Getting my clean team together

I've been using homemade cleaning solutions for over a year now.  But haphazardly with cheap-o sprayers that break easily, scribbled on with sharpie that faded off (shocking, I know!) and looked messy.

So I pulled out the bottles, squinted at my handwriting trying to decipher the ratios, gave up and tracked down the original base recipes from which I'd drawn inspiration.  (You can find them here, here, and here if you're really curious and want some alternatives; OR you can keep reading and I'll give you my adulterated versions.  My recipes were based on cost, safety, simplicity, and what I buy from the store anyway.  Scientific, no?)  Then I got out my brand-new, clear, heavy-duty sprayer bottles (found them at Wal-mart--little more expensive than the opaque kind, but seem to be sturdier) and got my clean on!

With the exception of adding tea tree oil to the All-Purpose Cleaning Spray, I've test-driven these formulas for over a year, and have tweaked the ratios a bit here and there until satisfied with the results.

Oh and as a bonus, you can copy and paste the following ratios into a Word document and use them to print out nifty little labels for yourself.  (And maybe, just maybe  the formatting will follow and save you some time.)  I put them on with clear packing tape--we'll see if that holds up better than messy sharpie.  And this time (ding ding ding!) I remembered to save them in my documents in my "homemaking" folder.

I had to reign in my OCD tendencies and leave the not-so-beautiful stock labels on as the corner I tested proved that pulling them off would be uglier still.  So my labels went over the top and I had to content myself with making all the sprayer heads point in the same direction.  For now.

FYI--the glass cleaner recipe makes a dynamite wallpaper adhesive remover/softener.  Worked as well or better than Dif and is a whole lot cheaper.

Glass Spray

½  teaspoon dishwashing liquid

3  Tablespoons vinegar

2  cups water

Sanitizing Spray

1 ½ teaspoons bleach

3  cups water

All-Purpose Cleaning Spray

1 ½ Tablespoons dishwashing liquid

3  cups water

15 drops tea tree oil