My parents have a grapefruit tree and a lemon tree.  I get lots of lemons and grapefruit.  Over the years I have investigated innumerable ways of using and preserving this bounty.  I can lemon juice for year-round use.  I eat and give away as much grapefruit as possible, then can the rest.  This leaves me with a mountain of grapefruit peels.  It seems a waste to throw them out, and they don't compost well.  So one year I started experimenting with using them to make a cleaner.  It didn't take long to hit on a simple formula that is also very simple to prepare. 

I get out my biggest stockpot, fill it with grapefruit peels, and cover them with water.  I bring the whole shootin' match to a vigorous boil, then turn it down and let it simmer for a day, topping up the water level as needed.  After several hours, or all day, I turn off the heat and let the mixture cool off overnight.  The next morning, I get up and start straining the mixture into gallon size glass jugs.  Do not use plastic, as this concentrate, though not really rough on the skin, will eat through plastic jugs within a few days and leave you with a leaky mess.  It is also a good idea to vacuum seal or water bath can (in quart-size jars) any concentrate you will not be using right away, as it will ferment and grow yeast.  This fermentation does not make the cleaner lose any effectiveness, it just replaces the pleasant, citrusy scent with an unpleasant odor. 

Be sure to label the concentrate so no one drinks it.  I don't know how harmful it would be, but I certainly don't recommend it. 

A note on straining.  I put a funnel on top of the glass jug I am straining into and line it with a piece of old t-shirt, sheet or dishtowel to filter out the solids.  The liquid is too thick for coffee filters, it takes forever, and does not need to be strained as much as that.  I then ladle the liquid into the filter, scraping solids off as they build up.  When I get down to where it's mostly peels and other solids, I squeeze them real good, filter the remaining liquid, and put the now softened peels into the compost bin, where they compost much more readily.

How to use your fantastical new cleaner.  For general cleaning, I dilute 1 part cleaner to 4 parts water in a plastic spray bottle.  At this dilution it has not eaten through any of my bottles yet.  This works well for light cleaning of counters, glass, mirrors, sinks, toilets, floors and all such general light jobs.  For laundry, I use 1/2 to 1 cup undiluted, pour in with the soap instead of bleach, and enjoy softer, whiter, more pleasant smelling clothes.  For tough, greasy jobs, like my stovetop, I pour the undiluted concentrate right on the greasy spots, let soak at least 20 minutes, then use a hard plastic scraper to loosen most of the cooked on grease.  This does sometimes leave a few small areas to scrub with steel wool or a copper scrubber, but takes most of the work out of it.

I have used this same formula with orange peels, lemon peels and combinations of different citrus peels, in smaller and larger batches.  The basic idea is just cover with water, cook several hours, strain and enjoy using your own homemade, all natural citrus cleaner.

For more homesteading, homeschooling and simple living ideas stop by www.mrsdshomestead.blogspot.com or www.mrsdshomestead.com .  

The practicality of homemade household cleaners on any farm makes perfect sense. As an aspiring homesteader, I have to get decisive about what we buy and what we make. For a while now, I have been purchasing 7th Generation dish detergent and dish soap for its nontoxic qualities and environmentally friendly ingredients.

But it comes at a higher cost than the sulfate laden store brand. (Initially, of course. We all know that the cost is paid long-term for putting those chemicals all over our eating utensils).

And this week, we ran out of dishwasher soap. Not a good week for the Sell household to run out of anything. We are between end of the month bills and investing a lot of up-front purchases for the farm this year; in other words, broke!

So I'm thinking to myself as the dishes began to pile up ... there must be a way to make this stuff at home. Homesteaders of the past had founts of knowledge passed on to them by mothers and grandmothers, uncles and fathers. But in our generation, our predecessors (God bless them) had been taught that buying things was much better and easier than making anything in home. So this fount of generational wisdom is now merely a trickle.

This is why having internet at my fingertips helps me on a daily basis. The collective knowledge has pooled online and I only have to do a quick search to see if what I want to do is possible.

Homemade dishwasher detergent is possible!

All it takes is two very key ingredients that we happened to have on hand: Washing soda and Borax.

These boxes were found in our local grocery store. I have to imagine they are in yours as well, since our small town grocery is no Walmart Superstore.

It's a simple one:one ratio.

Dishwasher Detergent

1 cup Super Washing Soda
1 cup Borax

Mix together 2 tablespoons per load. Close door and wait. Upon completion, inspect dishes and be in awe. You did it!

And we have enough for probably two weeks of dishwashing. (We do a load at least once a day).

But wait, there's more! A couple years ago, I got interested in making a lot of my own cleaners. I gleaned advice from a couple magazines and put together a PDF of homemade cleaners. To put into perspective, I haven't purchased cleaner (except the dish stuff) since I found these recipes. Everything in our house gets cleaned exceptionally well with these recipes! And adding the essential oils is ESSENTIAL! For one, it's fun to play with making your own scents, but it helps cover the strong vinegar smell that goes along with some of the cleaners.

My favorite essential oil to use? Grapefruit. Andy's? Lemongrass.

Click on the links below to open each page of my little booklet.

Recipe for homemade cleaner for wood and leather. 

Recipe for homemade cleaner for your bathtub and toilet.   

Homemade cleaners for all-purpose cleaner and windows. 

Homemade cleaner recipes for the oven and dishes. 

Recipe for homemade laundry detergent booster. 

Thanks for reading and I hope this really helps you in your home cleaning endeavors.

Oh, one more thing. Shortly after I began using the all-purpose spray, a 10-month-old Elly grabbed the bottle of cleaner that was sitting far too low on the table. Before Andy could react, she had turned it to her face and squeezed the trigger! She got a face full of cleaner, even in her opened eyes. She was surprised and a little annoyed to be so wet, but otherwise fine.

Can you imagine if that had been a bottle of Fantastic?! In her opened eyes? We would have rushed her to the ER. As it was, we learned a lesson about how far she can reach, and a blessing in the fact that we had just switched over from chemical cleaners.

Just a little food for thought.

Becky

Many of us grew up in the largest generation: the Clorox generation. Our earliest memories of cleaning usually involved using bleach and water. The use of bleach defined cleanliness for us – the stinging nostrils, burning cuticles, and noxious fumes – and yet, no one ever seemed alarmed at its use. Of course, bleach isn't all bad. A bottle of bleach means clean drinking water in many parts of the world, good times in swimming pools, and very white clothing. So, why all the fuss?

Bleach is kryptonite for allergy and asthma suffers. Bleach also mixes with common household cleaning products to create some dangerous situations. Examples? Oh, I got plenty of those!

Mixed with ammonia ... bleach releases a gas that can cause your lungs to stop functioning. Where is ammonia lurking that bleach often mixes with it? Toilets. Urine contains ammonia, right?

Mixed with dish soap ... bleach produces mustard gas. That's right, the stuff from World War I that caused severe chemical burns, conjunctivitis, temporary blindness, bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system, and (in some cases) cancer. Not cool, folks.

Mixed with organic matter ... bleach produces chloroform. Chloroform? Yep. Inhaling chloroform vapors depresses the central nervous system of a patient, causing dizziness, fatigue and unconsciousness. Prolonged exposure can harm necessary (and kind of super-important) organs like your liver, kidneys, and skin. Chloroform is also a cancer-causing toxin.

So, what can we use instead of bleach?? Easy-peasy, y'all!

Here's the recipe:

12 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup hydrogen peroxide

Mix. Add 2 cups per wash load or put in spray bottle and use as a household cleaner.

You can use grapefruit juice instead of lemon juice. Whatever floats your boat.

I got this bottle of hydrogen peroxide for less than $1. One bottle like the one above contains about 2 cups of hydrogen peroxide. So, we're keeping it appealing to the budget.

There we have it. Fresh as an Irish water fall. No noxious fumes. No burns. No fear.

Load this stuff into an old vinegar jug and/or a household sprayer and start your cleaning engines!