Homemade glass cleaner

Many years ago I found antibacterial Windex, I thought I was in heaven. I used it to clean windows, mirrors, bathrooms and the kitchen. You name a non-porous surface and I used the antibacterial Windex to clean it. That was before I learned about the potential of using to many antibacterial products to clean. The problem is the antibacterial solution only cleans 99.9% of bacteria. The remaining .01% of the bacteria is immune to this cleaner and then breeds more bacteria immune to this cleaner. You do this long enough and you have a problem.

I took a biology class last semester and we discussed this very topic. I learned to use alcohol based cleaner just like they do in the biology lab, because nothing can live in rubbing alcohol. And when I was a dental assistant trainee (that lasted a few months, not for me) we used Lysol and rubbing alcohol to sterilize the countertops and chairs.

I found this recipe about a year ago and love it. It cleans and disinfects! I just refill an old Windex bottle with the solution. I wrote the recipe right on the bottle with a permanent market so I don't have to hunt for it when I need to refill. The one drawback about this solution is, because it's alcohol based it dries faster than traditional Windex. I have learned to just work quicker in sections.

Homemade glass cleaner recipe:

1 cup rubbing alcohol

1 cup water

1 tablespoon ammonia (I use the clear ammonia, found in the laundry section I think, I've only had to buy it once)

Other cleaning products I enjoy are wet swiffer sweepers. I don't like mopping so anytime I can stretch the time between I will. Just put the pad on and swiffer away. I use it on tile and laminate floors, love them. And it smells great.

Mr. Clean magic erasers. If you have not used these go buy them. I have loved them for years but really became sold on them when they were able to erase permanent marker artwork my kids had drawn on my husband's grandmothers countertop. Let's just say our kids were no longer the favorite until these saved the day. Another favorite use, cleaning tennis shoes. You take a pair of dirty tennis shoes, a moist magic eraser, some elbow grease (work over a trash can) and you have a pair of shoes that look almost new.

I believe in oxi-clean. A house we previously lived in had white carpet and white tile with white grout. Well I had three small kids there. This equals cleaning nightmare. My solution, dissolve 1/2 cup oxi-clean in the hottest water your faucet has. (I have an old 2-quart pitcher labeled for cleaning only I use for this) Once it's dissolved pour the solution into the detergent tank of your carpet cleaner and go to town. I really did keep my carpet white. Sometimes I did need to pretreat certain spills with the solution and wait 20 minutes before using the carpet cleaner.

Do take special caution when using this in your carpet cleaner. Oxi-clean mixed with water releases air as it sits. If you put a lid on the solution you will build up pressure. So much pressure built up once in my detergent tank of the carpet cleaner that it cracked the plastic seam. My solution, just fill the detergent tank half full and leave the little lid off. Some models this may not be possible but worked with my hoover.

I also used the oxi-clean on the white grout. Why anyone would choose white tile with white grout is beyond me, it was there when we moved in. It looks pretty clean but is a nightmare to keep that way. My solution, once again mix some oxi-clean with the hottest water from the faucet and dissolve. I poured this onto the grout and let sit about 30 minutes. The water didn't run away because it was in the channels of the grout, it wasn't poured all over the floor. After it sits then use a brush to scrub stubborn stains. (old toothbrushes labeled clean only, worked well for the narrow grout) A good spray of steam from a steam cleaner would finish the task.