So, this is pretty basic, but in order to use your ingredients to make homemade cleaners, you need to have the right containers. Here’s what I use and have found most helpful.
• Spray Bottles
Obviously, it’s important to have a lot of spray bottles on hand for mixing together different homemade cleaning sprays. I got two packs of these bottles at Sam’s Club several years ago, and they have held up well without breaking or getting clogged. You can also buy spray bottles at the dollar store, but I have found that they don’t hold up to the everyday use as well.
• Shaker Containers
I wash and reuse Parmesan cheese containers as my baking soda shakers. I like that they have a lid that closes, which keeps the baking soda from getting too clumped together. You could also buy a shaker type container from the dollar store, but I haven’t found one that has a lid or a cover.
• Wipes Containers
I reuse baby wipes containers to hold my homemade disinfecting wipes (look for an updated post about these later in the month), cloth baby wipes, cleaning cloths in the bathroom, and homemade dryer sheets. It’s a convenient way to keep wipes and rags together and it’s easy to just grab one out when you need it.
• Plastic containers with lids
Some cleaners don’t work well in a spray bottle but you still need an easy way to mix them up and store them. For cleaners like homemade soft scrub, I keep them in a plastic ziploc type container with a lid. You can make the cleaner right in the container, and store any leftovers to use later.
• Buckets
Sometimes I just want to just mix up a bucket of cleaner when I have a large area to clean, like the floor, instead of using my spray bottle, so it’s nice to have a bucket or two on hand for that. This is usually what I do when my kids want to clean with me. I mix up a bucket of cleaner, give them rags and let them go to town. We’ll talk more about cleaning with kids later this month, but my kids really think it’s a game and ask to play “Soapy Bubbles” all the time. Can’t complain about that!
So those are the basic containers you’ll need to have on hand to make homemade cleaners. Did I miss anything? Are there any containers you use for making homemade cleaners that I didn’t list here?
Go here to read all the posts in the 31 Days to Green Clean series.
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what a great idea to make your own disinfecting wipes, using a baby wipes container. I’m going to try this! Thanks for all of the great ideas so far.
I’ll be updating my disinfecting wipes post nest week, so be sure to look for that!
I am really enjoying this series! Thanks!
I’m so glad! 🙂
Recently, I went on a get rid of plastic binge in my home. I replaced a lot of things even my plastic cheese shakers that I used to hold baking soda. I found really cool blue and green glass cheese shakers! One small step, a little at a time!
I gave up on real containers and just went to a restaurant supply store and bought a sleeve of 16 oz deli containers (no kids – just 2 adults, so 16 oz works for us, bigger families would need larger). While I have a handful of larger containers stashed in the pantry, the deli containers are my go-to solution. I can stack them without lids because they all use the same lid (same lid for 32 oz, too). If they get icky, they are cheap enough to throw away. Bonuses are that you can see through them so you know what’s in there and they are cheap enough to give away and not need back if you’re making something for someone else
Heston Carpet Cleaners Ltd.
If your container is stained and it also stinks, or maybe it just stinks, try cleaning it with baking soda. Just mix about a teaspoon of baking soda with a cup of water and scrub the container with the resulting solution using a kitchen brush or sponge. Alternately, you can try undiluted vinegar, which cleans just about everything.