Showers and Baths and Toilets, oh my!

I had a revelation.  This DIY cleaner thing may be the way to go.  I went through my cabinets/cleaning products and thought how sad it was that we were spending so much money on this stuff when there were equivalent products we could MAKE at a fraction of the cost.

Who doesn't love saving money?

I have a confession to make.  I'm a horse-a-holic.  There.  I've said it.  WHEW!  I've had horses since I was 12 years old (actually, I still have THE horse I got when I was 12 years old - he's 25 now).  My horses suck the cash out of our pockets....save money, not as much cash sucked out.....well, it won't *feel* as if as much is getting sucked out. 

See?  He's pretty cute.

Not to be outdone - here's one of my girl...

I found a recipe online that sounded to be good.  But it came with a warning.  It smelled S-T-R-O-N-G.  Yeah, they were not lying.  The first time I used it was in the shower in our basement.  AKA - my husband's shower.  Picture this - floor to ceiling dark grey tile, covered with white soap scum and hard water residue in a 4x4 shower. Nice eh?  Well...nice when it's CLEAN!  Anyway - I sprayed it on and within 20 seconds it was pretty hard to breathe.  I wasn't prepared for the smell.  Not bad, just strong.  Since then I've used it many times and have gotten used to it.  I don't even notice it anymore.  And it doesn't linger - it goes away as soon as the stuff is rinsed off.

Back to the point.

It WORKED!!  Not only did it WORK it was AMAZING!!  

I sprayed it on (left the room to breathe), waited for 15 minutes and came back to rinse it off.  I took a damp sponge and wiped everything down, I didn't scrub, I just wiped the surfaces.  Then I rinsed it all and let it dry.

I'm telling you - AMAZING!!

The shower was sparkling clean.  The glass doors, the tile, the hardware.  All clean and sparkly with no water spots or streaks at all.  It also stayed that way for several days and when I cleaned it a few days later, it was so easy.  I hardly used any spray the second time and it rinsed easily.

This stuff is FAR BETTER than anything I've tried before.

The cost difference is good but not super-crazy-amazing (yes, I'm 34 and just said that!) The store bought stuff I was using was Snuggle Ultra Cuddle Up Fresh. 

The product I have been using pretty exclusively has been Scrubbing Bubbles with Bleach bathroom cleaner.  I've tried the others but this one did the best job for me until now.  The bottle that we used to buy was $4.99 on sale, was a 750ml bottle and typically lasted about 4 "cleans" (for me, a "clean" is 2 showers (1 regular size and 1 4x4 huge shower and the whirlpool tub)

Scrubbing Bubbles - $4.99/750ml
Homemade - $1.08/ 750ml

SAVINGS OF $3.91/bottle 

Here is how I did it and what it cost.

Shower and Tub Cleaner

Ingredients

·      1 cup dawn dishwashing liquid

·      2 cups white vinegar

Directions

1.     Heat vinegar, add dawn and mix.

Yield

·     750ml

Cost

·      Dawn dishwashing liquid ($2.49/750ml) = $0.83/1 cup

·      Vinegar ($1.49/4litres) = $0.25/2 cups

·      Total - $1.08