I make my own cleaners, too! The don't smell up the house and they are frugal. Yay!

In a spray bottle (Mine is 16 oz red shiny one I found for about $1 at walmart)
1/2 - 1 tsp dish soap
1 tsp borax
Water to fill. Shake it until the borax dissolves and you are good to go.

Dishwasher powder
1 cup Borax
1 Cup washing soda (its on the laundry aisle)

Mix. Use 1 T in the soap dispenser.

Note: if I start seeing a while film on my glasses, I put a (tiny!) squeeze of regular dawn dish soap in the dispenser before putting in powder.

I also put Vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser.

I use these mixes because I have most of these cleaners on hand for washing my cloth diapers. They work out really well.

I like to scrub with plain baking soda. I put it into a big sized spice jar with a shaker top, and add a few drops of peppermint oil to make it smell nice. There is a great thread on homemade cleaners on www.welltellme.com that I got the peppermint oil idea from.

I use Simple Green diluted down for most cleaning.

If I use vinegar, I will save orange or lemon peels and let them steep in it. It really adds a nice citrus smell.

I have also used cinnamon sticks to scent my vinegar, but that turns brown and leaves fine particles of cinnamon in the vinegar, so I use that kind for a hair rinse and not a cleaner.

~Gwen

One of my favorite homemade floor cleaners is:
1 gal. (or so ~ a little over half a bucket!) hottest tap water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 small squirt of dish liquid
A few drops of lavender essential oil
A few drops of lemon grass essential oil

This smells heavenly ~ especially with my absolute favorite dish liquid: Palmolive "Tropical Blossom" in bright pink. Oh dear, does it smell wonderful!! The essential oils last me over a year, so this is a do-able thing. I used to use "yummy" Dawn original scent dish liquid like my gramma used to use, but they changed the formula and now it smells exactly like Robitussin cough syrup. Eeeew! Why do they always change a good thing?? The above cleaner doesn't streak or film or spot, and I use it on my tile and vinyl flooring. I even use this on my wood floor as long as I wipe dry afterward.

I keep things simple in my cleaning, although I had my fiberglass shower floor that would not come clean when we moved to our new home. I had some leftover "Tilex Mildew" spray that my Mom didn't need anymore, so I used that on it after trying all my homemade ideas (including bleach). It smelled horrible, but WOW did it come out looking like NEW in just a minute or two.

I also use peroxide, but buy mine in large bottles from Sam's so cheap and just screw in any spray nozzle. It fits right on the bottles.

But my most loved cleaner and I have several is club soda.... Mirrors, eyeglasses, windows, chrome, stainless, aplliances, etc never looked so sparkling and I keep a bottle near washer for spot cleaner for stains in laundry. CLUB SODA is so versatile. Great for automobile cleaning too. We add a few drops of pure essential oil, like tea tree or lavender if we need a more of a disinfectant, but basically it is great. I love vinegar, too, but with windows and such you should only clean on an overcast day, but not with club soda. It is the best.
Blessings, Deena

I will try both of those toilet cleaning tricks and see what happens. :)

I love this "recipe" because it's cheap and cleans most surfaces well except glass. I recommend using a non-blue colored dish soap so it does not get confused with window cleaner. This recipe comes from a book and is not my own but has been circulating around the web for some time now.

Alice's Wonder Spray All-Purpose Cleaner

1/4 distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon borax
3 cups very hot distilled or purified water
1/4 cup liquid dish soap

Mix the vinegar and borax in a 32 oz spray bottle. Fill bottle with the water and shake to dissolve the vinegar and borax. Add soap last.

I've trying to clean the bathroom with natural cleaners. I've read a lot of blogs mentioning baking soda/vinegar/lemon. So one day I decided to try it. I mixed vinegar and baking soda and scrubbed the bathroom tiles. Then cleaned it with a sponge sinked in water and lemon juice. But IT DIDN'T WORK!! As a matter of fact, I had to clean the bathroom tiles about 3 times since the vinegar/baking soda mix left a white coat that wasn't getting off with the water/lemon juice. I tryied just water, then a cleaning product, a lot of scrubbing until the white coat dissapeared. Now the tiles look just as they did before trying the natural cleaner (you know, not as clean as new but at least no white coat). I really wished I've never tried it!! too much work for not getting it clean!!

There are sooo many blogs about how good vinegar and baking soda are that I just think I must have use it wrong! How you use baking soda to scrub tiles?