Thrifty Thursday - Glass Cleaner

Oh, how I wish the windows, mirrors, and other glass surfaces would clean themselves. But really, with the right cleaner, it's no big deal to give them a spray and wipe down every so often (with little boys, even more often!). Since Mr. Chewy and I had both worked in small retail stores, with a lot of display cases, we had the wonders of Windex ingrained in us. Awhile I go, I managed to switch us to store brand glass cleaner, and everything was still standing a few weeks later. In more recent history, we ran out on a cleaning day, and I remembered my grandma had made homemade glass cleaner - so I went to the trusty small town United Methodist church cookbook, and in the miscellaneous recipe section found her recipe:

1 pint rubbing alcohol
2 T. ammonia
2 T. dish detergent

Put in a gallon container and fill with water. For safety, add a little food coloring. Use in any spray bottle.

Well, we didn't have that much rubbing alcohol or any ammonia - so off to look for another recipe - and found several like this:

1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent
2 cups water

put all ingredients in a spray bottle, shake to mix and start cleaning!

We had all of these ingredients, so gave it a try - and it is working just great!

What I do like about the vinegar cleaner, (besides the fact that it works!) is that I'm not so worried about the Chewy kid helping to clean, or if he gets a bit wild with the spraying. Watered down vinegar with a trace of soap is not going to hurt him, or much else. Even if he manages to hit his toothbrush with a stray spray - not really any worries.

Bit of an entertaining story on Grandma's cleaner though, I remember hearing her tell someone that Grandpa didn't like it - said Windex worked the best - so she started coloring it blue and storing it in a Windex bottle and he never knew the difference.