front porch trash

front porch trash

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.....OOPS

Don't you just love to get up early in the morning while the house is quiet and still? Before all of the noise overwhelms you and you have to get busy with life? Ahhh...  a nice quiet morning.

Wait...what is that in the hall?  A dark blob of something.  A cat toy? A stray sock? Cardboard from the scratching box?

No.....it's a regurgitated hairball. What a lovely way to start the day.

We have one cat. My daughter, who is "visiting" for a while, has three cats. One cat stays in her rooms and the other two come and go all over the house. I don't know who left me the lovely hairball, but I cleaned it off the carpet.

I reached for my handy, dandy all purpose cleaner. Homemade of course.
Recycled bottle of course
It's not the first time I have had to use the APC for a hairball, or worse.If you have cats with long hair, like a Norwegian Forest Cat, you know what a dangler is and it has to be cleaned up.

That got me to thinking that the all purpose cleaner might be a recipe to share. I mix up a bottle at the time and usually use an empty spray bottle from something else. This was a really old spray bottle from some cleaner. The older the bottle, the better the sprayer, for some strange reason.


All Purpose Cleaner
1 tsp borax
2 Tbs vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 tsp washing soda
1/2 tsp liquid soap
2 cups very hot water

I mix everything with the hot water in a glass mixing cup, let cool and pour into the spray bottle. Will keep longer than it takes to use it all up. You could mix and store in an old vinegar jug, but it is honestly so simple to make I just make it as I need it. If you want a extra strong cleaner you can double the borax, vinegar and washing soda. I don't double the liquid soap because of the rinsing issue. Write the recipe on the spray bottle and you don't have to look up the recipe.

I use vinegar because it has a neutralizing effect on cat accidents.
I also use Dawn liquid soap because of the anti-bacterial  and grease cutting abilities.
Much cheaper than what was originally in my bottle, and probably some of the same ingredients, minus the unpronounceable chemical names.

Go....clean something. And if you run out of things to clean I can give you my address.

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