One way of simplifying? just use less.

Sounds easy – until you’re barraged by all your cleaning products. How about less of them too?

There are a million katrillion recipes online for natural cleaning products. I’ve tried a few of them. For several months, we used one that was composed of mostly vinegar + water. It cleaned well, but I hated that my home smelled like a pickle factory every time I used it.

my husband, on the other hand, loved the scent. I would come into the kitchen, be barraged by pickles, and realize it was just him liberally spraying the counters down with the stuff. Trust me, I’m not complaining…I thought it was rather humorous. and stinky.

Because I do not, in fact, own a pickle factory, I decided that cleaner was not for me. Instead, I picked this big guy up from Trader Joe’s:

There are directions right on the bottle {along with a bunch of crazy, un-truthful sayings} about how to use the soap for all sorts of things. I just picked up a large spray bottle, diluted the soap with water, and voila – my all purpose cleaner. I usually use a little bleach when cleaning my toilet and I also have 2 cans of dusting spray that I’m still working through. I’ve probably had them since 2009 seeing as I r-a-r-e-l-y dust. I would tell you not to judge, but I don’t really care if you do, so go right ahead. Tweet it for all I care. If I like you, I might let you come over and sign your name in the dust on my table.

Anyway, these are the only cleaning products I use:

• DIY all purpose cleaner
• DIY window cleaner (here’s a highly rated recipe)
• dusting spray (I’ve seen DIY recipes for this, but have never tried them)
• bleach (for the toilets)

And believe me, it is SO much simpler to use only a couple products instead of lugging out a massive bucket full of bottles like I used to do!

This post is part of the 31 day Simplify Series.
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