DIY Cleaning Products: Drain Cleaner

I was going to blog about cleaning today, but there is too much to put in one post so I am doing a small series on DIY Cleaning Products. Hope you enjoy!

Thursday is cleaning day at our house. I must admit that I am not very good at cleaning. It's probably because I dislike it so much. I would rather be doing just about anything else around the house except cleaning. Perhaps it also has to do with my severe allergies to most cleaning products. Anything with perfume or chemicals in it gives me a nasty reaction.

Ironically enough, I was employed as a janitor for a number of years. I was amazed at how much better commercial cleaning products are compared to the over the counter variety available in the grocery store. One drizzle of the blue or pink commercial liquid and a swoosh of a brush would instantly produce sparkling sinks and toilets. So, how come cleaning at home was so much work?

Cleaning your home used to be more efficient. Remember the days when you could take the rust off of nails with Pine-sol, Mr. Clean or Top Job? My mother used to use Top Job when stripping furniture. It would eat through anything. Not so any more. Environmental concerns have ruined any decent cleaning products on the market, and the amount of perfumes and deodorizers in them is staggering, not to mention the hefty price tag. Do you notice how bad the soap isle smells at the grocery store? Yuck!

I first began to realize how much we were affected by chemicals after we moved into a house that had been a rental. It was completely filthy inside, and I went out and bought tons of cleaning products to cut through the crud and sterilize the germs. We were sick for weeks on end with runny noses, sore throats, watering eyes, coughs, headaches and asthma. I finally came to the realization that it was the cleaning products that were making us sick, not the germs. I began to box up all the items we had accumulated in a few short months. In a small home of 1200 square feet with only 1 1/2 bathrooms, we had been using 5 large boxes of chemicals. I was shocked! Here I thought we were only using a few things! I put the boxes out on the front porch and posted an ad on Craigslist for FREE cleaning supplies. They were gone in less than hour. I actually felt bad for whoever picked them up, they had no idea what they were in for! I am sure they thought they had hit the jackpot!

I began to research organic alternatives. Buying organic cleaning supplies was even more expensive than the regular ones, so that wasn't an option. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all I really needed was a few simple ingredients, and some old fashioned recipes. I will share more of them the next few days, but today let's focus on Drain Cleaner.

I this drain cleaning recipe came from a late night TV show that I saw years ago, don't ask me which one because I have no idea. All you need is 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup cream of tartar, and some boiling water. What could be simpler than that?

Combine the salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix.

Add the 1/4 cup cream of tartar. I find these little containers in the spice isle at the grocery store. They are rather like single serving containers, almost a quarter cup. Close enough in my book.

Combine all the ingredients.

Put 1/4 cup of the dry mixture down the drain.

Then follow with about 2 cups of boiling water. See how it foams and steams? Hard to get a good picture through a cloud, but I think you get the idea. It works great! I use this treatment about once a month for all our drains, and I use a double treatment for the bathtub since that seems to be where we get the occasional clog.

So simple that even your kids can do it. You'll never need Drano again, not that it ever worked that well anyway. Several plumbers have told me that Drano is the worst thing you could possibly do to your pipes, not to mention the environment, so why use it? I think the last time I priced it in the grocery store it was in the neighborhood of $6.00 a bottle. This little DIY recipe costs you pennies by comparison.

Tune in tomorrow for more recipes!

Designer Mom