Comments on: Trimming the Average Budget: Housekeeping Supplies

By: melissa

melissa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:05:08 +0000

I don’t use paper towels much anymore at all unless someone else buys them. My in-laws and guests always ask where the paper towels are which is the thing I find most annoying. I used cloth diapers as burp rags for each of my children. When they didn’t need them anymore, I began to use them as cleaning rags. They are awesome. They’re soft enought to use on any surface, super absorbant, and they last for a very long time. I still have about 10 from my oldest son who is now 6!

By: Carolyn Russell

Carolyn Russell — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:42:50 +0000

I don’t use paper napkins anymore, unless it is a grease/oil mess.I read an article that gave the cost savings of using cloth napkins instead. You can use an old sheet and get More than enough napkins from just one. If you don’t want to cut up a sheet you already have, buying a new sheet(the bigger the bigger savings) is still cheaper than buying paper napkins. Zigzag or hem the raw edges. A high cotton or 100% cotton works best, in my opinion. Dish towels and wash cloths make great cloth napkins too. Watch out, tho’, the polyester ones don’t work well for me.

By: ck

ck — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:57:00 +0000

We purchase the largest or bulk baking soda to use for the Ph balance in the swimming pool; is the same ingredient of expensive pool “chemicals”. Speaking of laundry items: I keep the used dryer sheets, lay 2together length-wise (overlapped) to fit the head of my “swif-fer” for dust-sweeping. I have never purchased the replacement pads. The dryer sheets clings lint, hair, etc., but I just use a damp tissue to pick up the remaining dirt/crumbs.

By: PT free

PT free — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:44:52 +0000

Heard about this website from a friend, and the first thing he told me about was the paper towels! We used about 1 to 1.5 rolls a week, so I decided to try it. I stuffed the washcloths/rags into the cloth tube we once used to store plastic laundry bags…hung it up in the kitchen, and it’s just as accessible as a roll of paper towels. I’ve decided to buy a few more cloths in a distinct color and wash them & my dish towels separately from our bath towels and misc. rags, because the thought of using the same rag on my floor as I use on my daughter’s face or on my dishes skeeves me out. Nonetheless, with this one move I will have saved us at least $60 a year. A small thing, but I’m happy with it.

By: SockSaver

SockSaver — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:25:52 +0000

Recently had my 4yr old granddaughter over for the day. We made “laundry soap”. She grated, stirred, and poured cold water. She had a blast! We had together time in the ultimate old fashioned way. No outside noises(tv-radio) just us. And folks, its the bluing in tide that makes your clothes look cleaner.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:58:20 +0000

Whoever suggested a bowl of ammonia– I am going to try that with things that can be taken outside (I saw the cleaning ladies do that on their show on bbc america with toilet seats). I can’t leave a pan of ammonia to evaporate in our house. It’s too well sealed and we have birds–hence my desire for something safer like baking soda, if it weren’t so hard to get rid of afterward.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:02:32 +0000

My favorite is coupons. But only combined with a sale. If you have a stockpile you don’t ever run out of any one product.

Also for weed killer this is more effective than round-up and no chemicals:
1 gallon white vinegar (pour a little out)
1 cup of table salt mixed in
10 drops of dishwashing liquid (I use blue dawn

Mix together and put in a spray bottle. This kills everything.

By: gsb

gsb — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:04:20 +0000

We have Baking Soda, Vinegar and Borax in our house. All of our cleaning and laundry products are made with these.
Though paper towels may be cheap, we are still using up our natural resources making them. We use mainly rags, towels, cloth napkins for clean-up.

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:51:03 +0000

I was a little shocked by your “rags don’t have a laundry cost” statement. Why not, because they are so small and insignificant? I could use the same argument to justify my paper towel use. You of all people should appreciate that it’s the little things that add up.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:17:05 +0000

My Husband’s beard hair kept gumming up the works in both our bathroom sink and tub.We were constantly having slow shower drain issues and the hot vinegar flush worked, but not for long and not that well.

I bought this little snake thing from (I belive) Billie Mays and it has workd with no problems since (quite a few months now).

I’m also pro rag, but there are some things papertowels are a must for: cat vomit and raw meat/milk spills are two.

By: Shauna Redmond

Shauna Redmond — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:35:15 +0000

Mopping the floors, I use a terry rag cut in half to replace the swiffer sweeper pad. Works just as well and I can throw all the dirt it picks up in the wash! I live by the terry cloth bag I picked up from Home Depot for 10 bucks 3 years ago. Its the kind that you buy for shop use and It had about 50 cloths in it. Some I leave intact some I cut in half for convenience and to fit in my swiffer mop. When I do throw it away (I clean up something I am unwilling to throw in the wash such as scrubbing the bottom of my cat littler pan) I don’t feel guilty. I still have about 30 of the 50 left. And I can still cut those in half. I use the half size to wash dishes, wipe up spills, mop my floors, and dust. The full size comes in handy to dry dishes, wipe down large spills, wash the car don’t do that unless you don’t care about your paint, lay down on a surface before I spray something such as paint, etc.

By: anna

anna — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:30:59 +0000

Hot water is my favorite cleaner.

Fill your kitchen or bathroom sinks with really hot water & just a splash of bleach than let them soak for an hour, when you drain them just wipe them down with a sponge and all stains are removed.

Fill a large pot with water & boil it than pour it down any drain and it will remove a clog. I have long hair and doing this every couple of months has kept them clog free and is a very inexpensive fix.

I also have a steam cleaner and it is great for cleaning bathrooms, fridges, and stoves. It was a Shark Steam Cleaning package, came with a steamer and a steam mop plus plenty of reusable microfiber cloths for both.

By: Debbie M

Debbie M — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:27:08 +0000

@Vicky, I have long hair too and agree that prevention is the way to go. I keep strainers in the drains. Yes, I might have to clean out the shower drain every time I take a shower or even twice during one shower. But then there are no plumbers and no product use.

You can prevent having to vacuum or sweep so often if you take your shoes off at the door and allow people to eat only in the dining room.

By: Lily

Lily — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:02:56 +0000

I had never heard about the vinegar/baking soda combo so I just tried it and it’s great!

I squeeze a lot of fresh lemons and limes that I get at the dollar store to make lemon/lime-aid. After squeezing the juice out, I’ll put the remaining lemon in water for the microwave idea.

I was going to give some old, but good-quality cotton t-shirts to Goodwill but decided to use them for my steam cleaner. I tie them securely onto my steamer to clean my floor and pile up the dirty rags and do a load of laundry. Worked like a charm!

@ Sara: About the thick-headed boyfriend, the best advice is to get rid of the paper towels. At least for a few weeks or so. Maybe this way he’ll come to value them like you do. I recently hid a roll of paper towels to force my husband of 28 years to use the cloth towels I provided. He used to take 3-4 paper towels to clean up a spill that only required half a paper towel. Same with toilet paper. He’d take the roll off the holder and wrap his hand with it till he looked like a freaking mummy. So now I remind him that we only have one roll (even though I might have hidden a couple somewhere) so he doesn’t waste so much. The other thing that annoyed me is that he would completely submerge cereal in 1/2 and 1/2, eat the cereal by scooping it out with a fork, and throw away ALL the 1/2 and 1/2. Now I don’t buy cereal and I make him rice pudding instead, made with 1/2 and 1/2. He loves that more than cereal anyways so it was a win-win. What can I say – our men are sometimes idiots but we gotta love them and I for one am lucky he puts up with my scorn. I’m also lucky he doesn’t begrudge my methods and understands that we’re a team and our most important values and goals are compatible. Good luck, Sara.

By: jgonzales

jgonzales — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:31:10 +0000

Vicky, I can’t find an online listing (in fact, most recommend it) but my Dirt Devil manual (yeah, I’m one of those people!) specifically states not to use anything that can reduce air flow, which includes baking soda & the commercial Arm & Hammer products. I tried finding a Dirt Devil Manual online, but Dirt Devil makes life very difficult.

By: Amy K.

Amy K. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:47:17 +0000

I would also add “reduce frequency of use” to the list. It won’t help with the vacuum (you’ll go through as many bags if you vacuum once a day or once a week), but it will reduce the use of cleaning products. E.g. I scrub the toilet with just the brush most of the time, and do a “deep clean” with bowl cleaner every third or fourth time. Similarly we don’t go through many napkins because we leave them at our seat for the next meal and throw them away when they’re actually dirty (I know, I know, cloth is the Holy Grail but we’re not there yet). Re-wearing clothes was mentioned under reducing your clothing expenses, but it will also reduce your use of detergent, fabric softener, and dryer sheets if you can cut out a load or two a week.

My favorite of the given tips is to use as much as you need, because more is not always better.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:40:51 +0000

I use about 1/16th the amount of fabric softener that is suggested (only about 1/4 inch or so in the cap). This amount works fine and a bottle of fabric softener lasts for months and months. It also cuts down on the smell, which isn’t so nice if you have asthma and react to strong scents.

By: Leah

Leah — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:29:54 +0000

I keep the paper towels in the cupboard so that they are hard to reach. That way, we have them if there’s a really awful, gross mess, but we definitely use the towels and rags first!

My favorite tip here is to use less. Especially less laundry detergent. I use a fraction of the “recommended” amount, and my clothes are still clean. Heck, even when I use scented detergent (using up my boyfriend’s tide now that we live together before switching back to my preferred Trader Joe’s) my clothes still smell strongly of the detergent, and I only use about a tablespoon for a medium to large load.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:05:08 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly that using a *much* smaller amount of cleaning product will not only save money but also present less damage to the environment. As my mother has often told me, the companies’ goal is to sell more product, rather than to offer realistic guidance to the consumer! I find I rarely have to use more than a quarter of a capful of detergent or fabric softener, and often even less than that is sufficient.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:24:11 +0000

I’m also a big fan of Mrs. Myers. We have a glass top stove and the only thing I found to clean burned on stains is Mrs. Myers and a nylon scrubbing cloth/sponge. I spray diluted Mrs. Myers on rags to clean the microwave, counter tops and most every other washable surface.

‘Magic sponges’ as they’re called in Asia are amazing for removing dirt and stains. (I think Mr. Clean eraser is a similar US product) They are dense white sponges that come in blocks that we slice to size. Wet the sponge with water and wipe away all kinds of dirt that nothing else seems to remove. No harmful chemicals (check out snopes.com).

We use rectangular ‘Japanese scrubbing cloths’ that are made from recycled plastic bottles for washing. They are about 15″x36″. I cut a strip about 4″ wide from an old scrubbing cloth and sew it at one end of the cloth I use leaving about an inch open along the side. All our slivers of soap that used to go down the drain have found new cleaning power!

a few drops of WD-40 on a rag cleans away old adhesives in a flash.