Borax is a powerhouse that will leave your dishes seriously clean, and washing soda gives this liquid dish soap extra grease-fighting power. Measure and add the borax and washing soda to the mixing bowl along with the liquid castile soap and white vinegar.
Clean Outdoor Furniture
Combine one teaspoon of dish soap, one teaspoon of Borax, and one quart of warm water in a spray bottle, then spray it all over the outdoor furniture. Rinse the solution off with your garden hose.
Clean Hair Utensils
Well, don't forget that these items need cleaning too. So you place a ¼ cup of borax and a tablespoon of Dawn dish liquid (or any dish liquid, I'm just a fan of Dawn) in the sink with warm water. Run the hair utensils through the mixture and allow them to soak. Then rinse and let dry.
Castile soap is nontoxic and will not kill germs so it's not a disinfectant. It does however remove germs. If you'd like to increase the “germ killing” potential, you could add tea tree oil to your hand and dish soap. Both tea tree and oregano oil contain natural antibacterial properties.
Amish Soap is made with as much turn of the century wooden equipment as possible. It is natural soap made with palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, vegetable based, tallow, water, natural glycerin, corn starch, and natural wildflower scent and a special lotion added to soften dry skin.
Baking soda is a naturally mild and abrasive cleaning agent, so it, combined with the soap, does a wonderful job at removing food particles and germs on your dishes. If you've got particularly stuck-on food, you can add a bit of kosher salt for extra scrubbing power.
Borax is a natural salt, an essential trace element needed in human physiology. We use it in our castile soap towards the end of the process as a buffer solution, neutralising any remaining lye that has not saponified.
Borax can be added to laundry soap recipes for extra stain fighting properties. Borax can also be added to water to dissolve and use in a spray. In the Multipurpose Cleaning Spray, borax is mixed into warm water along with vinegar, lemon essential oils and white thyme essential oil.
Borax – Borax is actually more of a buffer and not really a “neutralizer”. It brings down the PH of liquid soap because it has a lower PH itself. Borax is also great because it helps thicken your soap, it softens hard water and helps prevent congealing (that layer of soap on top).
First, make sure to keep it away from children's reach. Second, avoid using it as a cosmetic product and handle it with care at all times. This usually means wearing a mask and gloves when using it. Finally, do NOT mix Borax with any boric acid products, such as pesticides.
Borax has long been recognized for its disinfectant and deodorizing properties. Mix a 1/2 cup of Borax into 1 gallon of hot water or undiluted vinegar and clean with this solution. For a fragrant smell, add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, rosemary or lavender to the above recipe.
Don't mix it with acids or store it with acids. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's really very good indeed. It's quite safe if used correctly, it's effective and it's fairly cheap.
It is an insecticide and kills them on contact. It also makes treated material unappealing for termites to eat. Borax is also a digestive poison and repellent that keeps termites away.
Borax is also a great natural cockroach killer. Compared to most chemical pest control treatments, it's a relatively low-risk product.
Oxiclean powder is essentially washing soda with sodium percarbonate, which turns into hydrogen peroxide. It's color safe and works great to get rid of stains and keeps whites white and colors bright. It's also much safer / less toxic than Borax. Borax works well too, helps get rid of stains, and whitens clothes.
Robin Jacobson, a pediatrician at NYU Langone Medical Center, warns families to stay away from the white powder altogether. "Borax can cause burns, especially when you touch it multiple times," she says. "When you're mixing it up, Borax can get in the air and irritate your airways.
Some delicate fabrics, whether white or colored, are labeled as cold-wash only. However, borax readily dissolves only in warm or hot water.
20 Mule Team recommends making a laundry boosting borax solution by adding one tablespoon of borax and two cups of hot water into a sealable container. Mix the solution and add to laundry as a laundry booster—or, in this case, in place of detergent if you're completely out.
The combination of dish soap and vinegar is highly effective for a few different reasons. They're both excellent at breaking down tough grease and grime, but vinegar alone will simply run off of most surfaces, and dish soap is too thick to use on its own.
Deep-cleaning scrub — Great for soap scum and mildew. Mix 1 to 2/3 cups baking soda, ½ cup castile soap or other quality liquid dish detergent, ½ cup water, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Stir till dissolved. Spray on scum and mildew; scrub with scrubby sponge.
“Vinegar is a good cleaner because it's acidic, but when you add dishwashing liquid/dish soap to it (which is a base or neutral) - you neutralise the vinegar. You take away the very thing that makes it work well. “The dishwashing liquid works that well on its own. Adding the vinegar is a pointless step.”