The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Saturday 21 June 2014

Clean and fresh.

I love the house to smell nice. In general I think a clean house is the most important thing, bins emptied everyday and the house full of the aromas of lovely cooking and plenty of fresh air. Linen that smells of sunshine and towels that smell fresh. These are the basics of your house smelling good.

Over the years I have tried all kinds of scented candles and room fresheners, diffusers and so on. Many smell just dreadful like cheap motels trying to mask something nasty! Many are really just chemicals that I am doubtful we should be inhaling in the first place. 

I have found a few candles/diffusers that smell just divine. And they are very expensive. You do get a couple of weeks of bliss from them but after a couple of months they have lost the best bit and become blahhh! 

My favourite scents are vanilla and caramel fragrances. Love them. But beautiful scents from baking are hard to beat and have a good effect on everyone. Who doesn't love to walk into their home to the smell of a beautiful dinner cooking! 

In a quest to save money, reduce chemicals and have everything clean and smelling good I have used a cleaner recipe I originally got from Simple Savings called Miracle Cleaner. The smell is very fresh as it uses Eucalyptus Oil. This is a good oil as it is a natural germ killer, dust mite killer and smells good. People comment how good your house smells. It is one of those smells that smells clean. You just assume everything is clean and hygienic when you smell this. My daughters husband loves this scent. She adds it to her washing as well.




Now this recipe I have made using different oils. I think the oil should not be just a good smelling oil but a germ killing one. I have used lavender oil and orange oil in place of eucalyptus with really good results. So think of what scent you would like to use as it will fill your home and it will last really well. It is absolutely wonderful and once you have the ingredients you are set for a really long time as this goes a long way. It takes a minute or two to make and each batch lasts just ages.




I pour one lot into bottles. This goes into buckets of water for floor washing. The rest I put into spray bottles. You can recycle a spray bottle or buy one for a couple of dollars. The spray I use in the bathroom, on counter tops etc. It really cuts through grease and stubborn stuff. And when you have cleaned the house smells really wonderful.

This is my current batch made with lavender. Normally I use a lavender dish washing liquid as my detergent component so that it looks lavender in colour.

In a large jug mix 2 dessertspoons of washing soda. (this is in the cleaning isle it is also called lectric soda)
1 litre of water,
40 ml detergent (I use a good dish washing detergent)
200ml of white vinegar
and 40ml of eucalyptus oil or lavender oil or orange/lemon or whatever...

Mix together and pour into your bottles and spray bottles.
For the floors pour a couple of spoonfuls into a bucket of hot water.

If your hands end up in this it feels really soft and lovely. I have found bought cleaning products often take my breathe away. I cough splutter and know I probably shouldn't be breathing this stuff!

Now you can also make your own wipes with this. I pack a big jar with soft cloths. You can get really inexpensive mircofibre cloths and re use them again and again. Then I pour in some miracle cleaner diluted down. If I am filling a big jar I would use two desert spoons miracle cleaner and the rest water. I make it so that I fill the jar with cloths and  about one third fill the jar with water then shake. This way the cloths are all damp. Then you just pull a cloth out to use as an instant wipe. They are really handy. In the kitchen they really cut through sticky stuff and they shine your sink like you wouldn't believe! 




If I see flannelet sheets in the op shop I grab them! (well if they are a dollar or two) I launder them and tear them into sections about the size of a large mans hankie. Some I save for super soft hankies if someone is really ill. They can then be thrown away. They are so soft that they are a saviour. Because it is the softest fabric and has been worn out and washed 100 times it is just soooo soft. I swear by these. The others become soft cleaning rags and for jars of wipes. Really they are so good and between the softness of them and the scent and effectiveness of the cleaner these have me cleaning and dusting away very happily. At the end I love how the place smells!




This is very old fashioned, money saving, healthy and good. We can spend a fortune in the cleaning isle in search of some miracle. Save that money. I hope because of this you will be a few hundred dollars better off every year!

A really good website for make your own cleaning products is One Good Thing By Jillee. She is great and there is something for every need there. I use a lot of her ideas. 

How often do we buy a cleaner hoping it will do something impressive but in the end it just sits in the cupboard!? I find with this recipe it smells so good that I really enjoy using it and so much more cleaning actually happens. Mixing up a new batch is wonderful too and instantly fills the house with a clean fragrance.

I hope you are having a great weekend and keeping warm! xxx

17 comments:

  1. Love the miracle cleaner...the smell of the eucalyptus oil I put in mine is quite addictive:P

    Love the idea of the instant wipes..do you then wash them or throw away?

    Thanks Annabel

    Mrs Tiggywinkle

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    1. I agree about the smell being addictive! I keep on jar that has microfibre cloths and I wash and re use those. When I have a sheet or something to make soft cloths with and make those up I usually use them until they are terrible and throw them out. I really love old sheets they are so quick to tear up and so soft. And sometimes its such a help to not need to wash them. Thank you so much for your comment Mrs Tiggywinkle.

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  2. You make even cleaning products look beautiful Annabel! :)

    I never thought of using lavender oil (or citrus etc) in the miracle spray, but what a great idea! I'll have to do that next batch I make. I love the idea of using the old flannel sheets. You make everything so lovely. I am going to use your idea of the homemade wet wipes. Fantastic! xoxo

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    1. Thanks Kaye! I am always on the look out in op shops.... for the dusters I go for the soft worn feel and it is often sheets but sometimes even a doona cover as they tear up quickly and easily. It works out to be a couple of dollars for a huge number of dusters (or hankies). Cheap shops that sell bundles of microfibre cleaning cloths, these are very good too. When you take the lid iff the jar to use them it is lovely! xxx

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  3. Divine Annabel, as always!

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    1. Thank you Mimi. A little while ago I sent a pile of pale pink softest flanelette torn up sheet hankies to Helen. Well she loved them! I thought you would understand this little simple pleasure!

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  4. I simply love flanelette hankies...mine are all different sizes as I just kind of hacked into an old flanelette top sheet we weren't using. I always use the flanelette hankies first :)

    Thank you for the information about throwing away or keeping the homemade wipes. I think I will make some too.

    I agree with Kaye's comment..Annabel you would make cleaning the floor lovely somehow :P

    Mrs Tiggy xx

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  5. You make amazing cleaners, Annabel. I would really love to try the lavender cleaner on my floors. I think they'll make my house smell lovely. I'm not a big fan of chemical cleaners, so I'm really glad I stumbled upon your post. I think those would be a great alternative to harsh cleaners. Actually, I think I will give them a try. I'll let you know how it goes soon. Take care and thank you for sharing those with us. :)

    You make amazing cleaners, Annabel. I would really love to try the lavender cleaner on my floors. I think they'll make my house smell lovely. I'm not a big fan of chemical cleaners, so I'm really glad I stumbled upon your post. I think those would be a great alternative to harsh cleaners. Actually, I think I will give them a try. I'll let you know how it goes soon. Take care and thank you for sharing those with us. :)

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  6. You make amazing cleaners, Annabel. I would really love to try the lavender cleaner on my floors. I think they'll make my house smell lovely. I'm not a big fan of chemical cleaners, so I'm really glad I stumbled upon your post. I think those would be a great alternative to harsh cleaners. Actually, I think I will give them a try. I'll let you know how it goes soon. Take care and thank you for sharing those with us. :)

    Lewis Simpson

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    1. Thank you very much Lewis. It is a wonderful cleaner and your house will smell lovely. I feel the same about harsh chemicals I think we have too much exposure already. Thank you for your comment!

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  7. I thought about the jar of cleaning cloth idea & am now using it, it is very helpful! Thanks Annabel!

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    1. Im glad you are using it Karen. I just used the last from a jar today and need to make another batch up. They work really well. I need all the dusting encouragement I can get... xxx

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  8. Eucalyptus oil can be extremely dangerous to cats and dogs just inhaling it. Don't use it for cleaning.

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    Replies
    1. Dear Arleen, I do not keep animals inside. But thanks for warning those who do. Love Annabel.

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    2. I have indoor/outdoor cats and have used miracle cleaner many times before without any ill effects to pets or humans, the floors usually dry quite quickly when you use hot water. I wouldn't use eucalyptus in a diffuser though as that can make pets quite sick.

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    3. We have a doggie, and have never had an issue. It's probably not great for pets if it's full strength, but diluted, and diluted again for this use, I'd be surprised if there were any problems. I wash our doggies bedding in Eucalypt wash and we have Eucalypt trees too. It's good of Arleen to mention it though so people can take the necessary precautions. Thankyou! Mimi :)

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  9. Thank you for the recipe and info in this post.

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