Home made cleaning products

[Green Aura]

Apart from soap nuts, which don't seem to work brilliantly here (water type? ) I'm not sure I trust many of the so-called eco brands. And some of them smell dreadful too.

[ina]

I think the "normal" products would smell just as awful if they didn't have all those perfumes added... To be honest, due to financial constraints I just use the cheapest available - but only half of the stated quantities. Works perfectly well.

[Zech]

Is there a reason for making your own when there are green and ethical products that don't use chemicals?

Cost!

Homemade soap and laundry liquid are much cheaper than bought, of any kind (I really must make some more) and washing hair in water only is obviously cheaper than using shampoo. I'm not sure how vinegar and bicarb compare - I haven't actually worked out what I spend on them - but I'm guessing they're cheaper. They're certainly more effective (hob, sink, bathroom). That said, I am rather attached to my brand name washing up liquid. I haven't found anything comparable, either bought or made.

PS I'm sorry, I just can't let it pass... Everything is chemicals.

[Smilesbetter]

Well for me, I am sensitive to SLS which is a very harsh chemical used to make the lather that we have been marketed to believe makes things clean (it doesn't, they're just bubbles haha). Plus I am allergic to basically perfume (when it has been sitting open). So I started trying to look for cleaning products that didn't use SLS or fragrances and I couldn't find any really, plus with washing up liquid specifically they don't actually list the ingredients on the bottle (Ecover for example, I had extreme difficulty finding out ANYTHING that is included in it) which makes me not trust the companies at all. In addition to this, SLS can even be found in "eco friendly" products despite being a very harsh chemical (if your hands dry out when cleaning, this is most likely why, and if it does that to our hands what is it doing to the environment?).

I'd rather just make my own things so that I can have peace of mind, save some money, have fun making it and also I think that the act of homemaking something makes me less likely to just waste it as well.

Anyway I enjoy making things and despite my first attempt being a complete disaster, I had a good laugh making it and am looking forward to using the tips from here to tweak it a bit and see if I can make it better.

As for hair products, I went from spending a shocking amount of money a week on products that are actually designed to be bad for your hair, to spending about £2 a week on honey to make honey shampoo, and now £0 a week as I just use water, and actually my hair feels better now than it ever has. I can wear it down without anything in it and it looks better than it did before. My hair feels naturally soft and shiny now which is unbelievable for my hair which had always been rough and dull (I have curly red hair, a bit like that lassie from Brave haha). My hair even actually gets less tangly now and is much more enjoyable to brush. And all I use it water, a comb, and one of those body brush things which I use to brush the oil my hair naturally produces and help it get evenly distributed through my hair. I love my hair, for the first time in my life!

Plus I am not causing the creation of yet more plastic bottles for any of these products I'm not using, and no matter how Eco friendly a product says it is, if it's in a new plastic bottle then I'd say it's not all that. For my washing up liquid, I did the first batch plastic bottles I had in the flat from my previous Germanised habit of buying bottled water instead of just drinking it from the tap (seriously, order tap water here and in many places you actually get laughed at!). I can reuse glass bottles too though and there are plenty of those sitting on my mans alcohol shelf in the kitchen :P

[Flo]

That answers my question in your case then Smilesbetter. There's the logic in it.

Me - I'm just lazy at sourcing various ingredients to make my own. I'll buy in larger containers and keep old but smaller ones to decant it down into smaller sizes is my defence on the plastics front.

[Richard_78]

Really there are prevalent some home-made green cleaning products, on over this blog! I Actually I was searching these from a long time, because of telling by my grandmother for cleaning my house.

[Pumkinpie]

It can be cheaper. I am on a site where a lot of people make there own washing powder from basic household soap and washing soda ( I think) and sware by it.

[ojay54]

You're on one now.See above.Washing powder is so easy,I don't know why every one doesn't do it.None of that God awful smell you get with the bought stuff either.