All Purpose

It’s been a long time coming.

My gallon-size white vinegar container is finally empty.  Hooray!

Why is this exciting news, you ask?

Because I can finally use it to make up a big refill batch of my homemade all-purpose cleaner.

I usually just make a 32 oz. spray bottle of the stuff at a time.  But it takes pretty much the same amount of time to make the gallon size, so I’m happy that I’ve finally used up that big bottle of white vinegar.  It took me a long time.

I got this recipe from The Complete Tightwad Gazette.  The original instructions call for white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, amonia, and (I think) baking soda.

I never added the baking soda, and after a while I eliminated the amonia (a grease cutter), too.  I always have lots of trouble dealing with bleach, and I didn’t want to risk ever getting the two mixed up.

So what’s left is alcohol, vinegar, and water.  I’ve been using this for years, and I’ve been very happy with the results.  Alcohol is disinfecting, and vinegar is just an all-around good cleaner (and sparkler).  I think it has disinfecting properties, too. Also, taking out the other ingredients makes my cleaner even cheaper, which is nice.

Here’s the gallon-size recipe:

2 Cups Rubbing Alcohol

1 Cup  White Vinegar

Fill to the top of container with water.

For just a spray-bottle’s worth (32 oz), do this:

1/2 Cup Rubbing Alcohol

1/4 Cup White Vinegar

Fill to the top of container with water.

I use this cleaner on just about everything around the house: toilets, mirrors, granite counters, stainless steel appliances, tile, windows, painted surfaces.  It even does a pretty good job of cleaning up dog barf on carpets, though sometimes I do have to go over the more dramatic messes with the steam cleaner.

I buy the ingredients at Sam’s Club. Today’s price for 2 gallons (or 256 oz) of distilled white vinegar is $3.38, or .01 per oz.  Today price for rubbing alcohol is $3.76 for 64 oz, or .06 per oz.

So a gallon of my homemade All-Purpose cleaner costs me .08 (for the vinegar) + .96 (for the rubbing alcohol) = $1.04 per gallon or less than .01 per oz or .26 per 32 oz spray bottle. That’s pretty good.  I could never get such a great deal on Fantastik, even with coupons (that used to be my go-to cleaner).

The other thing is that Fantastik smells just like a chemical factory.  Over the years I got used to that smell, and even associated it with cleanliness.  But now when I smell it it seems very harsh and kind of scary.  My homemade cleaner smells only of white vinegar and rubbing alcohol.  It took me a little while to get used to the vinegar smell (it used to make me think of coloring easter eggs), but now I don’t even notice it.  Also, it evaporates very quickly so if you don’t like the smell of it, it doesn’t last too long (leaving sparkliness behind. Yay!). Rubbing alcohol scent doesn’t linger long either, but to me it’s a very mild aroma.

I know some people just use a white vinegar and water combo, which is probably good too.  But I want to make sure I really kill those germs.

Another nice thing is that I use the same four spray bottles of cleaner over and over and over (Go Eco-Tess!).  Also, I never really run out of cleaner, because I always have the bulk ingredients on hand to make it.