Pickles! Natural Cleaner. Natural DIY cleaner for home and car windshield use.

"Pickles! Natural Cleaner" DIY Home Recipes

I've been experimenting for over a year with DIY home cleaners, using the many recipes on the Internet as inspiration.

So far, it saves money, and it's as toxic as the blue stuff. And it's always cheaper then the natural non-toxic green stuff in the stores! 

I've named my recipe "Pickles!" because when I use it in the house, or the car, I say, "pickles!" because the air smells like pickles, or really, drunk pickles. The family get's a giggle out of that and now we say "Pickles!" all the time, especially in the car.

The basic idea is white Vinegar, water and a little alcohol. White vinegar is cheap and a naturally acidic miracle liquid for so many cleaning tasks. Isopropyl alcohol is an evaporator and cleaner, and water is well...free!
Variations include adding baking soda for abrasion, core startch for windows, dish soap for kick and scent, and citrus infused vinegar for scent.

Lemon rinds in pure white vinegar

Pickles! Natural Cleaner Base Recipe

For general home counters and floors, and warm weather car window washer fluid tanks.

Rough Ratio 

In any container:

• 60% water (distilled is best, filtered is good, tap is okay.)
• 30% white vinegar
• 10% isopropyl alcohol, 90%+

So for a Gallon Jug (16 cups)

• Fill empty jug with 1/3 white vinegar (about 5 cups)
• Add just over 1 1/2 cup of (1.6 cups) of alcohol.
• Fill with water.

Pour into a rugged spray bottle like the one at the right. Rugged because the vinegar is acidic and alcohol is hard on cheap plastic gaskets. Look for "chemical resistant" bottles like this one. 

Customizations

1. Better Smell: If you don't like the smell of drunk pickles, add 1% or less of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap, say 2 tablespoons per gallon to start. For a citrus smell, fill an 8oz jar with the peel only from a lemon, orange, lime, or grapefruit and pure white vinegar. Let sit for a week or two. Strain, and add.
2. Winter Car Windshields: To keep from freezing at zero degrees and higher, make your mixture at least 50% isopropyl alcohol that is 90% or higher). Colder than zero? Go blue for a month or two. Mother nature will forgive you the minor blue coloring and methanol alcohol pollution in return for driving safe! 
3. Windows: Try equal parts vinegar, alcohol. And add about 1 to 2% corn starch. Really, corn starch!
4. Abrasive: For floors, tiles, sinks, showers, stoves. Make this for the task at hand in a small small cereal-type bowl. Mix 1-part vinegar and 1-part baking soda. It will fizz a little, then use.

Resources and Links

A Few Articles

• Readers Digest: Set of recipes for money-saving and effective DIY cleaners.
• Life Hacker:  Homebrew cleaners vs corporate chemicals, who wins?
• Crunchy Betty.com test DIY homebrew glass cleaner: Battle of the Homemade Glass Cleaners
• Engineering Toolbox's Freeze and flash points of isopropyl alcohol.

Products I use, on Amazon: