never go back.

Like PG I still used vinegar for descaling though.

I've used napisan but only to get stains out so I've not noticed if it gets things brighter.

Oh also I have found denture tablets are quite good at toilet cleaning.

[Toast]

Thank you for sharing, morgs. I fear this would have been a complete non-starter of a thread if you hadn't chipped in!

Do you mean you feel that you need to clean more frequently with homemade stuff, PG? Or that you need to use the product up quickly?

That's interesting, Ken. I don't do anything elaborate for things like bathroom or kitchen cleaner. I just use dish soap and vinegar diluted with water for everyday which I don't find too much effort. I would still use oven cleaner, for example, on a really dirty oven because I know that's going to be much quicker and less effort.

[ParisGal]

Do you mean you feel that you need to clean more frequently with homemade stuff, PG?

Yes, it's not strong enough to cope with hard water marks or tea stains in the sink for example unless I use it daily, and to be honest not even then really I find. I have a ceramic sink so stainless might be different, but I have to use a proper product to get it completely clean, even though I scrub it with washing up liquid on the dish sponge every day.

[Disco]

I use citric acid to descale my kettle. The end.

[Mountain Goat]

I have recently found bicarb the easiest thing to use on limescale and on my bathroom floor. It all just lifts straight off and I've not found anything else that comes anywhere near it ( I am no Mrs Wotsit so may well have been just using stuff wrong. Hinch!)

[emma_p]

I use a lot of bicarb, white vinegar and lemons but also commercial cleaning products. I won't be parted from Mrs Meyers, Wilton and Colt and Willow

[Disco]

I need to get some white vinegar actually as I do like to run it through the washing machine occasionally.

[ParisGal]

How does bicarb work on limescale? Just by being abrasive mechanically?

Also I do use heavily diluted "black soap"* for all simple cleaning - just spray over eg. kitchen units / table and wipe off with damp sponge then rinse sponge and wipe again, I don't like getting chemically stuff out when it's just for crumbs and the odd sticky bit.

* savon noir, I can't find what this is in English - it's a treacley-sort of basic soap that I buy in a tub and dilute into water in a spray bottle.

[Toast]

I'm all out of Mrs Myers now. I'm going to look at Colt and Willow though, I've never heard of them. I like WIlton laundry detergent and I love the smell of the dish soap but I don't think it's very effective.

Savon noir sounds interesting, PG.

[smalex]

I've never tried bicarb, how do you apply it? I use white vinegar on my limescale, which, like Bea, I find bloody ruins everything here. It is hard to apply to someth8ngs though.

[Ella77]

I find soaking a cloth (even a bit of kitchen roll) in vinegar then wrapping it round e.g. a tap and leaving it for a bit is a good way to get round the problem of it being hard to apply.

[smalex]

Yeah, I do do that, it's just never quite as effective. Everything needs a gallon of vinegar every week (it feels like anyway )

[Epponnee Rae]

Whatserface from GBBO a few years back swears by sodium percarbonate for tougher cleaning. If her IG videos are to be believed it seems pretty effective for cleaning loos, drains, stains and the like. If I were to ever try homemade cleaning products I would probably start there. I’ve never found bicarb to work on all the pans and things it’s supposed to. I do miss soda crystals for chucking down drains though.

[emma_p]

I'm all out of Mrs Myers now. I'm going to look at Colt and Willow though, I've never heard of them. I like WIlton laundry detergent and I love the smell of the dish soap but I don't think it's very effective.

I love Wilton's eucalyptus dish soap and spray so much! I think it's effective but I do go through the soap quite quickly. The spray lasts ages. I LOVE the Colt and Willow grapefruit scrub and the geranium all purpose spray. Not so bothered about the bathroom cleaner. I get Mrs Meyers occasionally as a treat the multi-purpose concentrate is pretty good value as it goes a long way when you dilute it.

[Lily]

Last year I did a thorough investigation on eco friendly stuff and most of it was bobbins (I tried Method and Iron & Velvet and Tincture). My cleaner used Cif to blast my flat when I moved out and when I looked at the container it was all plant-based, so I'm happy to use it now, especially as it actually works. My local refill place has started selling a cream cleaner & it appears to be as effective as Cif, although I only got a small sample of it.

I do still use some old-fashioned methods. I use white vinegar which I put in a spray bottle, and then citric acid, on my shower screen - also my taps, and that works well. Bicarb is good for scrubbing things, but it's a bit scratchy for the shower screen. I also find the best way to polish glass is with old newspaper.

Bicarb, followed by citric acid, is good for clearing manky drains - while vinegar & bicarb make a good fuss apparently they cancel each other out so don't do anything.

[Froozy]

This chap did not do well with his home creations

We use vinegar for windows/shower screens and soda crystals for washing the towels and cleaning stuff. I also like soda crystals for cleaning stubborn marks on saucepans. We also suffer from the limescale so bicarb and bleach sounds like a plan - do you throw them in together?

We keep meaning to try citric acid as well, percarbonate is new to me.

The soda crystal people (dripak?) have some useful cleaning articles on their website.