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With all the cleaning chemicals on the market, it can get expensive to clean an apartment. At one point I was spending $10 a month on laundry detergent, and $20 a month on various other cleaning chemicals. It amounted to $252 a year in cleaning chemicals. Though a little creativity, I've managed to cut that bill to $40 a year or $3.33 a month.
What I Need
To clean my entire apartment for a year, I need two large containers of vinegar, one 12-pack of bar soap, a box of washing soda, a box of Borax, a container of baking soda, 12 bottles of dish soap, and 12 boxes of scrub pads. The total cost of all those items is $40.
Kitchen
I've found that my kitchen can be cleaned very effectively with a spray bottle filled with 70 percent vinegar and 30 percent water. Vinegar works like an all-purpose cleaner. It disinfects and kills mold and bacteria. It's great for lightly soiled kitchen counters, floors and cabinets. For really filthy counters and the stove, I use a scrub pad. The abrasiveness of the pad removes grease, stuck on food, and hard water stains. For the dishes and sink, I simply use dish soap. Dish soap is designed to break down grease and disinfect. It works just as good on the sink as it does the dishes.
Instead of cleaning the floor with a mop and bucket or with a Swiffer and wet cleaning cloths, I use the vinegar and water solution plus a light sprinkling of baking soda for abrasiveness. Since I own a Swiffer, I simply attach a damp hand towel to the cleaning platform and use that to scrub and rinse the floor with minimal water usage. Buying wet cleaning cloths for my Swiffer would cost $60 a year. Using this method means the cost is negligible.
Bathroom
To clean my bathroom, I again use the vinegar and water solution for light soiling of the sink, bathtub, walls, and floor. If there's heavy soiling in the bathtub or sink, I use a scrub pad first then spray with vinegar and water, wipe down, and rinse.
For the toilet bowl, I use a cup of straight vinegar and half a cup of baking soda. The fizzing action cleans and disinfects the bowl.
Laundry
For my laundry, I make my own soap out of the Ivory bars, Borax, and washing soda which amounts to about 5 cents a load. By contrast, I used to buy a container of liquid soap for $6 a bottle every month. This method saves me $60 a year in laundry soap.
Before I started cleaning my apartment using these methods, I was spending $72 a year on laundry soap, $12 a year on dish soap, $12 a year on scrub pads, $60 a year on Swiffer cleaning cloths, and $96 a year on various other all-purpose cleaners. I now save $212 a year on cleaning chemicals.
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