I thought this was interesting: Natural Cleaners

The "recipe" for an all purpose cleaner is exactly like mine, except I use ammonia instead of vinegar. I use vinegar by itself to clean a lot of things, though.

I noticed several references to borax... do you use it to clean? I don't think I ever have.  

 Pat, I couldn't get the page to load ("cannot be found").

I use borax in the laundry. But haven't used it beyond that.  I have seen it many times as a additive to cleaners like windows and dishwashers, I just haven't tried it. I like the idea though.

 I guess I copied the link wrong... it's fixed now, sorry.

I've used borax in the laundry, too, I forgot about that! Isn't borax used as a poison for insects?  

Hi Pat, I as well use ammonia for a lot of things instead of vinegar. I have a mixture of half ammonia and water in a spraybottle and I use it almost everywhere. It is also excellent for cleaning windows. I spray my windows and wipe them with a microfasercloth. Stripeless and clean!! I also use it on countertops, toilets, tiles, sinkes and cleaning floors as nothing gets grease gone as wel as ammonia. however not everybody can stand the smell. But I must admit I don't know anybody who uses borax here in Holland.

Pat:

Isn't borax used as a poison for insects?  

I've heard for fleas and other insects besides ants. (Ants seem to be immune to it). But it is toxic so not to be used around small kids who put fingers in mouths.

I've also heard of it killing weeds, (vinegar is also a killer), using it as an abrasive in anything (toilets, sinks), and also mixing with some other things (mind blank) for windows.

 I use vinegar to wash windows, too, and to clean the bathroom, etc., but the ammonia and dish detergent is a good all purpose spray cleaner.

I didn't know borax didn't work on ants. At one time I had a "recipe" for borax and something that would kill roaches, but can't remember what it was right now. I thought borax might be used in commercial bug killers, but maybe that would be too simple, huh?  

Borax. I make a scouring powder out of it, using one part baking soda and one part borax. I also, upon occasion, use borax in the laundry as a booster. I also use baking soda in the laundry as well.

Vinegar is the workhorse of cleaners in my household. I put vinegar full strength into a spray bottle. In fact, there are many spray bottles of pure vinegar in strategic places in my house. I also use it in the laundry. I do not, however, mix vinegar with any soaps to make a cleaner. It doesn't make any sense to me. Vinegar is an acid and all soaps, to my knowledge, are bases. I do not wish to reduce the cleaning power of either. If I feel my counters need an extra cleaning, I will wash it with some dish detergent, but rinse with the vinegar, cleaning the soap residue away.

Baking soda is another workhorse. I use it as a scouring powder in conjunction with borax. In addition, I use it as a laundry booster--I have very hard water. I do not mix it with vinegar, because all you are making is carbon dioxide gas.

Olive Oil. I have read many "formulas" for furniture polish, but I am a bit lazy, and I just want to get the job done. I put a little olive oil on a terry rag, wipe it a bit,and buff away with the dry part of the rag. It works for me.

For pest control. When am I "not" battling creepy crawly things?, I have used bay leaves, but I prefer boric acid. I have also used diatomaceous earth. Sometimes you have no choice but to buy the "bad stuff."

I use Borax to clean with. I have a Borax, soap and tea tree oil solution that I am using as a bathroom cleaner currently.

Well I know that hot vinegar water is killing greens between tiles outdoors that's for sure. But instead of vinegare( more expensive here than ammiona) I still still use the ammiona to get rid of al greases on windows, tiles and floors. But for nasty smells I always have a bowl with vinigar placed on one of my radiotors in the kitcher and livingroom.

  Back in the 70's when I lived in an apartment in Baltimore I used Borax mixed with sugar and put in a saucer under the sink to kill roaches.  The therory was the roaches would be attracted to the sugar and eat it along with the Borax and die.  Now that I live in the mountains I don't have roaches but have ants.  I don't want to use a pestiside so I sprinkle cinnamon around the outside of my house also across the opening of my cat encloseure. The ants dissappeared and the cinnamon doesn't hurt my cats.  A lady I knew would catch what ever bugs were bugging her plants and take an old blender with water and whiz up the bugs then spray her plants.  The bugs did not to get near the plants with possible ground up relatives.  I have mixed up a spray of vinegar, hot sauce(lot's of it), and salt.  I used it to spray my lilacs this spring when they were attacked by some bug. Oh, I also put some Dawn dish detergent init too.  It got rid of the bugs but I sprayed the next 2 mornings just to make sure.

Melanie