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I just saw this article: According to the latest government data, Americans spend an average of $659 a year on housekeeping supplies....
Sometimes it isn't about the expense but the convenience as to why these soaps are bought...
Perceived convenience and the spoiled princess icky factor. Just plain not willing to get down on their knees and dirty their hands to scrub out a toilet or even just to wipe it down with windex now and then.
(Windex does a terrific job on china)
The basic day to day that anyone really needs is rather limited:
Bleach, Laundry Detergent, Window Cleaner, Liquid Dish Soap.
The recipes are for soaps, not detergents. Results will be (sorry for the pun) spotty.
Unsweetened Kool-aid is citric acid. The lemon smell would be useful IF a good dishwasher didn't wash away all traces of smell on dishes as a normal activity...
Chemically, the recipes show a complete lack of understanding of the properties of the ingredients. For instance, the second recipe calls for baking soda, washing soda, and lemon juice. When baking soda is acted upon by an acid like lemon juice, it BECOMES washing soda. The general function of washing soda in cleaning is to eliminate some of the problems of hard water (free calcium ions) so that the soap doesn't form a crusty mass instead of cleaning. Someone washing using rainwater would be as well off using plain soap.
The internet is a wonderful source of urban legends and totally unsubstantiated claims. Jill Homemaker is unlikely to come up with a real detergent in her home lab. The action of hot water and soap will do OK for many folks for a while, but our parents and grandparents were no dummies. They quickly understood the advantages of detergents over soaps and changed over.
by getting this stuff on sale and adding a coupon (thats typically doubled by the store), i get the cheap enough that i dont think its better to make my own.
I find that the large pack of Irish Spring is reasonably enough priced to keep me content. Maybe if the economy falls deeper in the toilets I may consider this.
I've made my own laundry detergent; it works well, and it's uber cheap. Much cheaper than I can get it retail, even with sales & coupons. It is a pain to do, but if money is an absolute limiting factor, then it's the way to go.
As far as other household cleaners - I buy dishwasher detergent, and it can be used for lots of other tasks. Window cleaner I make, and I buy concentrates for degreaser and neutral cleaner for my husband's vacuum biz.
I find simple old vinegar and water to be quite useful.
And Suave is a great brand. I buy the stuff and think it works just as well as stuff priced four times higher. Also, I've found with their clarifying daily shampoo, I can get by with washing my pain in the butt long hair not nearly as often as I used to.
I get mostly whatever is on sale. Many years ago, Consumer Reports did a blind test on shampoos - the winner was lemon scented Joy dish soap! It's also a great degreaser, that's why it was used to clean seabirds and sea otters after the Exxon Valdez. As for the rest, I prefer 409 as an all purpose cleaner, works just fine for anything I have to clean.
I find simple old vinegar and water to be quite useful.
And Suave is a great brand. I buy the stuff and think it works just as well as stuff priced four times higher. Also, I've found with their clarifying daily shampoo, I can get by with washing my pain in the butt long hair not nearly as often as I used to.
I used to use Suave shampoo, but now my scalp reacts rather unpleasantly to it. :;grumble::
Oh, and vinegar is a rinse agent. Use a few drops of dish detergent in a spray bottle for a touch better cleaning where vinegar might not do the job. When I worked in a convenience store years ago, we used 2 drops of Joy in a spray bottle of water to clean the windows. Worked great!
I have, for decades, used nothing as a personal soap except Mexican products like Zote or Lirio. They come in big one-pound bars for about a dollar, and are very close to the expensive pure soaps that are sold at craft sales. They are manufactured for laundry use by Mexican women who hand-wash the family laundry in a pila or in the river, but are perfect for shower, shave, and shampoo. My ex-, who was a hairdresser, said it was the best thing she had ever used in her life to wash her hair.
I think they can be found in most Dollar General type stores, or on the laundry soap aisle in supermarkets. If not, check out your local Mexican tienda. I now prefer Lirio, because Zote no longer comes in the un-colored version.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea
our parents and grandparents were no dummies. They quickly understood the advantages of detergents over soaps and changed over.
Our parents and grandparents WERE dummies. They bought everything that had the word NEW on the label, and taught their children to, too, and that's a large part of the reason why we're in such an economic mess now.
Last edited by jtur88; 06-14-2011 at 09:09 AM..
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