For your cleaning consideration, I present: White Vinegar. Yes, it stinks. Yes, it really stinks. However, anything I can buy at Wal*Mart in a 2-quart jug for a dollar is a definite win.
Vinegar is also environmentally friendly, which I don't particularly care about; however since I have a small child, the less in the way of harsh chemicals I'm introducing into my home, the happier I am. I've never heard of small children dying after drinking from the vinegar jar. Gagging, maybe, but not dying.
There is an entire page devoted to cleaning tips using white vinegar- VinegarTips.com- so it must have something going for it. My personal favorite uses are for cutting grease on my cook top and for getting gunk out of corners and creases and in between tile.
I will be honest and tell you that I'm not particularly excited about my home smelling like a salad bowl. But when you consider that the smell dissipates within a few hours, leaving behind a clean, mold and germ-free home- that bottle of Lysol or Windex doesn't exactly leave a very pleasant smell either and the fumes can be poisonous- I think you'll find it's well worth using.
Case in point: I am the proud owner of beautiful Pembroke Welsh Corgi that I love very much. Unfortunately, my beautiful dog loves to rub himself up against my light-colored walls on a daily basis. I'm sure this is considered normal doggie behavior and is just him self-grooming or some such thing. What I see is him leaving his dog-funk all over my wall.
Dog-Funk
I clean this bit of wall about once a week. So the last time it was wiped down was last Thursday, right after I bathed the dog. Said dog has managed to inundate it with that much funk in a week. Here is my wall after wiping it down with white vinegar and a sponge.
No Dog Funk
It's a miracle!
And it costs 12.5 cents per cup (if you get the half-gallon jug at Wal*Mart for $1). A bottle of Lysol runs a bit over $3 for 40 fluid ounces. 128 fluid ounces is a gallon, so you would have to buy 3.2 bottles of Lysol to get a gallon of cleaner. That's around $9 for a gallon of Lysol, which averages out to a bit over 56 cents over cup.
If you use straight vinegar to clean instead of pre-bottled cleaners, you save on average about 43.5 cents per cup. If you dilute the vinegar- which I recommend doing most of the time- the cost per cup of vinegar is even less. That can add up very quickly, especially if you clean a lot. I'm a stay-at-home mom and housewife, so I clean every day. Needless to say I use a lot of vinegar!
In review: use vinegar to clean everything from mold to grease to dog funk, to shining your sink and cleaning your grout. Vinegar is where it's at.
Dog-FunkI clean this bit of wall about once a week. So the last time it was wiped down was last Thursday, right after I bathed the dog. Said dog has managed to inundate it with that much funk in a week. Here is my wall after wiping it down with white vinegar and a sponge.
No Dog FunkIt's a miracle!
And it costs 12.5 cents per cup (if you get the half-gallon jug at Wal*Mart for $1). A bottle of Lysol runs a bit over $3 for 40 fluid ounces. 128 fluid ounces is a gallon, so you would have to buy 3.2 bottles of Lysol to get a gallon of cleaner. That's around $9 for a gallon of Lysol, which averages out to a bit over 56 cents over cup.
If you use straight vinegar to clean instead of pre-bottled cleaners, you save on average about 43.5 cents per cup. If you dilute the vinegar- which I recommend doing most of the time- the cost per cup of vinegar is even less. That can add up very quickly, especially if you clean a lot. I'm a stay-at-home mom and housewife, so I clean every day. Needless to say I use a lot of vinegar!
In review: use vinegar to clean everything from mold to grease to dog funk, to shining your sink and cleaning your grout. Vinegar is where it's at.
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