There are several reasons why one would opt to use DIY cleaner in place of commercial products. Whether it is due to environmental concern, financial difficulties, or any other reasons; using DIY cleaning methods comes with experimentation. A lot of recipes aren’t as effective as they claim to be, but some work surprisingly well.
What Works: Soda And Peroxide On Grout
Cleaning your kitchen or bathroom grout can be a pain if you’re not sure how to do it right. Although many people use soda and vinegar to clean their grout (adding a lot of elbow grease), baking soda and peroxide is a far superior DIY cleaner. We’ve tried this on prism grout vs. mapei, and it works well no matter what. You still need to get down and scrub, but leaving the paste to do its magic for a few minutes can significantly decrease the amount of work you have to do.
What Doesn’t Work: Vinegar Solution Surface Disinfectant
There are practically millions of blogs and articles on the internet telling people to mix vinegar and water in a spray bottle as an all-purpose disinfectant spray for their surfaces. Unfortunately, vinegar is a weak disinfectant (an effect that is substantially reduced once it’s diluted), and doesn’t compare to even basic commercial disinfectant sprays. If you want a DIY disinfectant spray – use a rubbing alcohol and water solution instead.
What Works: Borax-based Laundry Detergent
The general formula that is used for making homemade laundry detergent is 2:2:1 ratio of borax, washing soda, and regular soap. Other additions such as essential oils are common as well. Generally speaking, this detergent works just as well (and sometimes ever better than) as commercial laundry detergent. This is actually a very old method that has been proven highly effective time and time again.
What Doesn’t Work: DIY Toilet Cleaners
We’ve yet to find a recipe for a toilet cleaner that works well in deep cleaning toilets and keeping them clean. Of course, this is even more difficult when dealing with limescale and neglected toilets. Our advice is to stick to commercial cleaners when it comes to cleaning your toilet bowl, and use industrial strength if you are dealing with particularly difficult stains.
What Works: Baking Soda To Absorb Odors
Many people use baking soda to eliminate odors from shows, gym bags, mattresses and even their fridge. This DIY hack works really well, and it is convenient that the baking soda can be used more than once. Some people make baggies filled with baking soda and essential oils (tea tree oil has antimicrobial properties) to put in shoes and in the back of closets.
The Bottom Line
While many DIY cleaning methods are highly effective, there still remains a good portion of the that simply do not compare to commercial standards of cleaning. The best advice we can give you is to experiment with different recipes and see with works for you. You might not need a heavy duty cleaner, and so DIY cleaners may be enough for your purposes.
