Home made cleaners using EO! or Living Providently.

Do you have a homemade cleaner recipe that you love? I have several that I want to share. I have a ton of allergies and sometimes I like to make things for family. Mister (my husband) has a sister-in-law that is allergic to aloe and I have a sister-in-law that is highly allergic to coconut. I am on the hunt for homemade eco-friendly cleaners and pampering recipes constantly that I can share with them. I would have to mix up which recipes I send to people. The result could be disastrous. So I am sharing some recipes that I love and how I use the EO in them.

The first is for homemade laundry detergent. I know that there are a lot of recipes out there on the net. The one I use I've found in several different places but this site has several other recipes as well. Play around and find what works best for you.

The ingredients: 1 bar Fels Naptha soap (I find this in the laundry car aisle), 1c borax, 1c washing soda, 20 drops essential oil. This is the first time I have put the CPTG EO in my laundry soap so I went with the On Guard proprietary blend.


Step one: Grate the soap bar. I use the one I use in my kitchen since the soap does come off really well in my dishwasher. The pot I put them in is one that I normally use in the kitchen but I used it to make candles and I still haven't quite gotten the wax that spilled cleaned out of it yet.

Pour enough water to cover the grated soap and heat the mixture until the soap melts into the water. It will become clear at this point.

I like to have my borax and washing soda sitting in a bowl ready to dump in. That is the same bowl that I grated the Fels Naptha into.

 Once you dump that in your heated soap mixture it will be grainy and get more opaque. At this point I like to fill my 5 gallon bucket halfway with the hottest water I can get out of my tap.

Once I am sure that everything is mixed together I pour what is in my pot into the bucket and stir it all up. The reason I use the hot tap water is so that the soap doesn't become cold and hard and not mix with the water. Once that is done I filled it the rest of the way with more hot water. I added the 20 drops of On Guard at the very end and once again stirred it up.

I'll let this sit overnight (more like until Monday) with the lid to my bucket on it loosely. Then I'll move it into my laundry room. I have two leftover laundry detergent bottles from before I started making it and just fill those from my 5 gallon bucket. Now you have great laundry soap that cost you less than $5 for 5 gallons and comes with the anti-bacterial and anti-funk (my boys clothes get a lot of what I call funk to them, its a unique smell) of a CPTG EO!

Now that you have your homemade laundry detergent would you like a fabric softener to go with it? Yes you  would, well once again my go to recipe comes from another blog. I love it! My husband however doesn't. The reason for the difference of opinion? He has microfiber dress pants that are static prone and this particular recipe doesn't work that well with the microfiber. I have no problem with any of my clothes.

For the recipe, in case you didn't click the link, you need 6c water, 2 c hair conditioner of your favorite scent, and 3 c white vinegar. I have a juice bottle that I pour everything into, shake it up and then pour it from there into the fabric softener compartment on my washing machine or into a spray bottle to spray the clothes that are in the dryer before I start the load. The next time I plan on making it with lemon EO to help the clothes keep a fresh smell and cut down on the boy-funk that clings to my kids clothes.

The recipe for my homemade all-purpose cleaner is thanks to a mid-week meeting for the women's auxillary in my church. One of the ladies presented a TON of recipes for making your own cleaners and one that I LOVE to death is the all-purpose cleaner.

You need: 2c rubbing alcohol (70%), 1 TBS mild hand dish detergent, 1 TBS ammonia, and 2 qts water. I'm a dump and mix kind of girl and this recipe is just that. Dump into a bowl to mix the ingredients and pour into the container you will use to store your cleaner. I have some in a 2 liter soda bottle and some in a spray bottle. It is this cleaner that I added the On Guard to in my previous post. No more rubbing alcohol smell!

One more household cleaner and then I promise I am done for the night.

How many of you have had a child miss the toilet? or carpets that get a weird odor to them? I do and we have a pet free home. I mixed about 1c baking soda with about 3 drops lemon EO. Remember I'm not really good with measuring ingredients? This is one of those times that its not important to be. I put the mixture into a shaker bottle. It's similar to what you would use for parmesan cheese or crushed red pepper at a restaurant  I then sprinkled this amazing concoction in the bathroom and the boys bedroom carpet. I vacuumed up the powder on the carpet and swept the bathroom floor. The smells were GONE! I am pretty impressed with this one.


In the next week I will be posting some beauty treatments that I love to pamper myself with and use EO to make them even better! Do you like bath salts? lip balm? body spray? You will love the post on these items, look for it my next Saturday.