Clean your house and save money at the same time
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | 3 Comments
Whenever I go to the store to pick up a few things to clean the house, I have noticed that there are more and more new kinds of cleaners and dusters; just basically a lot of things that I have never needed in the past to get my house clean.
I think that it’s important to show everyone that they don’t need Swiffers or Shamwows to clean their homes.
So here are a few tips to save you some money on the cleaning aisle and in your house when it comes time to clean up:
1) Paper towels can be a waste. While I think it is important to ALWAYS use a clean cloth to clean up in the kitchen, it isn’t necessary to have three rolls of paper towels to clean. Reusable towels are a good alternative to paper towels. You can clean up with them and throw them in the wash with your towels. This will also help reduce some waste that comes from your house.
2) Lysol or any other concentrated antibacterial cleaner is your best friend when it comes time to clean the kitchen. Before I discovered this tip, I can’t tell you how many bottles of pre-bottled Lysol or Formula 409 I went through cleaning up around the house (especially in the kitchen). One day while I was getting ready to mop the floor, I discovered that you can also use Lysol to clean counters. So, I put the recommended amount in a spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle up with water. One bottle of concentrated cleaner can last our house 3 months (and that’s also using it to clean the floors).
3) Swiffer dusters are nice, but a wet cloth can do the same job. If you have a lot of knick knacks in your house and have to walk around and dust them every single week, then maybe a Swiffer duster will save you some time, but if you don’t, a wet cloth could be the cheap alternative that you are looking for.
4) Plastic bags from the grocery stores can be a good alternative to buying trash bags. Okay, unless you have completely started using reusable shopping bags, then I’m sure somewhere around your house you have some of those plastic shopping bags. I keep all of mine and use them as trash bags. This keeps us from having to buy trash bags. While you’re probably thinking that they are just too small to be used as trash bags in the kitchen trash, think about it this way: How often have you walked past your kitchen trash that you probably should have taken out yesterday? When you use smaller bags, you have to take the trash out more often and therefore, there’s less stink to deal with.
Now these tips might not be fore you or you can pick and choose which ones sound like something that you may give a try.
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Tags: swiffer dusters, Money, grocery store
Kai from Finally Frugal | Sun, Nov 15 2009
We would sometimes use 1 roll of paper towels a DAY! Then in an effort to cut expenses, I started looking for alternatives. (Kinda funny, when you think about it — It was just a half-generation ago that paper towels didn’t even exist!)
I started making “unpaper” towels from cloth that are of similar shape, size & weight of regular paper towels. My husband and I also made an *unpaper towel dispenser* which resides where the paper towel holder used to stand. There wasn’t any way my paper-towel-loving family was going to make the change unless it was easy. We just toss our cloth “unpaper” towels in the wash, and place them in the dispenser — no folding required!
Every small change adds up to real money at the end of the month!
sammy from glass plates | Sun, Nov 29 2009
I think Paper towels may be a waste but reusable towels are a good alternative to paper towels. Lysol or any other cleaner is the best option when it comes time to clean the kitchen.
Bert Carr | Wed, Dec 16 2009
You can use the grocery bag for the trash box inside your house and use a larger trash bag for your large trash can.