She's coming over in a half hour and your place is a wreck from the poker game last night. You go to clean the stale beer coagulating with chip crumbs on the coffee table, and realize you're out of glass cleaner. Screwed? Not if you know what to grab from your kitchen.
Using only three main ingredients: water, baking soda and white vinegar, you can cook up some homemade cleaners that'll get your place back to date-shape before she shows up. And for a helluva lot less than the cleaners you buy in the store.
All Purpose Cleaning Solution:
1 cup Vinegar
1 cup Water
1 spray bottle
Pour vinegar and water into a spray bottle and shake. Use this for daily wipe-downs of the counter in your kitchen or bathroom, or for small spills on the stove-top. If you want to add some scent use one or two drops of lemon, orange or pine oil and shake the bottle before use. These oils are great for
helping to remove stains, and tea-tree and eucalyptus oil work as excellent disinfectants. Don't worry about the smell of the vinegar overpowering the essential oil. Vinegar dissolves quickly and doesn't leave behind a smell.
If you want an all-purpose kitchen cleaner add a teaspoon of liquid dish detergent and shake well before use. (For tough stains in the bathtub or toilet bowl, use straight, undiluted white vinegar.)
Window Cleaner:
1 cup Rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol
1 cup Water
1 tablespoon White vinegar
1 spray bottle
Mix in a spray bottle, shake, and use on glass or chrome surfaces. The rubbing alcohol dissolves rapidly keeping your glass streak-free. For really dirty glass, or for cleaning the outside of windows, use non-sudsing ammonia instead of vinegar. Just be careful not to inhale the fumes and to protect your hands with rubber gloves while mixing in the ammonia.
Furniture Polish:
1/2 teaspoon Olive oil
1/4 cup Vinegar or fresh lemon juice
Pour in a spray bottle and shake. Spray a bit onto a cloth and apply to wood surfaces. The oil replenishes the wood, helping your old furniture look like new.
Information provided by PartSelect.com, an appliance parts retailer.