Cleaning With Food Stamps – Mirror/Window Cleaner-&-Fabric Softener-In-One… WHAAAT!?

Full disclosure: this post includes a handful of affiliate links, which I do benefit financially from. Thanks to those of you who opt to support me and this blog by buying through the links!

Last week: Homemade Scented Purex Softening Laundry Crystals

Yes, you read that right.

A fabric softener that also cleans your windows and mirrors to a sparkly shine!

This is also the first house hack that makes use of our super duper secret ingredient. Ready for this? Here it is:

Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing!

[waits a minute for the shock to wear off]

The recipe for the cleaning solution:

• 2-4 c white vinegar
• 5-10 drops Mrs. Stewart’s Bluing

To use:

• Add 1/2-1 c mixture to laundry load in fabric softener drawer, or to rinse cycle, instead of fabric softener liquid or sheets
  OR
• spray on window or mirror instead of Windex or similar, wipe with microfiber cloth or newspaper to sparkly, streak-free shine
• For added fabric fluffy-ness, don’t forget to toss some tennis balls or felted dryer balls into the dryer with each load!

Cleaning With Food Stamps – Homemade Scented Purex Softening Laundry Crystals

Full disclosure: this post includes a handful of affiliate links, which I do benefit financially from. Thanks to those of you who opt to support me and this blog by buying through the links!

Last week: Homemade Washing Soda

This week’s homemade trick is inspired by a post by the good lady Karrie over at HappyMoneySaver.com. The recipe, if you can call it that, feels almost unfair in its simplicity – just two ingredients, one of which you can probably get away without:

• Epsom/kosher or rock salt
• Essential oils [or extracts from baking section – more on that later]

[For those of you who can’t wait, the ratio is 15-20 drops per 1 c salts. You may use less if you find the scent too strong – I, however, like nice pungent socks! Wait, that didn’t come out right… anyway, use 2 Tbsp per load. 4 c salts will make 32 loads’ worth of crystals.]

Cleaning With Food Stamps – Homemade Washing Soda

Full disclosure: this post includes a handful of affiliate links, which I do benefit financially from. Thanks to those of you who opt to support me and this blog by buying through the links!

Since washing soda [sometimes called soda ash, scientific name = sodium carbonate] is one of the ingredients we’ll use the most, and sometimes hard to find in some areas [and since it’s possible for my food stamps to cover it] we’ll start off this series with how to make it ourselves! It’s inedible, which means food stamps won’t cover it, but it’s dead easy to make with FS-friendly items.

Believe it or not, some serious science goes into making this stuff. I have no idea how to explain what any of it is, but you can read all about it over here from Penny, the lovely author of Penniless Parenting. The end of it is that basically if you take baking soda, and expose it to high heat, over time some magic science-y stuff happens that makes it release carbon dioxide and turn into washing soda.