Cleaning Supplies

I got my recipes from this book (I like this woman for her recipes, not for her philosophy of life). They've worked very well so far, and all you need are a few simple ingredients!

You need:
borax (on the laundry soap aisle)
baking soda (big box is on the same aisle as borax)
vinegar (white distilled)
washing soda (possibly at a pool supply store, or a commercial cleaning-supply store)
vegetable-oil based liquid soap (castile soap, like Dr. Bronner's)

You can also add essential oils to your recipes; they smell good and certain ones have antiseptic properties. I like to use Tea Tree oil. It smells nice and clean, and I can get a fairly good bottle at Wal-Mart for $5. It matches the scent of my Dr. Bronner's, so I don't leave a house with conflicting smells.

Kelly currently has my recipes (she's copying them down), so I'll just give you the ones I remember. There's a good disinfectant scrubber that's just 1 cup baking soda plus 1/4 cup borax. I mixed it up in a mason jar and poked holes in the lid with an ice pick. The jar is reusable and the lid was rusty- perfect for this use. For a better scrub, add some salt (the coarseness saves you some elbow grease). For a soft scrub, add enough castile soap to make a paste. You can also add a bit of an essential oil.

For toilets, I wet the inside of the bowl, then sprinkle about 1/2 cup borax around the bowl and leave it for as long as I can; Annie recommends letting it rest overnight. Then I scrub it out and flush.

If a sink isn't draining as well as it should, I sprinkle some baking soda down the drain and chase it down with vinegar. It's bubbly action will loosen gunk (and it disinfects the drain). I'm not sure how effective it is on super stopped-up sinks.

To mop a floor, I put 1/4 cup vinegar in my bucket, then start to fill it with hot water. While it's filling, I squirt in some castile soap, then add some borax for a bit of stronger disinfectant. My castile soap reacts strangely to vinegar, so I add them separately to reduce the reaction.

To clear the air in a sickroom, or to fix that musty smell, I mix water and Tea Tree oil in a spray bottle and just mist away! I mist it on doorknobs, on our fabric shower curtain, on the window curtains, the computer keyboard, &tc. I also spray it on the toilet about midway between cleanings. I use Lavender oil and water for my mattress and pillows. The ratio is 20 drops per 1 ounce of water.

To remove a bad odor from carpet, sprinkle it all over with baking soda and leave it overnight, then vacuum.

Also, check this out. She's got an article to help you get started.