Clean Your House for Less

We spend a lot of money at the grocery store every month and much of what we buy isn't even destined for the kitchen table. Window cleaners, bathroom cleaners, kitchen cleaners - all of that and more eats into our weekly food budget. But there are alternative to spending all of that extra money.

Lemon juice and lemons - A half cup of lemon juice in the wash cycle will brighten your whites. You can also use it to remove rust stains from fabric by applying the undiluted juice liberally to the stained area, sprinkling cream of tartar on top and patting it with your fingers. Let this sit for 15 minutes or so until the stain is gone then run through the wash as usual.

A lemon-juice soaked cleaning cloth will dissolve hard water deposits on kitchen and bathroom faucets. Deodorize and disinfect a wooden cutting board by rubbing it with a cut lemon. Use the other half of the lemon, sprinkled with salt, to clean tarnished brass and copper.

Baking soda - This humble kitchen staple is good for so much more than just baking. Among it's cleaning attributes, remove stains from tile, glass and china and loosen baked-on food from pots and pans. Baking soda has odor absorbing qualities. Add it to the kitty litter or sprinkle it on carpets before you vacuum to help freshen them.

You can also use baking soda to scrub kitchen and bathroom sinks, just as you would a powdered cleanser. Use equal parts of baking soda and vinegar to clear a clogged drain. Let these two sit in the drain for five minutes and then rinse with boiling water. This will have the added benefit of removing odors from a smelly kitchen drain.

Use baking soda on a damp sponge to remove crayon, pencil, ink and furniture scuffs from painted walls.

Vinegar - This is perhaps the champion of all kitchen cupboard cleaners. Not only does it clean glass and floors, it helps to kill germs, too. To keep your coffee maker clear of hard water deposits, run vinegar through it, then clean water a couple of times to rinse.

If your dishwasher isn't cleaning the dishes the way it should, pour some vinegar into the bottom of it and run it through a cycle empty. Voila! It will work like new again. You really don't need those fancy dishwasher cleaners to remove mineral deposits and soap residue from the inner workings.

Got stained coffee mugs? Two tablespoons of vinegar swished around in the cup will remove coffee or tea stains. Remove salt stains from your boots and shoes with a cloth dipped in vinegar.

A couple of capfuls of vinegar in the rinse cycle will make your wool sweaters fluffier and you can remove stubborn price tags or stickers by coating them several times with vinegar and letting it soak in for about five minutes. Put undiluted vinegar in a spray bottle to spritz on weeds regularly until they die.

Vinegar or ammonia are also good for removing sweat stains from clothes. You sponge the stain with the liquid of your choice, rinse well and wash with a fabric-safe bleach.

My favorite use for vinegar is to put a generous pour in a bucket of hot water to wash windows. Or try a mix of vinegar and water in a spray bottle for cleaning mirrors.