I am all about getting multiple uses with one product! Not only does it typically save money, but it keeps my house more simplified!
Recently, I have incorporated the wonderful natural ingredients of Dr. Bronner’s organic castile soap in my kitchen cleaning routine! This product contains: Saponified Organic Coconut, Organic Palm and Organic Olive Oils (with Retained Glycerin), Water, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Salt, Citric Acid, Vitamin E. I use it for washing dishes, and spraying down and disinfecting the counter tops at the end of the day. I am also using it for other household cleaning as well.
Here’s how it works: I buy the liquid version, which comes in larger containers (quart, gallon, etc). You can buy this online or through Azure Standard, or at your local health food store. Trader Joe’s sells a quart size container for $8.99 (which is the best price I have seen). I took a large spray bottle, filled the bottom with 2-3 inches of soap and then filled the remainder of the container with water. Simple! If you want a stronger soap, add more soap to water, but this seems to do the job for us. One thing about using a dishwashing soap, was that it always came out too fast, and I would end up using more than I needed. With the spray bottle, it applies what I need and away I go! Plus a little bit of Bronner’s goes a long way! I use store it under the kitchen sink in between washing, as I don’t really like having bottles of stuff around my sink.
3/11/ 08 UPDATE: After more experimenting, I have discovered this works more effectively at cutting grease and disinfecting if you add a few tablespoons of baking soda and 2-4 Tbls of vinegar to the mix.
Another washing tip
Keep your water pressure to a medium level and keep it lukewarm! I have been trying to do this more lately. It is so easy to just turn it on full blast and waste a lot of water and electricity. Remember to use that dishwasher!
That’s my kitchen tip for the day! Saves money and simplifies your kitchen necessities!
Lindsay, While baking soda is a great laundry/cleaning booster, white vinegar has the opposite effect. It reduces the effectiveness of the soap. Best thing to do is to use the soap mixture to wash your counters and then use a white vinegar/water solution to spray on as a rinse to your counter tops to disinfect. The vinegar will clean off any residue left by the soap, esp. if you have hard water.
Same thing with washing your clothes. Don’t put vinegar in with the detergent. Always add it to the last rinse cycle. I was doing this incorrectly. I believe I read this on Dr. Bronner’s granddaughter’s blog someplace but cannot locate it. She explains how soap works and how vinegar reduces the effectiveness of soap. Here’s her blog with great detailed instructions for cleaning with Dr. Bronner’s soap. I love it.
http://lisa.drbronner.com/
She’s got a wealth of information and only in the past several years discovered how she could clean with her family’s soap!! It’s a great story. I hope this is helpful.
Lindsay, It’s me again. I found the post I was looking for on her site! Has to do with one being an acid and the other a base. She explained it very well.
“A Word of Caution About Vinegar and Castile Soap”
http://lisa.drbronner.com/?p=292
My husband and I have installed a normal light switch that turns our water heater on and off…..it takes about 10 min to heat our water….so we only turn it on before we bathe and before we run the dishwasher, otherwise, it is off, saving electricity.
Hello all!
I just wanted to clear some stuff up (sorry I’m so late to the game)! Sodium LaurETH sulfate is the BAD stuff, not sodium laurYL sulfate. If you’d like more information on this topic, the best place to go is straight to the source, Lisa Bronner, http://lisa.drbronner.com/?p=197. This is not to say people won’t have sensitivities to it (Sal Suds says it’s not meant for personal hygiene purposes), but it’s perfectly ok to use in a product like Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds for household cleaning or laundry. Check out Lisa Bronner’s page for the most complete information on castile soaps and Sal Suds information as well as easy green cleaning and household cleaner recipes.
Target has started carrying a nice selection of natural products and I’ve seen some scents of the Dr. Bronner’s there. Not sure what price, but I’m sure it’s less than the health food store. I found it in the cosmetics section.
I’d recommend against using it as a shampoo though, despite its claims that it can be used for that. It left my hair dry and coated with a filmy feeling.
Lindsay, I noticed that you said to add borax to the mix in the spray bottle.I bought a whole bunch of spray bottles from Wal-Mart since they were 97 cents each, and I mixed borax with some of the bottles and all the ones that I mixed with borax, the bottles quit working and nothing comes out no matter what I do. I tried it one time with just borax, hot water and lemon essential oil, and same problem,it clogged. Do you know if borax clogs these spray bottles or do I just chalk it up to the fact that they are cheap Wal-Mart type bottles where quality control isn’t an imperative? Last week, I bought several bottles of Dr. Bronners and when the weather clears up, I’m going back to get the other scents. If you get a scented Dr.Bronner, do you still need to add more essential oils to the mix? I’ve always used Mrs. Meyers and now I want to try Dr. Bronner’s. I’m always game for trying something new. Thank you.
I no longer recommend borax, and yes, I have found that any substance like that (including baking soda) will clog your spray bottles. Just stick with plain Dr Bronners liquid soap for best results, or vinegar and water with essential oils. You do not need to add any additional essentials oils to Dr Bronners unless desired. Mrs. Meyers is probably better at degreasing and a more effective cleaner. I like Dr Bronners with a dash of lemon juice, and tea tree oil for washing dishes though.
Thank you for answering my questions. I started using natural stuff for laundry, and cleaning, but the laundry soap was just too expensive and sometimes it didn’t work, and when I found the borax/washing soda and fels naptha, I was in heaven. Just recently, I added a little bit of Octagon to the mix and it did a phenomenal job of cleaning! Now, I’m so sad about borax. I still have some of the laundry stuff-I guess I’ll use it in some capacity. I’m always looking for natural products that actually do the job of its poisonous counterparts. Thanks againf or answering me.
HI there! Just wanted to add to the hand dishwashing liquid comments. If you love the Castile soap – you really should invest a few bucks in Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds. It is fantastic as all purpose cleaner. Especially washing dishes & Laundry soap. I use a squirt in my dishes & they squeak. I use 1/8 cup in front loading machine and my clothes always come clean. Note, it does contain SLS… but this is what the site says about it… “Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS): This surfactant cuts grease and dirt, generates copious suds, and biodegrades quickly and completely. SLS is made by combining a sulfate group with lauryl alcohol from coconut oil, then attaching sodium. If improperly formulated, SLS can irritate skin, but our superb formula uses coco-betaine and lauryl glucoside to counter this.” For what its worth… I definitely trust dr. b’s I have every available scent
Hope this info is useful!
Just out of curiosity, I poured a quarter cup of Dr Bronner’s liquid (Baby/Sensitive Skin version) into one of those plastic pump containers. Filled the rest with water. It works great as a handsoap. One squirt lathers, cleans, and softens skin, two squirts for really dirty hands. Next, the kitchen and bath, and will try laundry use.
Thank you, Lindsay. I’ve been thinking of using Dr. Bronner’s as a dish soap after discovering the Seventh Generation brand actually contains SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate), but I am not sure if it is the safe way to go as I don’t see this function listed on Dr. Bronner’s bottle. Your message has eliminated my doubts. Thank you so much.
Hi Lindsay, have you ever tried Trader Joes version of Dr Bronner’s? I bought it for about 1/2 the price of dr bronners and have tried to use it on my counters in the kitchen. I kind of felt like it left some residue though. Possibly just too much soap in my dilution. Just wondering if you ever tried it or used it on floors ( I have wood floors). Thanks again for the blessing and resource your blog is. God is using you to bless many families and help us do the same! Blessings to you! Eryn
I have just discovered Dr. Bronners products and I have fallen in love with them. I had never heard of them or even castile soap before! I discovered them about 5 or 6 months ago when I started getting interested in making my own household cleaning products. I have completely phased out commercial cleaning chemicals with the exception of borax (which has been said to be mildly toxic). Once I discovered that I could make my own I completely stopped using my commercial products. I didn’t even want to wait until they were empty!! Now I am interested in phasing out commercial chemicals and detergents-(which is what your commercial soap actually is) as well. I thought that the Dr. Bronners soaps were basically for the use of household cleaning products and just discovered that I could use them in my hygiene routine as well! I am still looking for recipes and ideas and (kind of newly) open to all suggestions! I am 28 years old with three…going on four children (9, 8, and 14 months) and I just wish that I would have discovered this at an earlier age!
This is a question I don’t see quite as often but is equally important to me and other I’m sure. I have carpet and it needs to be cleaned a couple times a year. Do you know of any mixtures or natural cleaners that could be used in a carpet cleaner machine in place of the toxic cleaners that are sold to be used in them?
I personally do not have a carpet cleaner, but I spot clean with hydrogen peroxide, which works amazingly well. I found several recipes online when I searched natural cleaner for carpet cleaning machine. Here is one. She basically said you don’t have to use the chemicals but any vegetable based heavy duty liquid soap. I would imagine Dr. Bronner’s (especially Dr. Bronner Sal Suds) actually falls into this category.
I see some different mixtures here for different types of cleaning. Can you list what the ingredients are for a natural cleaner to be used in the dishwasher?
Thanks!
I have posted many of my natural household cleaning recipes here & here. The dishwasher soap recipe is in the second post. Blessings!
Thanks so much for the quick reply. There are so many mixtures, I just didn’t know which was really appropriate for the dishwasher. I guess it’s trial and error. Do you know what ingredient/ingredients are in the washing soda that can be purchased at the grocery store?
You can buy a product called “washing soda” in the laundry section of the store. It is normally located right by the borax. You can also use a combination of borax and baking soda for the dishwasher and that works good too.
I have purchased Dr. Bronner’s soaps from http://www.vitacost.com for around 1/2 the store price. Great soap!
Great idea! I can’t find Dr. Bronner’s in my area, but I’m planning to order some things from Azure Standard in a few weeks, so I will definitely add this to the list!
We also use Dr. Bronner’s for bathing and rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar. During cleaning, peroxide will do a great job of disinfecting. Genny
This may be a silly question but since I am trying to go green I need all the help I can get. What ingredient disinfects? I have always thought that in order to disinfect the product had to be a bit harsh.
If you want it to be more stronger on the disinfectant side, I would recommend adding borax and/or vinegar to the combination, or else use the Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds. I personally use the Peppermint version, as we use it to fill up soap dispensers in the house, and for a bath soap as well. All-in-one! But I will add baking soda to the kitchen use spray bottle!
Actually the disinfecting properties could also be used from the essential oils inside the product. Tea Tree and Lavender oils have antibacterial properties to it. Coconut Oil has both antiviral and antibacterial properties.
Hot water and soap alone will fight germs, you don’t need to have harsh chemicals in your cleaning cupboards. Right now I am using a product called Pink Solution which is pretty great for all purpose, including laundry, and it 100% natural that I can now allow my 3 year old to help me clean when she wants to. It’s nice because we can spend time together while we clean, since that is what I do all the time anyways
I am ordering the Peppermint Dr. Bronner because Peppermint is a good bug detoured (fruit flies are bad this year) for my dishes. It’s the only thing left in the home that I use SLS in. We have a high allergy to SLS. The Dr. Bronner Sal has SLS in it just in case you did not notice this.
I love Dr. Bronners! We use a squirt of it in our homemade baby wipe batches!
Can you tell me more about how you make your baby wipe solution – or maybe where you find the recipe you use? Thanks!
I actually just use my shampoo recipe as a wipe solution now. I keep it in a small spray bottle and spray it as needed on her bottom or on a wipe. Works great!
Hmmm, just ordered some today… good timing Linds!
Do you use Dr. Bronners in your Dishwasher?
I have not tried using Dr. Bronners in the dishwasher, as I am using up what I have. I will then begin to make my own with borax, baking soda, & salt as I mentioned previously. These ingredients are cheaper than Dr. Bronners, but another reader said she used it in the dishwasher. So it is possible!
I also use Dr. Bronner’s to make a “Soft Scrub” when I need to really scrub my sinks, or to clean my tub/shower. Just put some baking soda in a dish, and then mix in enough castile soap to make a “soft scrub” type consistency. It works great! I also get the lavender Dr. Bronner’s since it’s got the essential oil already added and has added anti-bacterial properties.
Interesting! I never would have thought of using that for dishes!