Why Make Your Own Cleaners?

Walk down the cleaning aisle of any supermarket and you will find dozens of bottles, each promising a different job. Most of them rely on the same handful of ingredients, dressed up with fragrance and packaging. Making your own is cheaper, cuts down on plastic, and means you know exactly what is going on your kitchen worktop. It is also gentler on older homes — and in Wales we have plenty of those, from slate-floored cottages in the north to Victorian terraces in the valleys. Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda will not strip the finish from a period surface the way some harsh chemicals can.

You do not need a laboratory. Four or five basics will cover most of the house.

The Ingredients Worth Keeping In

• Bicarbonate of soda — a mild abrasive that lifts grease and neutralises smells. Buy it in bulk from a pharmacy or a refill shop and decant into a jar.
• White vinegar — cuts through limescale and light grease. Distilled white vinegar is the one to use; malt vinegar will leave a smell.
• Lemons — the juice is a mild acid and a decent deodoriser, and the spent halves can be used to scrub a chopping board.
• Citric acid — sold as a powder in most pharmacies and homebrew shops. It is vinegar in dry form, with no smell, and is excellent for kettles and shower heads.
• Liquid soap or washing-up liquid — a few drops turn water into a proper cleaning solution. A plain, unscented one works best.

Mixtures That Actually Work

• All-purpose spray: mix roughly one part white vinegar to three parts water in a spray bottle. Use it on worktops, tiles, sinks and cupboard doors. Leave it for a minute before wiping.
• Cream cleaner: stir bicarbonate of soda with just enough water to make a thick paste. Apply with a cloth, rub gently, then rinse. Good for sinks, hobs and the marks around a bath.
• Drain freshener: pour half a mug of bicarbonate down the plughole, follow with a mug of vinegar, wait ten minutes, then flush with hot water. It will not clear a real blockage, but it shifts the smell.
• Kettle and shower head: dissolve two tablespoons of citric acid in a litre of warm water and soak. Rinse thoroughly afterwards.
• Glass and mirrors: one part vinegar to four parts water, buffed with a dry cloth. Skip this if you are cleaning near slate or natural stone.
• Wooden floors and furniture: a few drops of liquid soap in a bucket of warm water is plenty. Wring the cloth out well — too much water is worse for wood than any cleaner.

Adjusting For Welsh Water And Older Homes

Water varies enormously across Wales. Much of it is soft, which means soap lathers easily and you need less of it. Parts of the border counties and some areas in the south east are harder, and there you will see more limescale around taps and in kettles. If you are in a hard water area, increase the vinegar or citric acid slightly and leave it to work for longer rather than scrubbing harder.

Old surfaces need more care than the water does. Vinegar and lemon are acids, and acids dull slate, limestone, marble and anything with a natural stone seal. Plenty of Welsh kitchens and hallways have exactly these floors. Use a pH-neutral soap solution on them instead, and keep the vinegar for tiles and stainless steel. Never use vinegar on aluminium, and avoid it on cast iron unless you plan to reseason afterwards.

Where To Buy Ingredients Locally

You rarely need to order online. Independent pharmacies almost always stock bicarbonate of soda and citric acid, often in larger tubs than the supermarket. Hardware shops and ironmongers carry white vinegar in bulk, frequently by the five-litre container. Health food shops and zero-waste refill shops — there is a growing number of them in market towns across Wales — will fill your own bottles and jars, which saves a fortune over time. Saturday markets are worth a look too: stallholders selling household goods often price bulk vinegar and soda very reasonably. If you cannot find something, ask. A local shopkeeper will usually tell you who stocks it, or offer to order it in.

Storing, Testing And Staying Safe

• Label every bottle with what is in it and the date you made it. A strip of masking tape and a marker is enough.
• Never store mixtures in old drinks bottles or food containers. Children and visitors will assume the contents are drinkable.
• Keep everything out of reach of children and pets, and store vinegar away from bleach and other chlorine products — mixing the two produces dangerous fumes.
• Test any new mixture on a hidden patch first: under a worktop overhang, behind a radiator, or in a corner of the floor. Wait a few minutes and check for dulling or discolouration before using it widely.
• Make small batches. These mixtures do not keep indefinitely, and a fresh spray bottle lasts about a month before the vinegar smell fades and the solution loses its edge.
• Ventilate the room while you clean, and wear gloves if you have sensitive skin — vinegar and citric acid are mild, but repeated contact still dries your hands.

If you would rather hand the job over, ask a local cleaning firm what products they use. Many independent cleaners across Wales are happy to work with eco-friendly solutions if you ask in advance, and it is worth checking they are insured and can give you a local reference before you book.