Homemade Drain Cleaner/Unclogger

A few weeks ago my kitchen drains seriously started to back up. Slow wasn’t the word for what happened. It seemed overnight, they completely backed up! It was hard to run the dishwasher for the water backing up into the sink. Heck, I couldn’t wash a few potatoes for dinner without water collecting in the sink. It would take over an hour for just a bit of it to drain.

I have no idea what got in there but “it” wasn’t letting hardly any water pass through the pipes. Being the cheap budget savvy person I am, I refused to pay $20 or more for drain cleaner! After a little Googling and some testing in my own kitchen, I discovered some positive results.

Recipe #1

• 1/2 cup borax (per side of the kitchen drain)
• 1 cup boiling water

Use a funnel to help sprinkle the borax into one side of the kitchen drain and block the other side with a stopper. Allow the borax to settle in the drain for a few minutes. While you’re waiting, boil at least one cup of water in the microwave or on the stove top. Slowly and carefully pour the water down the drain to activate the borax. Repeat for the other side.

Depending on how backed up your drains are, it may take several treatments. It took me three treatments to fully opened my completely backed up drain.

Recipe #2

• 1 cup baking soda
• 2 cups VERY hot vinegar

Same process as before. Pour one cup of baking soda down one side of the drain. Don’t forget to block the other side with a stopper. Slowly pour the hot vinegar down the drain and allow the baking soda to activate and bubble the clog away. Repeat for the other side.

This worked somewhat well but I think I’ll use it for slow drains instead of completely clogged pipes.

What’s your best recipe for clearing clogs???

Jenn is a stay at home southern mom raising her kids in Northwestern Minnesota with her trucker hubby. She loves to cook, craft and blog. Soon she’ll be going back to school for a new adventure in Graphic Design. You can find recipes, crafts, parenting strategies, budget tips, product reviews and fabulous giveaways on her blog, Frugal Front Porch.

Spring Cleaning Savvy

I (Stephanie) am taking a much needed break today. I am extremely thankful to Liss for providing this excellent post of tips and motivation to do a little spring cleaning (or fall cleaning as the case may be.) I definitely will have to try her cobweb tip!

Last Spring, I set myself a challenge - I wanted to do a 'real' spring clean of my house.  With 3 sub-six children in my care, it's not always easy but I enlisted their help and let them enjoy the weather warming up.  I got all the way through it and it is so satisfying I'm doing it again in Autumn!  Here's my tips:

Tackling the Cleaning

• Pick a sunny day - it doesn't need to be warm, but sunny is great for the mood and motivation!
• If you have them, involve the kids -give them a bucket and sponge and let the wash the outside of the house or a bucket of water and paintbrush, let the 'paint' or 'clean' it. They will feel useful and have fun!
• Finsh your outdoor spring cleaning before moving indoors
• Clean outside of windows, outer of house, gardens, clear out garages. If you still feel motivated in the evening, you can do jobs inside then.

Here's some outdoor cleaning tips

Cobwebs - how to minimise
Cobwebs are so annoying to me, so I follow Shannon Lushs' (Australia's clean queen) advice and after using a housebroom to remove the majority, and a dustbrush/damp cloth to rid the residue, sprinkle a few drops of lemon oil on the broom and brush around the places that spiders congregate - they don't like lemon oil, so won't return! Hoorah!

 Cleaning windows:

1. Brush off cobwebs as above, remove flyscreens and clean dust off with combo of dustpan brush and old teatowel.
2. Mix a window washing solution of :

• 10 litres warm water  
• 2 tb dishwashing liquid  
• 2 tb cloudy ammonia  
• 2 tb white vinegar  
• 1/2 cup methylated spirit  
• 1/2 cup cornflour (cornstarch)

 3. Wash on with sponges, squeegee off - rub any stubborn bits with added solution on paper towel.

Got a lot of stuff to clear out?

• Have a yard sale or go in with people in your street for 'street sale'- or this is the time to get onto Craigslist and Ebay to SELL not buy! 
• Donate toys to your local hospital/library/womens' shelter
• Donate books to your local library
• Donate women and childrens' clothes, blankets etc to your local homeless charities or womens' shelter.

Don't say you'll donate it later, offer it to a friend ra-ra.. get rid of it, and commit to doing it -whatever you don't sell at the garage sale - give to charity!

You can find more domestic adventures at my blog, Frills in the Hills - the fabulous life of our family of five - the fun, the food and the frugality.

What’s Your Secret???

Today I am having a tooth extracted so instead of posting a rocking recipe or a clever craft, I thought I would ask you, my MIFS friends, for help solving one life’s little riddles: Secrets to line drying clothes! Last week I asked my readers at Frugal Front Porch, my Facebook and Twitter friends for their secrets to luxurious soft line dried clothes. As you can imagine, I got a wide range of answers.

• Add vinegar to the rinse cycle
• Tumble dry a few minutes after they are dry
• Tumble dry a few minutes before you hang them to dry
• Add Downy to the rinse cycle
• Use less laundry detergent

Someone also suggested I simply live with it but surely I can have it all: line dried clothes that are soft and fluffy!

Some of the suggestions helped more than others but the best results offered a marginal improvement at best so I am hoping you ladies and gents can help me out with some fresh ideas.

I just started line drying our clothes in the basement a few weeks ago when I noticed the clothes seemed to take longer and longer to dry. I am not sure if the dryer is going out. We’ve checked all the vent lines and cleaned the lint trap so we feel confident this isn’t the problem. I also wanted to save on our monthly electric bill and add some desperately needed humidity to our home.

Before now, I have NEVER line dried clothes other than tossing a wet pool towel over the shower curtain or fence line. I know: shame on me but in my defense, my mother wasn’t exactly Donna Reed. She used our dryer for EVERYTHING except for the occasional sleeping bag or quilt. I grew up thinking the clothes line was just another toy for my brother and I to swing and play from so I never thought to line dry clothes as an adult. Now that I have started line drying clothes, it seems I am stuck with INSANELY stiff crunchy clothes!!! I need help! 

Keep in mind, this is what our yard looks like right now. Hubster sank through the snow during his walk with Ruby, our dog. It’s up to his knees! Line drying outside won’t work till warmer weather arrives. I am line drying in our basement right now.

Anyone have the secret to soft line dried clothes? Inquiring minds want to know.

4 Step Holey Rags

I don't know about you but when our socks start to wear out, the toes and/or heels are the first to go. Since I don't know the first thing about darning socks to repair the damaged area, I extend their life by cleaning with them. Something I think many of us do.

My problem starts when I toss them in the laundry. Unless they are unusually stained with something I've cleaned or laundered completely separate from the 'good' socks, they get cycled back into the sock basket - where I toss all our socks till we make time to match them up. While they hide in the sock basket, I'm looking all over the house for my 'cleaning' rags. FRUSTRATING!

My solution?

4 easy steps turns my lost damaged socks into dish or facial rags with a scrubbie side AND a soft side.

Step 1: Cut straight across the toe area of the sock.*
Step 2: Start at the top of the sock and cut straight down.*
Step 3: You should have a flat almost rectangle shape of solid sock fabric with the ribbed side on one end. Fold in half with the ribbed texture on one side, wrong sides together and straight stitch around the edge with 1/4" seam or less. Be sure to leave an opening to pull the fabric through.
Step 4: Pull fabric through the opening and top stitch around the rag making sure to tuck under the unstitched area to form an even edge.

*Be sure to position your cuts to go through the hole or damaged area so your finished rag doesn't have a hole in the middle of it.

Crew or tube socks work best but with small modifications, you can use this concept on most socks. With the no show socks or ankle socks, simple cut as described above and use a running stitch or use a serger to prevent the edges from fraying.

Now you have a rag that won't get lost in the sock basket and a never ending supply of holey rags.

Jenn blogs about easy recipes, crafts, and a frugal lifestyle at the Frugal Front Porch.

Semi Homemade Hand Soap

We traveled quite a bit last summer for hubby's doctor's visits. We stayed overnight at various hotels because hubby couldn't physically handle the long road trip back home. Thankfully he's better and we're no longer traveling so much but it's left me with a rather large collection of hotel soaps. What to do with them???

Here's a nifty little project you can do with hotel soaps or any bar soap bits you have lying around the house.

1. Grate soap bits with a cheese grater into a glass dish or double boiler.
2. Add boiling water and stir till all the soap is melted.
3. Add optional scented oil.
   
4. Allow to cool overnight in a glass dish.
5. Stir well.
6. Transfer to soap pump with a spoon and large funnel.

I used one grated hotel soap bar and a half pint of boiling water. If the consistency is too thick for your needs, place the glass dish back in a pot of boiling water to re-melt the soap. Mix more boiling water, allow to cool, and stir when cooled.

It's that simple to have your own hand soap, semi homemade!

Homemade Carpet Refresher

~Heather also blogs at HEATHER LESSITER/It's All for the Best and The Fat Bottomed Girl.~

Many of us are in the middle of our annual Spring cleaning- opening the windows, flinging the clutter and getting rid of the winter dust and blah. Ahhhh! Feels great, doesn't it?

One of the things I do annually is use a carpet refresher to give a cleaner scent to the house. There are several brands available in the stores, but making your own is so very easy and cheap! This can also be given as gifts when put in a pint canning jar topped with a pretty bow or hand made tag.

Homemade Carpet Refresher
1 part Borax
1 part Cornstarch
1 part Washing or Baking Soda
Essential oil in any scent you prefer (I like apple myself)

Mix the dry ingredients first in a well-ventilated area. (You might even consider wearing a fresh-air mask while mixing powdered ingredients.) Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil- which can often be purchased behind the pharmacy counter or with candle-making supplies. Gently stir the mixture until the oil is well incorporated.

TIPS- for a small amount, try using one cup of each dry ingredient and about 6 drops of oil.

Homemade Scouring Powder

Some time ago I came across a recipe for Homemade Dishwasher Detergent. It is very simple: 

1 C Borax

1 C Baking Soda

1/2 C salt

At first this worked very well for me, but over a few weeks, a nasty film buildup appeared on my dishes. Now apparently not everyone has this problem using this homemade cleaner in the dishwasher. Maybe it is my water? 

With some trial and error, I discovered this cleaner is great to stretch my normal detergent.  I mix the two half and half. It also will do in a pinch if I run out of detergent, but I also found that this concoction makes an excellent scouring powder. 

Take a little of the mixture, put it on a damp sponge or rag, and scrub away! It does an excellent job on the kitchen sink, and other places that need a good scrubbing. 

The cleaner is simple to make, doesn't use harsh chemicals, and is very economical. It did not work well for me as dishwasher detergent, but it does an excellent job as a homemade scouring powder. 

Photo credit: Big_Law

Fresh & Clean Laundry Soap

I've been making my own cleaning products for some time now and love the way that so many different types of cleaners can be made from 6 basic ingredients: baking soda, washing soda, borax, castile soap, vinegar, and lemon juice. I make glass cleaner, an all purpose spray cleaner, soap for the wood floors, scrub for the bath tub, soap for the dishwasher, and even shampoo out of these ingredients.

Recently I decided to test out some homemade laundry soap. I've been using Charlie's Soap, which I completely love, but I can no longer get locally, so I decided to look to my current products for an answer. I was already using washing soda and/or Borax in addition to my regular laundry soap sometimes when I needed a laundry booster or something for odors or tough stains. And my Dr. Bronners castile soap touts that it can be used to clean just about anything. So why not mix them up?
I ended up grating an ounce of the Dr. Bronner's, then adding a cup of Borax and a cup of Washing Soda. I shook it all together and stored it in a glass jar w/ tight fitting lid. I use about 2 tablespoons for each load (just because that's how big the scoop is in my laundry room).


Our laundry comes out looking, feeling and smelling nice and clean. No fake "mountain fresh" or "sunshine" scent, just clean. There's no plastic waste. Everything comes in cardboard, which I recycle. And it's all stuff that I buy anyway. Gotta love that!

EDITED 2/27/09 to say: As you'll see in the comments below, we were asked for a cost per load on this laundry soap. We originally figured it at a much higher price (because I'm not all that good at math, evidently!). I looked online for prices of the Washing Soda and Borax because I didn't remember how much I'd paid for them 6+ months prior. Well, when I went to our local King Soopers grocery store (owned by Kroger) to restock this week, I found that they were much cheaper than I found them online. So here is my new cost breakdown:

COSTS:
Washing Soda: 3.99 for 55 oz = .072 / oz
Borax: 3.49 for 76 oz = .045 / oz
Dr. Bronner's bar: 3.65 for 5 oz = .73 / oz

For one batch I use:
8 oz Washing soda = .576
8 oz Borax = .36
1 oz Dr. Bronners = .73
for a total cost of = 1.66 per batch

One batch = 17 oz of mixed product
2 tbsp = 1 oz, so there are 34 tbsp of product in this batch
$1.66 divided by 34 tbsp = .048 per tbsp

I use 2 tbsp per load, so that is $0.097 (let's round up to $.10) per load

Hope that helps!

~*Kellie blogs regularly at Greenhab: The Browns Go Green*~