Citrus Cleaner goes crazy...

I recently posted my Citrus Cleaner.....and kicked off the beginning of a huge group of lovely ladies starting their own cleaners over at the Down to Earth Forum.....I can imagine lots of kitchen benches..each embracing their very own jar of citrus peels, soaking in white vinegar....Some may even be sitting on window ledges basking in the sunlight, soaking up the sunshine.

Members over at Aussie's Living Simply...have even started soaking their citrus peels....

And for what you may be asking?....just the best darn cleaner you could get your hands on......If your like me.....you already use white vinegar as a fabric softener....so it's already in the house and on your shopping list.......and your constant supply of oranges, lemons and limes, or maybe grapefruit and mandarins.....all peeled before using..pinching the peels for your citrus cleaner bottle....the more you can fit in the jar ..the better....just add them as you use them.

Once you can't fit any more peels in the jar....strain it and pass the peels on to the compost bin..to be saved and made into your own free soil.....Save the lovely citrus vinegar for your cleaner....
Now don't bother rinsing out the jar....just start another batch....3/4 fill the jar with cheap white vinegar and start adding your citrus peels as you use them...

Are you juicing lemons for the freezer for your stockpile?....Have you been gifted a bag of oranges....or maybe some limes?....don't forget to peel the fruit with a vegetable peeler before juicing them......and your on your way to 'the best darn cleaner you could get your hands on'.

Have you started your own cleaner?....If so; I would love to hear from you......Please leave a comment telling me all about it.....and let me know what state and country your cleaner is in.....

If you want your jar of citrus cleaner added to this post.....just email me a photo of it....npe09777 (at) bigpond (dot) net (dot) au ..and I will add it here...along with the photo, your name, state and country....

Every picture of your citrus cleaner sent in will be added to this post.....
I'll start with mine.....

Citrus Cleaner...to use; I now do 50% citrus with 50% vinegar.

Becci - South Australia

Anja - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Tania - South Australia

Glenda - South East Queensland

Gail - Hervey Bay - Queensland

Kelly - Adelaide - South Australia

Robinsons Family - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Christine - Victoria, Australia

Darlene - NSW, Australia

Laura - New Zealand

Deb - Tasmania

Sharon - Victoria, Australia

Mary-Anne - Townsville

Challenges #1 & 2 _Oven & Washing Machine

I recently wrote about a challenge I set myself....You can join in too if you like...each week I am going to set myself a challenge, which will improve my road to a cleaner house.....Sometimes there will be more than one challenge in a week, so I hope you can keep up...lol.......sometimes the challenges may be related to other things besides cleaning...as I just know that having a weekly challenge on cleaning will be a challenge in itself...lol........

Challenge #1 - Cleaning your oven
Today I also wrote about cleaning my oven....while it's not 100% yet...I will keep working on it....But for today, I need things to do standing up...as the old hip will complain if I get down there in the oven again today....

So here is my next challenge, which I will tackle today......

Challenge #2 - Cleaning your washing machine
I took a photo of my washing machine yesterday....while I'm not proud of the state of it, I knew that you would appreciate my honesty in sharing a photo with you.....I have yet to clean this one, so there is no photo before and after yet...but there will be shortly....
For now....here is a photo of my yucky washing machine....I don't enjoy lifting that centre piece out, I just know it's going to be slimy................

As I used the machine last night for a soak....I better get that load finished first before tackling this challenge.....
If you would like to join in....leave a comment and a link on what your upto...What is your first challenge going to be? Is it the washing machine or the oven?

BEESWAX FURNITURE POLISH

my mum used to make a great beeswax furniture polish, very creamy....she used to put it in the local craft shop and it would go quickly...

BEESWAX FURNITURE POLISH
Use a large heavy based saucepan or boiler that wont be used for food again......

1 lb beeswax
3 oz bicarbonate of potash (from chemist)
9 cups of water
1 quart or 2 pints of turpentine

Cut wax into shreds. Boil with Potash and water until melted. Take off heat. Add turpentine and stir thoroughly until mixture is constistency of cream. When you think its done, stir again for another 20 minutes, if its not stired enough, it may seperate in the jars.....(which can be shaken before being used, but its not pleasing to the eye if seperated).....My mum's never used to seperate, I made a batch and it seperated, Mum said I never stirred it enough.
Bottle with metal lids.....Use sparingly with a towelling cloth.

Herbal Moth Balls

found in a magazine called 'NOTEBOOK' while sitting in the doctor's surgery

Ahh no more Napthalene, Napthalene is a known cacinogen. Preparing your clothing for storage is essential. Place clean items. Place clean items in sealed bags and routinely air them out in sunlight during warmer months. Boost your defence against these little assailants with homemade mothballs that use fragrant herbs to deter moths from laying eggs in your wardrobe.

HERBAL MOTHBALLS
225 grams whole cloves, 30 grams dried rosemary, 30 grams dried mint, 30 grams dried thyme, 30 grams dried ginseng (health food stores)
Muslin 25cm square, cut into 6 squares, and string to tie....
Divide the mix evenly to each muslin square and tie up, hang on a coat hanger. Replace each season

making White Wine Vinegar

I have been interested in the making of vinegar, as a cheaper version for all my home cleaning...I am slowly ridding my home of most chemicals..including cleaning chemicals.
I will use this vinegar for meal preparation and cleaning.

After googling and taking bits of info from everywhere, I found that I could make my own White Wine Vinegar.....and it was free too......

I had been carting some old bottles of wine around for a long time.....(actually from my 18th and 21st) well 20 years is a long time,....lol...
so I cleaned out the stash, I had 5 bottles all up....poured them into one bucket and also added 2 litres of homebrand vinegar to give it a kick start.....
I modified the lid.....so that I could get good ventilation and the plastic tube goes to the bottom so when you add any left over wine (not that we drink much anyway, but just in case), well if you add any through the hose, you are not disturbing the 'vinegar mother' that is growing on the top....Oh I also put a rubber band on both sides of the plastic tube to act as a grommet and stop it slipping down.

if you look in the photo you can see what I mean.....

I had all the equipment needed to make the vinegar vat...I threw out the 5 empty wine bottles, so can I add 5 items to me 2011 = declutter challenge ???

It's been 5 weeks and I can now start to smell the fermenting process...... free vinegar for cleaning .....here it comes, well not for a while..lol