1. Leave in Conditioner and hair detangler – Mix your leftover Conditioner with water and put it in a spray bottle. Probably one part conditioner to 4 parts water. Maybe even less conditioner if it is a high quality one. Now you can spray it on your kids hair when you are brushing it to detangle and condition at the same time. If you make it a bit stronger it works as a leave in conditioner. Both a hair detangler and a leave in conditioner are very expensive luxuries that you will not need after you have tried this.
2. Hand Wash – Make your own antibacterial hand wash with your leftover shampoo and conditioner by adding water and dash of detol or even eucalyptus oil to the mix. Put it in a spare soap pump bottle and save a truck load of money. Its better to have more shampoo than conditioner. And when you mix it there will be bubbles but they will soon disappear.
3. Stain Remover – Use shampoo to get rid of blood stains from clothing, carpets, and almost any fabric. You can also mix a bit of shampoo with some bicarb soda for those tough stains on clothes. It is also a great degreaser.
4. Fabric softener – Put leftover conditioner into your washing machine and use as a fabric softener. You can also add a bit of eucalyptus oil to the mix to make it smell nice. I have also been known to put strawberry scented oil with conditioner for a fabric softener for my kids clothes.

1. Clean your bathroom. This is my favorite use for Bicarb soda. You can make it into a paste and use it for stubborn stains on basins or tiles. I also use an old toothbrush with this paste to clean around the taps. You can also put a bit on a wet cloth and wipe on and rinse off.. Everything comes up so sparkly clean.
2. Clean drains. Keep your drains clean and clear by putting some bicarb soda powder in them, then pour some white vinegar in. It will bubble and fizz and clean your drains. Then rinse with water.
3. Deodorise your Fridge. Put some Baking soda in your fridge to absorb odours. You can also use it for kitty litter, ash trays, cars, shoes, and probably a hundred other things.
4. Stain Remover. Make a paste with bicarb soda, water, and dishwashing liquid. Rub stain with this paste, let dry for stubborn stains, and then throw in the wash.
5. Clean your dishwasher. Run your dishwasher through its cycle with baking soda in it instead of soap to give it a good cleaning.
6. Clean your teeth. Sprinkle some baking soda onto your toothpaste on your toothbrush. You will be shocked at how good your teeth will feel. If your really game you can ditch the toothpaste and just use baking soda.

I have tried the good old newspaper and water, vinegar, or metho, but that is too much hard work for me.

Instead of using a sponge, I use a window washer blade with a sponge attached, but I still use the blade without the sponge for the finishing touches as they work better.
And make sure you have a good quality window blade as a good one will make the job easy!

Making your own cleaning products can save you big dollars. There is a cleaning product for everything now days, but do we really need them?

I personally hate chemicals and especially the smell of the really strong ones, therefore I make my own cleaning supplies from natural products.

1. 500ml water
2. Half a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid
3. A few drops of eucalyptus oil

You can add more eucalyptus to suit your needs, however I like it mild, so it is not overpowering. Once you try this you will want to spray it on everything. You can spray it in your microwave and leave it for a minute, then come back and wipe it off.

It also makes kitchen benches clean enough to eat off!!

Why?Because of these simple reasons:

1.No one really knows what it is that you want them to do.

2.How do you want them to do it, do they need something special to clean it with etc.

3.It isn’t fun.

4.No one seems to see the same ‘dirty’ things that you do.

5.It will probably take too long and they will miss out on something that they really want to do.Okay, so how do we take care of this little problem!

There are a few ways that you might want to try that will possibly get your family on the right track and make your life a lot easier.

First of all, don’t make it harder than it really is, you may have to change your thinking a little in order to get to your ultimate goal.Yes, it is true, the living room isn’t going to be polished as nice as if you would have done it yourself, but it’s polished..Right? It will get better the more that they do it, so give them time.Let’s explain the reasons it’s not getting done first; just to give you an idea of what the full picture really is from their point of view.

1.They really don’t know what it is that you want them to do.
You say; “I tell them what I want them to do, what do you mean they don’t know?”Well, you are telling them to throw their dirty clothes in the laundry, does that mean the hamper, down the laundry shoot or put it next to the washing machine or in the laundry basket? The one thing that you have to learn is to be exact in your wording or they don’t get it at all! Now, if I say; “Put your clothes in the hamper, I am washing this afternoon, if the clothes aren’t in there you will have to wait until the next time I wash in order to wear your favorite ________. (Fill in the blank with their favorite item of clothing)Now you have told them where to put the dirty clothes, why you want it put there and what will happen if they don’t. If their favorite pants or shirt are dirty they will make sure that it gets into the wash.

2.How do you want them to do it?
If you say something like, “polish the furniture for me.”Does this mean the whole house, the living room furniture and what should I use to polish it with? You need to tell them to go and get the furniture polish and the dusting rag, under the sink and polish the furniture in the living room. Sounds ridicules doesn’t it? Well, that’s because you do it all of the time and at some point and time in your life, whether you remember it or not, someone told you all of these things in order for you to learn them. If you feel that they may overlook things that you want polished you may have to be a lot more specific. You may have to say it this way: “Get the polish and the rag from under the sink and polish the end tables, coffee table, bookshelf and the T.V. stand and make sure that you polish all of it, not just the tops. Now you have told them where the cleaning items are, what to polish and how to do it.

3.It isn’t fun!
What you would really like to say is: “Of course! You think that I have been having fun all of this time!”So, now is the time to make it fun for everyone, including you. Everything is a lot more fun if you make a game out of it. Set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes and see who can do the best job with a certain chore in the fastest amount of time. This person gets to pick out a favorite T.V. show for everyone to watch or gets to stay up a half an hour longer.Hide a quarter someplace in a room, but don’t tell anyone that you did it and the first one that finds it gets to keep it or gets a special treat. Make up your own games as you go along and sooner or later, the kids and your husband will make a few games of their own.Yes, you and your husband get to play too. If he hides the quarter and you find it while cleaning, you get a half hour in the bathtub without any disturbances. If you hide the quarter and he finds it, he gets a half hour without anyone bugging him about something. When it works its way up to a extra half an hour at the golf course or fishing, he will be all for this game.

4.No one seems to see the same ‘dirty’ things that I do.
That’s true and always will be true! So, you make a list of everything that needs to be done and as it gets done, you cross it off of the list. The more times that they clean and the more times it gets crossed off of the list; they will eventually know what is expected in a room and what needs to be done before they are finished with that room. But, since they are having fun doing it because of all of the games you are all playing, they will look for another room to clean and be asking you what they should do next!!

5.It will probably take too long and they will miss out on something they want to do.
No one really ‘likes’ cleaning but if you make it fun and then set a time limit on it, everyone will know that there is an end in sight. The only thing that can change that time frame is if they are wasting time and the job isn’t finished. Then they only have themselves to blame. You could say; “Here is our list, we have until 11:00 to get it finished so, Billy can go bike riding, Sarah can go to the mall, Dad can go golfing and I can have some piece and quiet.” This way they know that if it is all finished they can go about the things that they like to do and you will be happy with the fact that the work is completed.

Now that you understand where your family is coming from and how they need to be told everything; who, what, when, where, why and how, it will make your job a lot easier.Just make it fun for the whole family and you will get a lot of rewards that you weren’t expecting.Get their ideas for more rewards that they would enjoy,You will be surprised how many they can come up with. You can write them all of paper and put them in a bowl (one for mom and dad and one for the kids) and then pick a reward . If you pick the reward before the project you have something to work for or maybe the winner can pick their reward out of the bowl. Have fun and “Happy Organizing”
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Here’s the point. The various commercial cleaners from the store contain petroleum distillates. They produce potentially deadly fumes & are harmful to our environment. Not to mention the fact they cost much more per ounce then the natural cleaners. Often their packaging is non-recyclable.The store-bought cleaners are also pre-mixed.

With the natural cleaners, you decide how strong you would like the solution. Just one quart of natural cleaner can make up to 32 gallons of safe cleaning solution. One quart of cleaner from the store equals one quart of cleaner.The natural cleaning products are just as effective as their toxic counterparts.

It’s easy to save money with organic cleaning since the products are concentrated. We have cleaned quite a few things with the cleaner so far, & still have quite a bit of concentrate left. At just pennies per quart of diluted solution, there isn’t a much more effective cleaner out there for the money.Natural cleaners are effective everywhere in the home. While the kitchen & bathroom contain most of the more harmful cleaners, they can be found in all areas.

Even air fresheners (aerosol) are harmful. Natural cleaning products can provide a safe home environment & help save money.John Marshall a.k.a. “Mr. Green Clean” is an advocate of natural cleaning.

More info available at http://www.completegreencleaning.com. Copyright (c) John Marshall. Reprint article only with this resource box included please.
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