Cut Your Cleaning Budget by 90%

Have you ever wondered why the grocery stores stock those empty spray bottles? You can invest in these for just a few dollars, and they even come in different colors so that you can identify your cleaners!

Make sure that you clearly mark your bottles, and, just like the cleaners they replace, keep them out of reach of children.

1. Bleach

Pour a third of bleach and 2/3 water into the bottle. Keep one small bottle in each bathroom.

Use in the shower to stop the mildew, or on white sinks to keep them sparkling. Use anywhere that bleach is called for.

2. White vinegar

Need to clean your coffee maker? 1/2 vinegar / 1/2 water in the reservoir and run it through. Repeat with fresh water when you are done. Make sure you investigate the reservoir - you are likely to find all kinds of mildew in there! Take out the filter and replace if you have one. Leave it soaking in dishwashing liquid for an hour and rinse - very thoroughly. Pop in the drip tray and any other incidentals.

Vinegar is very inexpensive and has a myriad of uses. Vinegar easily cuts through grease. If your hands have been in plaster, concrete or powdered detergents (you know how they make your hands feel so weird) - vinegar will help them to regain moisture.

Pour it into the bottle neat. Spray it on your stove and refrigerator and wipe off for a gleaming finish. Use it to remove the film in the bathtub, finishing with a little baking soda if it needs a really good scrub!

3. Dish soap

If you ever wash up in the sink, you'll so appreciate this one. Put an inch of dish soap in the bottom of the spray bottle, and fill with water. Do it gently, so as not to foam up the soap. Use it to spray on glasses before rinsing, or anything else that you are hand washing. It saves you rinsing the globs of dish soap off, and worse, reduces the likelihood of not thoroughly rinsing!