Most households have about 10 different bottles of cleaning products for different purposes – the toilet, the shower, the kitchen, the furniture – you name it and someone out there is making a product that they want you to buy. The shelves at your favorite store are lined with product after product after product – but there is no reason to make your life so difficult; after all, don’t you want to simplify instead? So before you go buy yet another cleaner for yet another purpose, take a real look at what you need to clean. All-purpose cleaners are just that; they are for all purposes. What more could you possibly need than that? Good all-purpose cleaners clean everything from the bathroom to the counter tops to the windows, so there is no need to buy specialty products to do each one of those. In fact, if you were so adventurous, you could even make your own cleaners for mere pennies on the dollar, while leaving behind all the toxic stuff normally found in mass market cleaners. Don’t believe me? Try mixing equal parts of baking soda and water in a bowl to make a paste, and then use it to clean your fridge, microwaves, tile counter tops or even your toilet. It worked, right? And how much did you spend, about $.10? Here are more natural ways to clean your home for you to try out.

I used to have a whole bunch of different bottles in my closet for cleaning every surface in my home, and believe me when I say it is so much easier (and cheaper) to just have a select few (or 1 even!) that can clean everything. Companies spend millions marketing these “different but the same” products to us shoppers, but don’t buy into the hype – you don’t need them all.

So the next time you are in the store thinking you need cleaning products for every corner of your house, think again – a lot of what you need is actually the same product in different colored bottles, and most of it can be made at home on the cheap. Give it a shot!