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Borax Multi Purpose Cleaner Will Save You $$$
April 26, 2010
Borax is an affordable, natural cleaning, odor eliminating, eco-friendly cleaner that has seemingly endless uses around the home. You can potentially save a lot of money by using this product instead of other special purpose cleaner products which are much more expensive.
Today there are so many branded cleaners to choose from. Most of them are marketed towards specific cleanup purposes with their special formulas while just a few seem to be marketed towards multipurpose use. You see, more money is made from these companies if they convince you that you have to purchase different cleaners for different cleanup purposes. Also, every so often these products are re-formulated and ‘improved’ to an ‘advanced’ formula to recapture your attention, or to have an excuse for a higher price.
The brands are constantly reinventing themselves and offering more choices of formulated cleaners to train you into believing that you need many different types of cleaners, each with their own specific special purpose. Take a look in your closets to see how many different cleaner solutions that you have.
What in the world did our grandparents do back in the day, when these miraculous cleaning formulas were not available? There homes must have been a dirty filthy mess without them! Wait a minute, I have an idea, lets find out what they used back in the old days…
Borax
One popular cleaner that I can remember being used is something called BORAX. Borax is a multipurpose powdery cleaner whose ingredient comes from a naturally occurring mineral compound of the element, boron. Much of the world’s borax comes from the Rio Tinto Borax mining operation in Boron, California.
The most common brand is “20 Mule Team Borax”. It has primarily been known as a laundry booster for whiter, cleaner clothes, but it has many more household uses. It cleans, disinfects, deodorizes, softens water, and neutralizes many bugs. Lets look at a few borax recipes.
List of Uses for Borax
- Floor Cleaner (1/3 cup Borax, 1 gallon warm water, squirt of dish washing detergent, splash of ammonia)
- Window Cleaner (2/3 cup Borax, 1 gallon warm water)
- Disinfect and Clean Toilet (1/2 cup Borax added to basin water, let stand for awhile, then clean with toilet brush)
- Car Wash Cleaner (1/8 cup mixed with about 1.5 gallons of water)
- Eliminate Urine Odor on mattress – handy for accidents while toilet training a youngster (dampen area, sprinkle and rub in Borax, let dry and vacuum)
- Ants (mix equal amounts of Borax and powdered sugar, place near ant problem area – keep away from pets)
- Carpet Stains (mix Borax with water to make paste, rub into stain, let dry and vacuum)
- Unclog drains (dump 1/2 cup Borax into drain, let stand for 15 minutes, then dump in hot or boiling water )
- Prevent Weeds from growing in pavement cracks (sprinkle Borax in cracks)
- Garbage Disposer clean and sanitize (dump 1/4 cup Borax into disposer, splash in just a little water and let stand for an hour or so, rinse with hot water)
- Tile and Grout Cleaner (sprinkle Borax with just enough water to paste, scrub with brush)
- Laundry Booster (add 1/2 cup Borax to wash load for brighter, cleaner, deodorized clothes)
- Carpet Powder Deodorizer (sprinkle Borax on carpet, let stand overnight and vacuum)
- Flea Killer (sprinkle Borax on carpet, let stand overnight and vacuum)
The takeaway from all of this should be to consider alternatives to what we are being marketed and sold today. Thinking and using common-sense is a learned way of life. Don’t be stuck in ‘the system’. Discover what our ancestors used for frugal solutions to problems. Although many advancements clearly win out over past solutions, not all new products are any better as a solution than what our grandparents and great grandparents used. I believe that Borax is just one of many nuggets out there, waiting to be picked.
What inspired me to post on this topic was having used some ’20 Mule Team Borax’ yesterday while cleaning our patio furniture, and realizing its versatility and effectiveness. Although I have been using this product for some time now, each time I do, I am reminded of how simple solutions such as this can save time and money.
Update: I must say that using a borax solution for car wash cleaner is very effective. I have been using this solution as a car wash soap for some time now, and it definitely cleans better than other special purpose car wash soaps that I have used. I have not had any scratching of the paint whatsoever and it really cuts through the road grime, bug residue, and dirt. I’m still amazed at how much cleaning solution can be made from one box of borax, all at a fraction of the cost of other manufactured soaps.
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