Listen, I'll be straight with you – I never thought I'd be the guy making his own cleaning products. I mean, come on, I'm an electrician who drinks beer after work and watches sports on weekends. But about three years ago, my wife came home from the grocery store complaining about spending forty bucks on cleaning supplies, and that got me thinking. We're already trying to save money on our electric bill, so why not look at other household expenses?
The thing that really bothered me wasn't even the cost at first. It was when I was doing some electrical work in this lady's house, and she had all these cleaning products stored under her kitchen sink. Must've been twenty different bottles and sprays, all with these warning labels about keeping away from kids and pets. Made me wonder what the hell we're actually putting in our homes, you know? If it's dangerous enough that they have to put skull and crossbones on the label, maybe I don't want it floating around where my teenagers are eating cereal every morning.
My wife had been reading about chemicals in household products – apparently a lot of this stuff can mess with your hormones and breathing. She's got asthma, nothing serious, but it flares up sometimes when she's cleaning the bathroom. Started connecting the dots there. Plus, all those chemicals go down the drain and end up in the water supply. I work in people's houses all day, see how old some of the plumbing is in this city. Whatever we're washing down those pipes is going somewhere.
So we decided to try <a href="https://zeroemissionjourney.com/zero-waste-cleaning-products-that-actually-clean-better-than-chemicals/">making our own cleaners</a>. I was skeptical as hell, figured it would be some crunchy granola nonsense that doesn't actually work. But my wife found some recipes online, and honestly, most of them just use stuff we already had in the kitchen. Turns out our grandmothers were cleaning houses just fine before Procter & Gamble convinced everyone they needed seventeen different specialized products.
The basic ingredients are ridiculously simple. White vinegar is the workhorse – cuts through grease, kills germs, dissolves soap scum. Costs maybe two bucks for a gallon jug versus six or seven dollars for a bottle of bathroom cleaner that's mostly water anyway. I was amazed how well straight vinegar works on the shower doors. We've got hard water here in Philly, leaves these white mineral deposits on everything. Commercial cleaners would get some of it off, but vinegar dissolves that crud like it was never there.
Baking soda is the other main player. I knew it was good for absorbing odors – we always kept a box in the fridge – but never realized you could clean with it. Mix it with a little water to make a paste, and it'll scrub burnt food off pans better than those expensive abrasive cleaners. Doesn't scratch surfaces either, which is important when you're trying to keep appliances looking decent.
The combination of vinegar and baking soda is where things get interesting. Remember those volcano science projects from elementary school? Same reaction, but it actually works for cleaning. Pour baking soda down a clogged drain, follow it with vinegar, and the fizzing action helps break up whatever's stuck in there. Not gonna replace a drain snake for serious blockages, but it handles the minor clogs that would otherwise require a bottle of Drano.
Lemons are another game-changer. The acid cuts through grease and stains, plus everything smells fresh instead of like a hospital. I started using lemon juice mixed with salt to clean the cutting boards – gets rid of stains and odors from onions and garlic. My wife uses it to brighten white clothes in the wash, works better than bleach and doesn't make the whole laundry room smell like a swimming pool.
Here's what really sold me on this whole thing: I made an all-purpose cleaner with just water, vinegar, and a few drops of dish soap. Cost maybe fifty cents to fill a spray bottle. Used it on the kitchen counters, bathroom sinks, even the floors. Worked just as well as the name-brand stuff we'd been buying, maybe better. The kitchen stayed clean longer too, didn't have that sticky residue that builds up from commercial cleaners.
We started experimenting with other combinations. Vinegar and water for windows – no streaking, costs practically nothing. Baking soda and dish soap for scrubbing the bathtub. Lemon juice and olive oil for furniture polish. Most of these recipes take about two minutes to mix up, and you probably already have everything you need.
The smell was an adjustment at first. Vinegar has that sharp odor that reminds you of pickle juice. But it dissipates pretty quickly, and honestly, I'd rather smell vinegar for five minutes than breathe chemical fumes for hours. We started adding a few drops of essential oils to make things smell better – lavender, peppermint, whatever was cheap at the store. Not necessary, but it makes my wife happy.
I'll admit, not everything worked perfectly. We tried making laundry detergent with soap flakes and washing soda, but it didn't get my work clothes clean enough. When you're crawling around dusty attics and greasy electrical panels all day, you need something with more cleaning power. So we went back to regular detergent for that. Also tried a homemade oven cleaner that was supposed to work overnight, but it barely touched the baked-on grease. Sometimes you just need the heavy-duty stuff.
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But for probably eighty percent of our cleaning, the <a href="https://zeroemissionjourney.com/zero-waste-cleaning-products-that-actually-clean-better-than-chemicals/"><a href="https://zeroemissionjourney.com/zero-waste-cleaning-products-that-actually-clean-better-than-chemicals/">homemade products</a></a> work great. We're saving thirty or forty dollars a month on cleaning supplies, which adds up to real money over a year. The ingredients last forever – one gallon of vinegar makes dozens of bottles of cleaner. And I don't worry about the kids getting into dangerous chemicals under the sink.
The environmental impact was an unexpected bonus. We're not sending all those plastic bottles to the landfill every month. No harsh chemicals going down the drain. My wife calculated that we've eliminated something like fifty plastic containers from our household waste stream over the past year. Might not sound like much, but multiply that by every household in the neighborhood and it starts to add up.
What really convinced me this wasn't just hippie nonsense was talking to my grandmother about it. She's ninety-three, grew up during the Depression when people couldn't afford to buy specialized products for everything. She laughed when I told her about our homemade cleaners, said that's how everybody cleaned until the 1950s. Her mother raised eight kids and kept a spotless house using vinegar, soap, and elbow grease. If it was good enough for them, it's good enough for us.
I've shared some recipes with guys at work, and most of them think I've lost my mind. But a few have tried it, especially the ones with young kids who are worried about chemicals. My buddy Tony started making his own glass cleaner after I showed him how much cheaper it is. Says his windows have never looked better, and his wife is happy about not having those toxic fumes in the house.
The whole experience taught me that a lot of what we think we need is just marketing. Companies spend millions convincing us that we need different products for every surface and every type of dirt. But really, most cleaning comes down to breaking down grease, dissolving minerals, and killing germs. You can do that with a handful of simple ingredients that cost a fraction of commercial products.
These days, we make a big batch of cleaners maybe once a month, store them in old spray bottles and mason jars. Takes about fifteen minutes and costs less than ten dollars for supplies that last weeks. The house stays just as clean, probably cleaner, and we're not exposing ourselves to unnecessary chemicals or wasting money on overpriced products that are mostly water and marketing anyway.
Larry’s a mechanic by trade and a minimalist by accident. After years of chasing stuff, he’s learning to live lighter—fixing what breaks, buying less, and appreciating more. His posts are straight-talking, practical, and proof that sustainable living doesn’t have to mean fancy products or slogans.
