Cleaning Supplies: A Round Up

After posting my dishwasher detergent recipe, I thought it would be a good idea to round up what I find to be the essentials for cleaning supplies if you want to start your “pantry” so-to-speak.

There are a few products I’ve found useful, especially if you want to create a number of different products from scratch at home. If I were starting over today, here’s what my shopping list would be:
– baking soda (a big container)
– vinegar
– washing soda
– borax
– bleach
– vegetable based castile soap such as Dr. Bronners. If you get one with essential oil added, you don’t necessarily need to purchase that.

There are also a few extras that are nice to have, but not essential for cleaning things up. A good basic unscented bar soap can be used to create laundry detergent, along with a few of items listed above.  Essential oils such as tea tree, lemongrass, and lavender can be used to make your cleaning products smell better and also have some great properties themselves.

Spray bottles or other containers (such as used milk jugs) are great for premixing your cleaners to have on hand, instead of making a new batch each time.

Finally, I wanted to mention that both my mom and I have used the homemade laundry detergent and have been really pleased with the results. She had to add a little more water because the mixture had thickened so much, but it’s actually thin enough now that we put it in the dispensing tray in the front loading washer without any problems.

Do you have any questions about cleaning supplies or recipes I’ve used?