How to Make a Multipurpose Cleaner Using Natural Ingredients

Old-fashioned methods and eco-friendly solutions are becoming increasingly popular. At a time when global warming is becoming a real concern, some people are doing everything they can to find non-polluting everyday solutions. Do you want to make a multipurpose cleaner with natural ingredients? Here’s a great recipe.

Making the Multipurpose Cleaner

To make your multipurpose cleaner, you’ll need:

• An empty 1.5 L bottle;
• Black soap paste;
• Baking soda;
• White vinegar;
• Essential oil of lemon or tea tree;
• A bowl;
• A litre of boiling water;
• A measuring cup;
• A spatula or a fork.

Pour a litre of boiling water into a bowl and add half a tablespoon of black soap paste. This paste is quite hard to dissolve, so you’ll need a spatula or a fork to properly dilute it in the water. Once the mixture is even, add a tablespoon of baking soda and 300 mL of white vinegar. You can then complete the mixture with a few drops of essential oil of lemon or tea tree to add a pleasant scent to your preparation.

Mix everything well, then pour your multipurpose cleaner into a water bottle to preserve it.

Why is the Multipurpose Cleaner Effective?

The multipurpose cleaner is made up of effective active ingredients. The black soap, made from olive oil and potash, cleans deeply. The baking soda whitens and has an antiscalant effect. The white vinegar is also effective against limescale and gives shine to tiles and porcelain. The essential oils, meanwhile, serve only an olfactory purpose; they’re mainly used to hide the smell of the vinegar.

How to Use the Multipurpose Cleaner

You can use this mixture to clean:

• A work surface
• A sink
• An oven
• A barbecue
• A tile floor
• Every part of a bathroom
• A patio
• Tools
• Dishes
• Etc.

If you decide to use your cleaner for the oven, kitchen, or bathroom, you can pour the preparation into a sprayer (a bottle made from recycled glass products, for example). For the floor, boiling water, black soap, and vinegar will suffice. For 5 litres of hot water, dilute one tablespoon of black soap and add 200 mL of white vinegar. In principle, it’s not necessary to rinse the floor after mopping. However, avoid cleaning the windows or using this mixture on parquet or any other wood surface. To clean your windows, you can simply spray some white vinegar on them and wipe them with a clean cloth.

Is the Homemade Multipurpose Cleaner Dangerous?

Unlike most cleaners sold in large retail stores, this one is totally safe for the environment. If you have any dirty residue left over (after cleaning the floor, for example), you can empty the bucket in your garden without fear of polluting the earth. This product doesn’t require any specific handling (you don’t need to wear gloves, unless you’re allergic to one of the products that it contains), and it doesn’t present an increased risk to children (although you should still keep the bottle out of reach of children).

Detergents vs. Disinfectants: What Are the Differences in Terms of Cleaning?

When a surface needs to be cleaned in depth, it may be necessary to use a detergent and a disinfectant. Are you wondering what the differences are between these two products? The following article should answer all your questions.

What is a Detergent?

A detergent is a chemical compound with surfactant properties that remove dirt. They are present in different forms. For example, it may be a general cleaning product, a food product (vinegar, lemon, salt, etc.), a specific product (90% alcohol, acetone, etc.), or a powerful solvent (bleach, turpentine, etc.). Some detergents may also be disinfectants.

To clean and eliminate marks, detergents can be sorted into specific “families”:

• Solvents, which include 90% alcohol, bleach, turpentine, ammonia, and white spirit;
• Antiscalants, such as baking soda and white vinegar;
• Whiteners, such as hydrogen peroxide and bleach;
• Abrasives, such as earth of Sommières, soap, and cream cleaner.

Most of the time, detergents must be used diluted in water. They must also be stored out of sight of children (especially solvents, whiteners, and abrasives).

What is a Disinfectant?

Unlike detergents, disinfectants kill or inactivate microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria. They therefore don’t have a cleaning effect; you don’t remove dirt with a disinfectant.

Disinfectant is most often used in addition to a detergent; it’s used to disinfect a given area. Hospitals, schools, kitchens, and bathrooms are often disinfected to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses.

There are several types of disinfectants:

• Bactericides, which kill bacteria;
• Sporicides, which kill bacterial spores;
• Virucides, which inactivate viruses;
• Fungicides, which eliminate fungi and their spores;
• Antiseptics, which disinfect living environments.

These products are often toxic for the skin and must be handled with care (except for antiseptics).

What are the Differences in Terms of Cleaning?

A detergent doesn’t necessarily eliminate bacteria, viruses, and fungi. A disinfectant, meanwhile, won’t usually have any impact on a stubborn stain. To clean a surface properly, therefore, it may be beneficial to use both products or an “all-in-one” mixture consisting of both detergent and disinfectant.

A deep cleaning will require a first pass with detergent to eliminate stains and restore shine (to a tile floor, for example), then a second pass (after rinsing and drying) with a disinfectant. The detergent has a cleaning effect, while the disinfectant eliminates the microorganisms associated with dirt and leaves behind a neutral, non-hazardous surface.

It’s not enough just to remove the dirt to properly clean a room; for it to be safe and perfectly clean, it’s best to use a disinfectant. Bathrooms, schools, public pools, hospitals, kitchens, and many other places are real breeding grounds for bacteria; to eliminate them, the cleaning must end with a disinfection.

There’s a real difference between detergent and disinfectant; these two products are perfectly complementary. If you want to do a full cleaning of your home, apartment, or business, you should therefore use both for optimal results.

5 Ways to Clean a Fabric Sofa and Remove Stubborn Stains

Food, drinks, paint, modelling clay, or chewing gum… sofas are a part of our everyday routine and are therefore at risk of being stained. Do you want to clean a fabric sofa to remove stubborn stains? Here are 5 ways to get rid of the dirt.

1 – Use Baking Soda

Baking soda is often used to eliminate stains without using synthetic products that are harmful to the environment. If you want to eliminate a stain that’s still fresh, just sprinkle some baking soda on it, let dry, then vacuum. This method could be enough to eliminate the dirt. If the stain is more stubborn and dry, then the best thing to do is to fully remove the fabric cover from the sofa, moisten the stained area, then sprinkle some baking soda on it. Rub the fabric between your hands or scrub it with a brush, then put the cover in the washing machine. The stain should have disappeared at the end of the program.

2 – Opt for an Old-Fashioned Method

Water mixed with alcohol, white vinegar, earth of Sommières, and talcum powder are all solutions that are available to you if you want to eliminate a stain on a fabric sofa. White vinegar, much like alcohol, helps dissolve the stain. Earth of Sommières and talcum powder, for their part, absorb greasy substances and moisture. You can therefore use them together: for example, you can clean the stain with white vinegar (using a cloth or sponge), then absorb it all with some earth of Sommières or talcum powder. If you don’t have any, then you can settle for paper towel.

3 – Steam Clean

Steam is formidable against stains, and it’s safe for fabric sofas. If you have a steam cleaner, you can therefore clean and disinfect your sofa in no time. The steam will remove the greasy substances and dirt, thoroughly clean the sofa, and evaporate quickly. Note that the heat also eliminates bacteria.

4 – Eliminate Stains with a Stain Remover

Don’t have a steam cleaner? Old-fashioned solutions aren’t effective enough? You should know that there are stain removers out there that are powerful enough to clean fabrics. Be careful, though: these stain removers aren’t suitable for all types of fabrics, and they can create halos or a washed-out look. Before using the stain remover on your sofa, test the product on a hidden area to make sure that it won’t damage the fabric (under the seat cushions or in a corner, for example). If everything goes well, make sure to follow the instructions and recommendations written on the bottle. Note that some products are also dangerous or toxic to children, so consider airing out the room and applying the product in the absence of sensitive people.

5 – Call a Professional

Have you ever wound up making the situation worse by trying to clean up a stain? While trying to do good, we sometimes do great damage instead. To avoid damaging a beautiful fabric sofa, it might be a good idea to call in the professionals. They travel with the necessary equipment and know the best practices to clean without damaging. Thanks to their good care, you’ll find a clean, healthy, and odour-free sofa.