I just purchased "The Naturally Clean Home" and like many of the other reviewers, immediately was curious to begin making my own homemade recipes. I must say that I am impressed with the results: The Lavender Soft Scrubber was easy to make and even easier to use in the bathroom, leaving my toilet, bidet, tub and sinks spotless with little effort in scrubbing and rinsing. I also made the Liquid Laundry Detergent and was pleasantly surprised by how clean and soft it left towels, sheets and even my husband's smelly and dirty golf clothes. I noted that another reviewer said that this liquid laundry detergent recipe didn't work for her but my experience was different: I substituted borax for the baking soda in the recipe and found that this worked just fine. The resulting liquid laundry detergent has to be shaken before use and doesn't suds up like other brands of detergent. But do not be fooled by the lack of suds: it works just fine and leaves no residue on clothes that can cause skin reactions and depending upon the essential oil you choose (I used a combination of cedarwood and patchouli), the fragrance left on clothes is subtle and not overwhelming; just a fresh clean scent and softness. You may find that you don't even need a fabric softener with that particular recipe although I am curious to try her fabric softener recipe next.
With just a couple of essential oils, and few other ingredients, you can have what you need to clean just about the entire home without breaking the bank. It's important to note that essential oils have different uses and functions and while it looks like the recipes are repetitious, they're not when you look closely at what essential oils are used and why.
Although since both "Clean House, Clean Planet" and "The Naturally Clean Home" were written, there are more green choices available commercially, they can be admittedly pricey. These homemade recipes are a wonderful, cost-effective alternative to what's out there and certainly result in products that you can make easily with what's on hand without having to run out and buy expensive commercial products whenever you run out of a product.
I recommend this book highly, along with "Clean House, Clean Planet", as a wonderful addition to anyone's "Green Clean" library of references.
The recipes are pretty straightforward although "Clean House, Clean Planet" has better instructions as far as how to properly mix ingredients to get the right results and what containers will work best.
