SPRING CLEANING

Cleaning naturally and frugally

Have you noticed how many of our household cleaners are labled "Do Not Swallow" " If Swallowed Call Poisen Control Immediately. The list of ingredients are barely recognizable and the fumes barely tolerable.

While preparing for a little scrubbing that required soap, I thought someone might be interested in my simple method of readying my soap bucket. (smile) I know, everyone knows how to do that, but I have an interesting and very frugal way of doing it, and since most everyone likes to save dollars, I thought I´d share.

As I´ve mentioned before, I try to be conscious of the chemical affects on our environment and have choosen to use products that are as enviornmentally safe as possible. For my multi-purpose household cleaner I purchase a soap bar that is used for laundry. This can also, be used as a multi-purpose soap. If I remember correctly, in the states, Fels Naptha is the most common brand and can be found in the laundry section of the grocery store. It comes packaged in paper and looks like a large bar of soap. Another brand available is call Zote.

Here is a little Social History for you from Wikipedia:

During the 1920s and 1930s, Fels Naptha was often said to be the preferred soap for washing a child's mouth out who had used bad language. Numerous people from this era attest to having been disciplined in this way. The size of the bar made the discipline all the more dramatic.

Aren´t we fortunate not to have lived during that era, whew!

Anyway, back to the soap bucket...Here in Venezuela, we have a large selection of bar laundry soaps, I use a brand called Las LLaves, because I like the fragrance and it´s sudsing power. One bar can be purchased for under $2.00. I remove the soap from it´s packaging and grate it with a cheese grater, into a container. Once the bar is grated I transfer it into a plastic container, where it will be stored.

To ready my soap bucket I pour about 4 cups of very hot water and 1 heaping tablespoon of grated soap into my bucket. With a wooden spoon I begin to swish the water around, vigorously, until the grated soap has disolved and bubbles begin to form. Then I fill up the bucket with warm water to equal about 1 gallon, and swish some more.

I like a soap that will really suds up, and that will rinse away easily. Mrs. Meyers soap, shown in the picture, can be used as a multi-purpose soap, but it doesn´t suds up as much, I bought two bars from a company in the states to see if I would like them, and though I do like some of their other products I was not as happy with the results of this soap for general cleaning. (But it looks nice in the picture, don´t you think, grin)

Because Las LLaves soap makes alot of suds, I only need to use 1 heaping tablespoon per gallon of water. Can´t beat that! Plus, it is environmentally safe, has mutiple uses, including use as a non-toxic insecticidle soap spray for plants, it is an amazing spot remover on clothing or linens, even silks.

A bar of this soap, grated and used as a multi-purpose cleaner will last for about three months. I use is for almost everything, bathrooms, counter tops, cabinets, floors, washing out the fridge, walls ect. When I have really tough stains or mildew, I will first soak them with a bit of diluted bleach, then give them a good scrub with my multi-purpose soap. Though bleach is toxic and not good for our environment, it has its place if used wisely.

I am really happy with the results...If you try this you may have to try different soaps until you find one that you are happy with, but in my opinion, it is worth the effort.