Folkways
by Maya Brown
SPRING CLEANING
I
like the results and the feeling of
being done with spring cleaning:
open the windows and out with
the dusty, muddy, cold winter, in with
the coming spring and summer. I like
the giving-away of things that are use-
ful to someone else but not to me and
finding the things that I thought a
house brownie had stolen. The part I
don’t like is getting to it and the finan-
cial, health and environmental costs
of commercial cleaning products.
Now, for a good while, I’ve made my
own products, probably very similar
to what our grandmas made years ago.
Cheap because it is likely I have or can
easily get the ingredients, environ-
mentally sound and effective.
First, a shopping list, not long or
expensive:
1) Distilled white vinegar, what I
call cleaning vinegar, cheap
white vinegar.
2) Borax, 20 Mule Team is the
brand available but honestly all
brands are the same as long as
it’s borax.
3) Washing soda
4) Baking soda
5) Water
6) Salt: cheap kitchen salt.
7) Dish soap. I use the kind I
make, but whatever you like
will work well for these purposes.
8) Newspaper (Please don’t use
the Cenizo, this is art!)
9) Cheap vodka, not just for
drinking while you clean! It
cleans too!
10)Orange peel, pine needle
infused vinegar (directions are
below)
11) Rags - old cotton t-shirts work
well as cotton absorbs really
well, much better than polyester.
Start from the top of a room or
area, usually the doorway coming in
to the kitchen, wipe the door frames
down with your old
t-shirt soaked and
wrung dry-ish in a
mix of a half-gallon
of hot tap water, a
half-cup of distilled
white vinegar, a tea-
spoon of salt and a
couple of drops of
dish soap (really
just
a
couple
drops.) Wipe down
the whole door, all
the dirt and dust
and yuck will fall to
the floor, mop the
floor with a new batch of this same
solution. Your cleaning water will
probably be very dirty now, so make
new cleaning water as you need it.
For kitchen cleaning, again, start at
the top, with the vinegar-water-soap-
salt mixture, cleaning the woodwork,
doors, cupboards and any dirty spots
near light switches. This solution will
clean almost everything. Fill a spray
bottle with the vinegar, water, soap
and salt mix.
I also have a serious fondness for
pine cleaning power and scent while
cleaning, so a day or two before clean-
ing day I infuse about a half-cup of
pine needles in a half-gallon of vine-
gar for two days or so. If you want the
cleaning power of orange instead,
infuse the peel of a couple of oranges
or lemons.
In a spray bottle, mix a cup of the
infused vinegar, a cup of water, a
tablespoon of salt and a couple of
drops soap. Shake well, it might
become cloudy but that doesn’t affect
the power of the cleaning solution.
For some more delicate surfaces,
like granite, use granite cleaner. I don’t
have granite in my house, I have
wood counter tops, but I hear granite
is picky and scratches easily, so test
this on your granite in an inconspicu-
ous area first. Add ½ cup vodka (or
Photo courtesy Maya Brown
rubbing alcohol), 1½ cups water, ½
tsp dish soap, mix in a sprayer and use
as you would any spray cleaner.
I’ve had a ton of trouble getting
mineral stains out of porcelain like the
toilet and sinks, I wipe the sink down
with vinegar to cut the grease then I
mix about a cup of salt, a Tablespoon
of liquid soap, a Tablespoon of Borax,
and use that mix as a scrubbing agent.
When I do the toilet, I shut the water
to the toilet off, flush the toilet and
slowly pour in a gallon or so of vine-
gar and let it sit overnight. If your
mineral stains are very bad you might
do this regularly once a month or so.
With hard water, like our water here
in Big Bend, those stains are
inevitable. I figure toilets are just
stained and my guests aren’t there to
judge me.
Grout cleaner works on moldy
grout too! Mix ½ cup baking soda
with 2 Tablespoons washing soda, 2
Tablespoons borax and 3 Tablespoons
dish soap. Wipe grout with vinegar, it
cuts soap scum and other yuckiness,
then wipe grout cleaner on and leave
for about 15 minutes. Wipe off and
rinse with fresh water. There should
be no problem but just in case, test
this on an inconspicuous area first.
I have wood floors and for that I
use “Murphy’s Oil Soap.” Cheap,
smells like home and works wonders.
But for tile areas like bathrooms and
entrance areas I use tile cleaner, which
is the same mix as you’ve read before,
vinegar, water a couple of drops of liq-
uid soap. Just skip the salt, in theory it
could scratch the tile.
If you really get into making your
own cleaning products you could
make laundry detergent, with 1 cup
washing soda, 1 cup borax, ½ cup
baking soda and a grated bar of lye
soap. Mix and use about 1/4 cup per
large wash in hot water.
For appliances, glass and mirrors
use simple vinegar and water, a fifty-
fifty mix in a spray bottle is all you
need. Remember, elbow grease makes
the best cleaner. Drying windows
after cleaning with newspaper keeps
the streaks away.
The most important thing, well
the two most important things are,
people love you no matter how messy
your house is, a little every day is way
easier than once a year and (okay,
three things) why only clean for com-
pany? Aren’t you an important
enough person to clean for?
One last suggestion: make a spray
bottle of environmentally-sound
weed killer by combining 1 cup water,
1 cup vinegar and 1 teaspoon dish
soap. Please, don’t use round-up.
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2019
15