The cheapest, easiest fabric cleaner ever!

If you’ve been following along, you know that lately I’ve been in what I call my “Martha mode”. It cracks me up because I’m not usually like this at all…..I buy my stuff at the store and move on. I’m not sure what started all this, but it was probably when I went to buy my body wash and the price had gone up by almost $2 and then I went to the laundry aisle and about stomped away looking at the price of fabric softener. I figured there had to be a better way then just to suck it up and pay it…….there is. The first thing I did was go to Pinterest for ideas and it didn’t disappoint. I found so many different things I can make myself at home for so much cheaper!

The first thing I tried was deodorant - a total success! I gave some to my teenage daughter and my sister who are just as picky as I am and they love it! This motivated me to try body wash and since that was another success, I may have gone a little crazy mixing stuff up yesterday

I tried a homemade cleaner last month and was disappointed by the results – it was vinegar & Dawn dish soap mixed together in a spray bottle. I decided to try it again, but this time I didn’t measure it out(I HATE EXACT MEASUREMENTS!) and I warmed it up. SO MUCH BETTER!  I have a high kitchen table which required me to buy stools and the only ones I could find that I could afford had microfiber cushions. I have 3 kids – one of which is a toddler, a “spill prone” husband, 2 cats and a dog so do I really need to paint you a picture of why these are not the best idea? They get so filthy and show every bit of juice spilled and dirty paw print left. I’ve tried scrubbing with hot soapy water, windex, fabric cleaner & rubbing alcohol, which everyone swore by. Nothing worked! On an impulse I decided to spray on the vinegar/Dawn mixture……I can’t even tell you how good this stuff is. The minute I sprayed it on I knew it was going to work……..I sprayed on enough to saturate the cover, scrubbed with a sponge and let dry. Telling you isn’t going to get my point across so of course I took pictures so you can see.  The best part about this is not only that the cost is ridiculously low, but the vinegar is a natural odor absorber – but you do have to put up with it smelling like vinegar for a few hours.

 

As I said, I don’t use exact measurements but I will try :

Cleaner:

Get a small saucepan and fill about 3/4 full with white vinegar. Add about 2-3 tbsp Dawn dish soap. Heat on medium high until its well mixed and hot – not boiling! Let cool just enough to pour into a spray bottle. I’ve used this to clean the bathtub, toilet, sinks, and now the cushions. Instead of the stove, you can heat up mixture in microwave for about 3 minutes – just be careful taking bowl out!

I probably need to “fluff” up the cushion with a brush, but you get the idea. They look almost new! This works on couches too…..if you want, try a spot first to make sure nothing reacts but I sprayed this all over my couch which is about the same material and it really cleans it!

 

 

 

 

I’m cleaning my tub – anyone want to watch?? – update

Although I’m not making any recipes right now, I’m going to pretend at being domestic this week – and where else do I learn how to do this? Pinterest of course!! Every day I’m going to try out 1 or 2 pins and report back here to share if they worked or not. Now, I’m usually one of those people that can never get these “magic” remedies to work so believe me when I say if it works for me it will work for you.

Today I’m trying out some homemade cleaner because I really really need to clean my house…not just dishes & vacuum, but deep clean. I hate cleaning! The first thing I need to do is figure out how to get that big area by the drain in my bathtub clean. I’ve tried everything from  bleach to Comet to baking soda scrub to just plain old scrubbing  and nothing makes a difference.

I’ve found several pins that swear that a mix of 1 part Dawn Original dish soap and 2 parts vinegar  in a spray bottle is the answer. I’m skeptical, but its worth a try.

And of course its not really fun unless I post the before and afters……here is the before pics of my tub – I know, I know people – its not pretty! But in my defense, thats after scrubbing it “clean”.  I’ve sprayed down the whole tub/shower and I’m going to wait a few hours and then try rinsing it – I will report back with the results.

UPDATE

Ok….its been a few hours and while I didn’t have any great expectations I have to say I was disappointed with this one – the “after” was after I rinsed and scrubbed and almost no difference…..other than making my house smell like vinegar. I will keep searching. If anyone has a good home cleaner that would remove this stuff feel free to share with me and I’ll try it out!

I do have to say that even though this didn’t work for my tub, its a great cleaner for stainless steel, stove tops, tables, cupboards, etc. – so it wasn’t a total waste of time.

Sorry about the pics…my good camera needs charged so I took these with my crappy phone camera.

This is the before: Cue horror movie music         

This is the after:(

 

Bored so I made some brownies….

I had made a black bean cake a few days ago and that turned out good so I pushed my luck by trying brownies using black beans. I’m trying to be healthier and I’m constantly on the hunt for desserts with 150 calories or less per serving.

I used too many healthy substitutions in one recipe. I thought since my vegan chocolate cake tastes so good and uses vinegar instead of eggs that it would work for the brownies. How wrong I was. I also cut the sugar in half and added 2 tsp vanilla, and used less butter. They may have had a chance if I had used eggs and the full amount of sugar but its hard to tell.

These are disgusting…no, I need a stronger word – revolting.

First, the consistency is off – they are all squishy and mushy. It tastes like beans, baking soda and salt – omg they are bad! These brownies are everything you shouldn’t do when baking.

So there it is, I promised to share the bad with the good and I came through big time on this one! I will stick to only substituting one ingredient per recipe.

This doesn’t have to be a total loss though….I will leave one brownie for my husband as a test – if he reads my blog then he’s safe, but if not I guess this will be a hard lesson to learn