The pictures are hard to see, but the one on the left shows a blue ring (from kids making bottled oceans and using blue food coloring) and a brown spot. Both of these were not coming out with regular cleaning. My Incredible Homemade Natural Soft Scrub did get them out! I love this stuff and let me tell you why I created this recipe like I did!
If you like this idea, please “Pin” it to Pinterest so that you don’t forget about it and can find it easily when you need it!
I loved Soft Scrub. Seriously.Loved.It. But you know, I am on a thrifty and healthy quest right now and one that I hope is a permanent quest to always try to be a little more thriftier and healthier each step.
So I wanted to make my own Soft Scrub using natural products!
First, I tried about 5 or 6 recipes that I saw online. I wasn’t impressed! They just were not doing the job I was hoping! I wanted something to not only clean and scrub, but to whiten and brighten (like tile grout) but be safe for surfaces like my stove and oven. I fussed with this recipe for a while!
I finally created a combination that I absolutely LOVE and that DOES IT’S JOB!
Here’s what my goals were and why I chose these ingredients:
- Scrubbing = Baking Soda
- Cleaning = Dish Soap
- Whitening and Brightening = Hydrogen Peroxide
- Purifying = Lemon Essential Oil
So that’s the reasons why I chose this combination! Most all of the recipes I found either used water or vinegar… I could not get vinegar to work in this recipe! I also could not get the whitening/brightening result from any recipe I tried.
So, I hope that you have the same incredible results that I have had with this recipe that I created.
With that, here’s what you need:
- 2 TBSP of Baking Soda
- 5 Drops of Dish Soap
- 5 Drops of Lemon Essential Oil
- 1 TBSP of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
Here’s how to make it:
- In a small bowl, add your 2 TBSP of baking soda
- Then add 5 drops of Lemon Essential Oil
- Then add the 5 drops of dish soap
- Then add 1 TBSP of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
- Then mix until a paste forms. You can add a little more baking soda to make a thicker paste, but I like it slightly thinner for some purposes and slightly thicker for others. So adjust this based on your cleaning needs. If I am trying to remove a stain on a counter or tile or grout, I keep it slightly thinner so that I can let it set into the stain for some time and not dry out so quickly.
- Once you get your desired consistency, then it is ready to use. I don’t make and store it, I just make small amounts at a time and use it as needed and use all of it at once.
So you can use it however you would use SoftScrub, but let me share with you how use it to remove stains!
First, I have this very annoying counter top that is very light, but also multicolored. I think it has all of these colors to help stains blend in! Why does it need to do that? Well…. this counter top stains so easily and it is so incredibly annoying! I will scrub at it forever and still not get stains out.. until I made this!!
So to show you, I have 2 oldish stains on my counter – a blue ring (from a kids’ project) and a brown spot.
They are really hard to see on the picture, but in person, they were quite obvious!
I just scooped the soft scrub onto the stains.
Then I used an old toothbrush and did some “gentle” scrubbing.
I then let it set for 15-20 minutes, came back and scrubbed for a minute with the toothbrush and then wiped clean.
Tada…. It is clean and bright again with no stain evidence!! I seriously love this stuff. I have personally found it to be safe on pretty much any surface – except I wouldn’t use it on glass or some wood (my wood kitchen table is fine, but my glass cherry wood cabinet would not be fine as examples – you be the judge on where you can use it in your house!).
It is very, very cheap – like pennies per batch. And it is safe and natural too – all things that are extra pluses to this effective formula!
Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:
Incredible Homemade Natural Soft Scrub | | Print |
- 2 TBSP of Baking Soda
- 5 Drops of Dish Soap
- 5 Drops of Lemon Essential Oil
- 1 TBSP of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
- In a small bowl, add your 2 TBSP of baking soda
- Then add 5 drops of Lemon Essential Oil
- Then add the 5 drops of dish soap
- Then add 1 TBSP of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
- Then mix until a paste forms. You can add a little more baking soda to make a thicker paste, but I like it slightly thinner for some purposes and slightly thicker for others. So adjust this based on your cleaning needs. If I am trying to remove a stain on a counter or tile or grout, I keep it slightly thinner so that I can let it set into the stain for some time and not dry out so quickly.
- Once you get your desired consistency, then it is ready to use. I don't make and store it, I just make small amounts at a time and use it as needed and use all of it at once.
We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.
If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!
- Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
- And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.
Farah
Wow! Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes. They’re all great. I will try this one too! I think I will have to start a binder like yours also.
PS do you have like a household chore or cleaning schedule you could share?
Thanks ever so much.
Cassie
Hi Farah, I do have a cleaning schedule and chore lists. I haven’t shared them formally yet, so perhaps that would be a good post to share ideas. I have shared these two ideas, but I haven’t shared our exact schedule yet. But at least this gives you some ideas:
https://thethriftycouple.com/2013/03/01/be-intentional-challenge-29-develop-a-chore-system-and-check-out-ours-that-our-kids-beg-to-do-with-free-downloads/
https://thethriftycouple.com/2013/01/19/be-intentional-challenge-15-complete-the-home-map-for-complete-clean-out-and-organization/
Watch for more in the future! Thanks Farah!
ina
hai i love ur website and the ideas..
can i use this scrub on bathroom tiles??