OK I'll start

Cleaning materials

Vinegar, sugar, corn meal, baking soda (not baking powder -- that's different), toothpaste, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, alcohol, spray bottles, small buckets, sawdust, peanut butter, hanky-sized cloths cut from clothes no good to wear anymore, old socks

OK. I just finished my tea and I'm still thirsty. Any suggestions? And disagreements? Should we pick a topic?

I'm always game to learn more so if you've got something toss it out there!!

Penny

p.s. you don't use them all the same way, honest

Is Baking soda the same as Bicarbonate of soda that we use here?

The finest thing I've found for general cleaning, floors and as a laundry boost is good old fashioned 'Washing soda' (Soda crystals) from Dri Pak. It's about 73p for a kilo bag!

Penny, what do you use peanut butter for?! :suspect:

Vinegar is a staple here as I use it instead of fabric softener as well as cleaning.

Microfibre cloths, especially the one for windows is amazing, just dampen a little and wipe - nothing else needed and not too much elbow grease either

Ax

Yes I want to know what to use peanut butter for

>grin< Thought that would get a response.

Preschool science here. Peanut butter gets gum out of kids hair better than almost anything.

Mayonaise was found to remove that dread sticky tape residue which happens when you've taped a room full of children's artwork to the windows for Parent's Day.

Fun, huh?

I use toothpaste to clean the grouting on the tiles

You know Penny, those are the sort of tips that get stored away at the back of my brain. Who'd of thought of peanut butter?!!

Danksshady, is that whitening toothpaste or just regular?

A x

I've heard of using flat Coke int he toilet to get the lime scale off works???
Has any one tried this one.
You have to leav e it in for a good few hours or over night.
Mind you have to take the water from the bottom u bend first.

Also Bicarbonate of soda to make the carpets fresh as well as putting lavender oil on radiators or some of your other nice smellys.

JB you can only do that last thing at night unless you have 2 toilets.
If that does that to the lav what on earth is it doing to our insides then??
I would prefer to use it in my Rum

Hehe, as long as you don't pour the rum down the toilet. That would be criminal

That would be a waste.

Lemon juice and salt works on ceramic hobs if you run out of hobshine - just make sure you haven't nicked your finger with the food prep earlier as I did

If you have very dirty and cull copper or brass ornaments, rub them with half a lemon before carrying on with the polishing stage, as this will take a lot of the dirt off. Lemonade powder works the same way too (citric acid I suppose).

Hi

Somebody asked if what I call "baking soda" is the same thing as bicarbonate of soda. I checked and it is. I'll be darned. :joker:

I also didn't explain that I use spray bottles for lots of things. For instance, when I first started with pre-school work in the early 1980s we were using a bleach solution to sterilize surfaces and we put it in spray bottles. I forget what the strength was. Mike says a capful of bleach to a gallon of water is about right but we used it a bit stronger. Later we used a different disinfectant that didn't result in our clothes getting bleach on them

I've made vinegar solutions (spray it on mineral stains and buildup around faucets, etc. let sit then wash off with a little scrub) and even alcohol solutions for the kinds of things alcohol is good for. I've never tried hydrogen peroxide. I wonder what that would do????

The thing is, a bit of bleach spray around the bottom edges of your shower curtain now and then will get rid of mildew excellently. I don't have a problem at all any more. Just do your spraying carefully not to get it on your clothes. Or before you get dressed. :bigsmile:

I've got to get back to reading now -- I can see everybody's gone on ahead while I've been busy elsewhere and I want to catch up!!

Penny

With the sticky tape residue thingie, you could use mayonnaise as someone suggested...OR you could try eucalyptus oil. Being in Australia perhaps its more common to use it but I find it works on nearly every sticky greasy thing! Fantastic to use in the bath combined with bi-carb or baking soda (yes same thing, sodium bicarbonate) and a micro-fibre cloth, definitely takes the hard work out of cleaning Also to save dishwashing liquid (i actually prefer castille soap) I put a tablespoon in a spray bottle and fill it with water and I use this to do the dishes or to prepare them for washing.

BJM

I use soapnuts to wash my clothes, and sometimes my hair. Anyone else tried them?

I have,and I loved them, but haven't tried them for a while...maybe I will buy a bag again

We used to use soapnuts but found they were fine for everyday stuff but not much cop with more heavily soiled items (nappies for example)

Use them for everyday stuff but sometimes need something a bit stronger so then I use Bio D.

Yeah, they need an extra bit of help for the really dirty stuff, don't they. I've just been adding some washing soda crystals to help with stains. And I found that if I put the little bag of soapnuts in a cup of boiling water for a minute before putting it in the washer, it helps it work a bit better. I put the water in too if much of the saponin has come out into it.