Aussie Frugal Living

These are very good, I use the dish soap and vinegar or dish soap alone for a lot of things.

Sometimes an old kitchen scourer sponge gets a second life as a shower scrubber if it’s not smelly.

Another one is citric acid powder for limescale and soap scum. (Sold at Colesworth in small containers. Basically generic Barkeepers Friend.)

I clean my washing machine by sending bicarb through on a long hot wash, then running vinegar through in the rinse.

I also add vinegar to the wash cycle for smelly laundry (seems to work better for odours than using it in the rinse - though it is a good alternative to fabric softener too).

I will say there is a risk of the vinegar damaging rubber pipes or seals, so you might not want to do it very often and/or at least run an extra rinse after the vinegar to dilute or wash it out. Don’t leave it sitting.

Edit: Filling sink drains with bicarb soda to sit overnight and then pouring a kettle of boiling water down helps get rid of smells, kills fruit flies living there and helps keep them clear. Pouring vinegar in the sink drain is also effective.

I use plain white vinegar in the generic 2L bottles for all of this.

But for fruit fly traps I get an empty plastic water bottle with a narrow mouth, pour a small amount of apple cider vinegar in and add a drop or two of dish soap. The acv attracts the insects with the smell, the narrow opening of the bottle makes it hard to fly back out, and the dish soap breaks the surface tension of the liquid so the fruit flies sink and drown.

Tip stolen from Smeg - mixing powdered icing sugar and borax in equal parts and leaving them around in tinfoil bowls is a good cockroach bait. It’s safer than poison and Borax has other uses around the house but please put these baits in places kids and pets can’t get to them. Borax is still toxic/not to be ingested.

Undiluted eucalyptus oil will also remove sticky adhesive residue like from price tags. This may also remove gum or ink stains. However be careful not to use it on plastic or laminate etc because they will be damaged or dissolve.

Also if using it on a reusable rag you might not want to send that through the dryer after washing in case any leftover volatile oil ignites.

Read up on using eucalyptus or orange oil in this way for full warnings.

We make our own spray cleaner that we use for pretty much everything. Dissolve 1 tbsp lectric soda crystals in warm water, add 1tbsp dishwashing liquid, 1 cup vinegar and 1 tbsp water soluable eucalyptus oil or lavender oil. Add it all to a 2lt bottle and fill it with water. Use this to fill a spray bottle. We use it on everything including the bathroom, glass and stone bench tops.

Ooh, I've got one.

For bathroom mirrors, rub a little soap over it. Then use a cloth and keep rubbing till it disappears.

This leaves a film over the mirror and stops it fogging up!