If you want to attack your dirt, you’ll need an arsenal of supplies. But forget the fancy cleaners, battery powered mops, and expensive robots. You can have a sparkling clean house without spending a lot of money.
Head over to your local warehouse and/or discount club and pick up the following items. You can use them to make your own cleaners and cleaning equipment arsenal.
Baking soda: A natural deodorizer and scrubber that is great for cleaning ovens, microwave ovens and the refrigerator. Combined with the next ingredient, it can clean bathrooms.
Vinegar: A grease cutter that makes surfaces shine from glass to floors. I can get up more dirt with vinegar and water than I can with a store bought floor cleaner!
A broom: Keeping up with the dust and crumbs will keep your floors clean and scratch free.
A scrub brush: Use it for everything from scrubbing the floor to the walls. Mine can attach to a pole for floors or walls.
Spray bottles: To mix your cleaning potions and apply them.
Microfiber cloths: These cloths can be used wet or dry. They can dust, they can scrub and they can polish, sometimes using only water.
Dish towels: Pick up some sturdy non-decorative dish towels and use them instead of paper towels around the house for everything from picking up spills to scrubbing a floor. I prefer cloths instead of a mop because clothes don’t redeposit dirt on to the floor.
Dishwashing soap: Mixed with water, this makes a great all-purpose cleaner as well as a stain remover.
Here are some items that you might already have at home.
Newspaper: This is great for washing windows.
Olive oil: This adds luster to wood and makes a nice furniture polish. It can be expensive, though, so buy it on sale.
Lemon juice: Lemon juice can add scent, be a natural deodorizer and even bleach out stains. You can also use whole lemons to scrub.
Vacuum: While I do as much sweeping as I possibly can to save on electricity, sometime s you just need a vacuum. Choose a basic versatile one that can be used on the appropriate surfaces of your home.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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