Floor Cleaner
Use washing soda from the grocery store. You may add borax and boric acid (to deter insects except ants). Use white distilled vinegar in your rinse water for a natural shine and ant repellent. Do not add bleach to this. For the bathroom floor use plain bleach water—follow the label. Never use chlorine bleach if anybody in the home is ill or suffers from depression. Use grain alcohol (1 pint to 3 quarts water) for germ killing action instead of chlorine.
Furniture Duster and Window Cleaner
Mix equal parts white distilled vinegar and water. Put it in a spray bottle.
Furniture Polish
A few drops of olive oil on a dampened cloth. Use filtered water to dampen.
Insect Killer
Boric acid powder (not borax). Throw liberal amounts behind stove, refrigerator, under carpets and in carpets. Since boric acid is white, you must be careful not to mistake it for sugar accidentally. Keep it far away from food and out of children's reach. Buy it at a farm supply or garden store. It will not kill ants.
Ant Repellent
Spray 50% white distilled vinegar on counter tops, window sills and shelves and wipe, leaving residue. Start early in spring before they arrive, because it takes a few weeks to rid yourself of them once they are established. If you want immediate action, get some lemons, cut the yellow outer peel off and cover with grain alcohol in a tightly closed jar. Let stand at least one hour. Use 1 part of this concentrate with 9 parts water in a spray bottle. Mix only as much as you will use because the diluted form loses potency. Spray walls, floors, carpets wherever you see them. The lemon solution even leaves a shine on your counters. Use both vinegar and lemon approaches to rid yourself of ants.
To treat the whole house, pour vinegar all around your foundation, close to the wall, using one gallon for every five feet. Expect to damage any foliage it touches. Reapply every six months.
Flower and Foliage Spray
Food-grade hydrogen peroxide. See instructions on bottle.
Moth Balls
I found this recipe in an old recipe book. Mix the following and scatter in trunks and bags containing furs and woolens: 1⁄2lb. each rosemary and mint, 1⁄4 lb. each tansy and thyme, 2 tbs. powdered cloves.
Carpet Cleaner
Whether you rent a machine or have a cleaning service, don’t use the carpet shampoo they want to sell, even if they “guarantee” that it is all natural and safe. Instead add these to a bucket (about four gallons) of water and use it as the cleaning solution:
Wash water Rinse water
1/3 cup borax 1⁄4 cup grain alcohol
2 tsp. boric acid
1⁄4 cup white distilled vinegar or 4 tsp. citric acid
Borax does the cleaning; alcohol disinfects, boric acid leaves a pesticide residue, and the vinegar or citric acid give luster. If you are just making one pass on your carpet, use the borax, alcohol, and boric acid. Remember to test everything you use on an unnoticed piece of carpet first.