Natural Cleaners and Wipes

I saw this post on another blog, and I plan to try making some home-mixed cleaners too.

Does it seem that I might clean more, too? :)

I DID once buy a super-cute broom that was to inspire me to sweep more. Actually, I do enjoy sweeping more using it. It's got pink, leopard print! I thought better of gifting similar brooms. Even though I'd never have meant it to imply someone else should sweep more, I can see where that impression might be drawn.

So...here are the recipes. Thanks, Dana, for letting me reproduce them here!

Glass Cleaner
2 parts vinegar to 1 part distilled water.

Sometimes I add some antiseptic essential oil such as lemon, lavender or tea tree. Oh, three or four drops.

Store in reusable, spray bottle.

All Purpose Cleaner
2 teaspoons Borax
20 oz of distilled water
10 oz vinegar
2 drops of your favorite dish soap
A few drops of essential oils if you wish
Store in reusable, spray bottle

Scrubby Stuff
A box of Borax
A box of baking soda
A few drops of essential oil -- here my favorite is lemon and rosemary
Store in ziplock bag (or plastic, lidded container) with scoop

Do you do homemade cleaners? What are your recipes? My Radical book club friends also passed along a great recipe for homemade baby wipes:

Baby Wipes
1 roll of paper towels (I usually use Kirkland or Target brand, which are nice because they're the choose-your-size version, but it's probably "greener" to go with the 7th Generation brand, or similar)
2 cups boiling water
1.5 Tablespoon baby oil (I use Burt's Bees apricot baby oil, but I've heard grapeseed oil is great as well)
1 Tablespoon baby shampoo
2-3 drops tea tree oil (it has anti-fungal and antiseptic properties, awesome stuff)

* Using a non-serrated kitchen knife, cut a roll of paper towels in half, so you end up with two "short" rolls.
* Place one half of the paper towels in an airtight (cylindrical, if possible) container. Save the other half for your next batch of wipes.
* In a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, boil the water.
* Add the oils and shampoo and stir.
* Pour the mixture over the paper towels. Let the liquid seep through the roll. After about a minute, pull out the cardboard center of the roll, and the center-most sheet of paper towel, which may have glue from the cardboard. Careful, these may be hot, but it's much easier to get them out right away.
* Cover the container, and when you're ready, pull the towels from the center.

These wipes are great because you know exactly what's going on the kiddos' bums (and faces or fingers).
To make them ToGo, pull out several, and fold them into a reusable wipe containers.
One final tip, from Sarah the natural guru: place this formula in a ziplock baggie, and tape it to the bottom of the wipes container, so you're all set next time you need 'em but can't recall the ingredients. Or maybe you've got a better memory than we do - congrats!

Finally, I didn't invest in a cylindrical container like the one pictured. I just make do with the rectangular box that Huggies wipes come in. I place the roll of towels in vertically, in order to let the "potion" seep into the paper, but once it's all saturated, I lay the towels horizontally, and pull from one end. Some brands of paper towels are thicker, and harder to fit in the Huggies box, but we manage!

*Oh, just one more thought: When our kiddoes were infants, we didn’t use paper wipes at all; we just used warm water on 4” square pieces of old t-shirts, which could just be thrown in the wash and reused (kind of a la cloth diapers). I wonder if putting those scraps into a container and pouring the wipes potion over the top would provide an even “greener” option for wipes. I haven’t tried that, but have thought about it. Just putting it out there!