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There was a time when I had jars in the kitchen and bathroom, filled with color-coded washcloths (blue=bathroom; khaki=kitchen) soaking in Windex. For convenience it couldn't be beat, although it was dying all my rags Windex blue and an awful lot of soap seemed to be kicked up when I did the laundry. I realized how much Windex I was washing away vs using and stopped it.

There was also a time when I had what seemed like unlimited swiffer wet disposable cloths, thanks to Costco.

Running out of the infini-swiffers and a new appreciation for the bottom line has sent me to the Internet for homemade alternatives. I found this universal cleanser recipe:

1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
1 cup alcohol
2-3 drops dish soap (Castile, Dawn, etc.)

optional:
13 drops essential oil (mostly to stop it smelling of vinegar and alcohol)

I looked at that and thought "a surfactant and two grease-cutting disinfectants suspended in the universal solvent, and it's all reasonably cat safe! Huzzah!" and went out to make some. I'm skipping the essential oils -- far too expensive for just a pretty smell -- but come clementine season (overseas readers: satsuma season) I'll soak the peels in the vinegar for a week before mixing more solution up.

32 ounces of 70% isopropyl alcohol is $2.06 at Target;* an equivalent amount of white vinegar is roughly $1 at Giant.* A quart of water is virtually free, as are 12 drops of dish soap snitched from the kitchen bottle via cat medicine syringe (left over from DB) So there's 3/4 gallon of the stuff for ~$3, and I'm not dying anything bright blue.

Once again rags are soaking in the kitchen and bathroom. I may try nuking them a few seconds before use so that the water's hot, but I don't know if it's possible to heat isopropyl to ignition point and don't want to blow up the microwave.



*If I ever feel I need an extra kick, I can get 91% for 80 cents more.

**I don't know the exact price because I buy white vinegar by the gallon. M is not convinced by this, but I'm a great believer in vinegar as a cleanser.

ETA: Turns out she's a big believer in alcohol as a cleaning agent, so she's fine with the idea of the solution, but thinks that it would be smarter to put it in spray bottles rather than soak washrags in it. In the long run I may go that way -- it certainly stretches the solution out -- but I like the grab-and-go one-handed convenience of presoaked rags.

Date: 2013-11-03 11:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] belovedwarrior.livejournal.com
I have been using that combination for years and I love it! My husband hates the smell of the vinegar so I have been using the essential oils. It isn't that bad because a little bit goes a long way. I bought a small bottle before I even knew my husband just recently ran out. ;)

I also will just boil things on the stove.. like water + cinnamon sticks + lavendar or whatever I have, which helps with the smell.. thought the vinegar doesn't linger too long.

On a similar note.. for cleaning the microwave, it's great doing equal parts water and vinegar and nuke that. Softens everything and everything can wipe off easily.

I had never thought about soaking the rags. I just use spray bottles.

(Baking soda is also the world's best cleaner. And we all know baking soda + vinegar is AMAZING)

Date: 2013-11-04 12:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
To be honest, I don't even notice the smell of the vinegar over the smell of the alcohol. But vinegar, it turns out, is dead easy to scent with whatever's lying around. Soak a fistful of it in the vinegar for a week and there you go! My only mistake last winter was leaving the orange peels in for too long and letting them go off. If I'd just recycled them every week, I could still be using citrus-smelling vinegar.

Glad to hear someone endorse the solution! I have high hopes for the project, and may soon have spray bottles all around. That's the thing with the wipes - I have them ready to go and right to hand right in the room they'll be needed. It's not that I mind spraying and wiping, it's that I want the ability to grab everything *right there.*

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