Keeping House bugs Out of Your House

Over the years, we at Chester’s Clean House have given you many different tips to keep your home free of bugs. Using these simple tricks, you can keep the house bugs, out of your house!

Homemade Garden Pest Control

To create an effective insecticide spray for your garden, finely chop 2 garlic cloves and combine with 2 teaspoons of mineral oil. Let the mixture soak for at least 24 hours. Add a quick squirt of liquid soap to 1 pint of water and combine with the garlic mixture. Stir thoroughly and strain with a coffee filter into a glass jar for storage. Combine 1 tablespoon of the solution mixture to a spray bottle full of water. Test the solution on a single leaf of any delicate plants.

Home Remedies To Get Rid of Ants For Good

Some Great tricks for getting rid of ants:

• Salted cucumber peelings are said to repel ants. Just place them where you see them. I would do this outside as not to attract other things into your house.
• White pepper, red pepper, or sage are said to repel ants also. Mothballs may also work. Apples will kill an ant colony.
• Cut up an apple or leave the peels or the leftover core near the entry to the colony. The ants will take it back killing the queen.
• Mixing borax with honey, maple syrup, butter, or lard will also kill an ant colony. You'll have to test each as some ants like sweets and others like greasy foods. You can leave the mixture in a bowl or on the ground.

Cockroaches May Live Through A Nuclear War, But Boric Acid Will Kill Them

After you have cleaned your home thoroughly, try sprinkling Borax inside all of your cupboards, except where you store food. Brush it all over the bottom of the cupboards and be sure to get the Borax into all of the cracks. Where you store your food you can leave an open container of Borax to keep the cockroaches out. Boric acid will take some time to kill the cockroaches, but it and cleaning well are your best defences. Also be sure not to step on cockroaches as you can get their eggs on your shoes, enabling them to spread.

Create a Barrier For Crawling Bugs

You can create a barrier to repel crawling bugs by painting your baseboards, walls and cracks with the following solution. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil then add 2 tablespoons of alum(aluminum sulfate). Once the alum has dissolved and the water has cooled, use a paint brush to paint your baseboards or anywhere you would like to create a barrier.

Get Rid Of Spiders, And Keep Them Away

Spiders hate American Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides). This herb can be found in two major forms American Pennyroyal plants and Oil of Pennyroyal. You can buy the plant at most nurseries. To repel spiders with the plant dry some leaves and place crumbled up leaves where the spiders congregate. Oil of pennyroyal can be found at most heath food stores and can be placed on cotton balls where the spiders live. Once you place the pennyroyal to spiders will leave, in a hurry!

Keep Odors Out of Your Garbage Cans

Garbage cans can collect some rather nasty odors over time. They can get bad enough to make your garage or house smell. A simple trick to keep them from getting those odors is to sprinkle about 1/2 cup to 1 cup borax on to the bottom of the can. This will keep smelly bacteria and mold from growing in the trash can. If you can is already smelly take it outside put 1 cup of Simple Green cleaner and fill with the garden hose. Let the can warm for a few hours in the sun and then rinse well. Let the sun dry it out leaving you with a fresh trash can.

Make Your Own Powdered-Cleaner Dispenser

Certain wonderful cleaning products, like Borax and baking soda, do not come in easy to dispense containers. Recycle the shaker top canister parmesan cheese comes in as a dispenser for these products. It quick and easy, just make sure you re-label the shaker. Nobody wants Borax in their linguini.

Borax, The Wonder Cleaner For Over a Hundred Years

Borax, also known as sodium borate and sodium tetraborate, is one of the great cleaners that has been passed down for generations. It was discovered in 1872 and didn't take long until it's powers as a cleaner were unleashed. It works as an oxidizer, and when dissolved in water will create an alkaline antiseptic solution that is a disinfectant, detergent, deodorizer and water softener. It also has lots of commercial uses in the manufacture of many products.

Borax is a naturally occurring mineral, but is toxic. You should always wear gloves when working with it as it absorbed through the skin and takes a long time to work its way out of your system. Keep it away from children, and no matter what you read on the Internet, never bath your pet in it. I have listed it here during eco-cleaning week because it is a natural salt, but it still is dangerous and must be handled carefully.

Borax is good at cleaning tubs, carpet stains, sinks, and mildew. It works great as a laundry booster and is an ingredient of many brands. For laundry it works especially well on curry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, vomit, and red wine stains. It also works as a deodorizer for carpets and cloths. I use it most often to remove the rings in my toilets.

Drying Out Dry Ingredients?

Most powdered cleaners and ingredients can seemed ruined after moisture gets to them. They clump up and become impossible to measure or use effectively. I recently bought a box of borax that was obviously exposed to moisture. It was a solid brick. Not to worry, you can dry out borax, baking powder, brown sugar, and just about any non-flammable dry ingredient. Just break off a clump, wrap in aluminum foil and bake in your oven for 5 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat will remove the moisture and the clump will easily break up.

Potential Hazards of Borax

Borax is one of the best cleaning agents that I know. It is also much safer than most commercial cleaners for you and your family. However, there are some safety concerns. Borax is harmful if swallowed and, if swallowed, do not induce vomiting, drink water or milk and contact a physician immediately. Borax works as a desiccant, meaning that it sucks moisture out of anything it touches, so borax dust is very irritating if breathed in and can be potential dangerous to your eyes. As always with cleaning, protect yourself with gloves and a respirator.

Smelly Bath Towels

Smelly bath towels make you feel like you just got dirty after taking a shower. They can also be very embarrassing if you have company over. The first step towards alleviating this problem is to properly clean them. Unless the manufacturer's tag recommends against it, wash your towels in hot water and add 1/2 cup of borax to each load. Add 3/4 cup if it is a high capacity washer. Make sure that your towels are completely dry before folding or placing inside your cupboards. After using your towels always hang unfolded and let air dry completely before putting them away. If your towels do not lose their scent after washing with detergent and borax, soak for an hour in a mixture of 1/2 cup borax and warm water and then rewash with a 1/2 cup of bleach added to the washer. If the smell continues after even this...it's time to buy new towels!

Keep Your Awnings Looking Their Best

To keep your awnings looking their best, make sure that you rinse them off on a monthly basis. This keeps the dirt and grime from getting into the fabric and will reduce the number of times that you truelly have to deep clean them. When it is time to give them a proper cleaning, first remove all loose soil and dirt with a brush and rinse them thoroughly. Then, create a mixture of Borax and warm water and scub in with a soft brush. Allow solution to soak for about 10 minutes and then rinse thoroughly. Allow to dry and brush off any loose particles left by the cleaning solution. If your awnings are heavily soiled, you can add a small amount (about 1/4 cup to each gallon of water) of chlorine bleach to your cleaning solution. Every time that you deep clean your awning is the best time to reapply water repellant. Find out from your awning's manufacturer what type they recommend and apply after the awnings have thoroughly dried.

General Camping Tips

If you like camping as much as I do, here are a few goods tips for your next adventure. Turn a normal sheet into a sleeping bag insert by sewing it into a sleave. Measure the inside of the bag and cut the sheet to fit. Sew up the bottom and the sides. The sheet will keep your sweat off of the sleeping bag and can be simply thrown into the wash when you return. If your tent develops a musty smell, set it up in an dry, airy place and sprinkle salt inside. The salt will absorb the moisture and smells. Leave it set up overnight and remove the salt. You can also use borax.

Every Time I Change The Trash Bags...Yuck!

I have a number of small trash cans around my home. I always use bags or liners in them. I don't know why, but every week one or more of the bags leak. When I change the bag...look out! The smell is awful. A quick tip to reducing trash can odors and keeping small leaks from turning into nasty messes is to pour a little baking soda or borax into the bottom of the cans. Borax works best if you experience wet leaks, baking soda is great for bad odors.

Remove Bad Smells from your Car!

Household cleaners and tips aren't just for the home! I recently took a load of garbage to the local solid waste dump and the smell that was left in my car was horrible. It really doesn't help that it is currently hot outside, which makes all car odors worse! To remove these types of odors, grind Borax into your car's carpet and fabric. Let sit for about an hour and vacuum. The smells will leave with the Borax.

Removing Stains From Enamel Bathtubs

Porcelain enamel surface bathtubs can be quite beautiful. The surface is very hard and durable. Be careful when cleaning not to hit the surface with a hard object because the surface can be chipped, which is expensive to repair. Never use harsh abrasives or acids on enamel tubs or small scratches will form that capture more dirt. For tough stains try one of the following:

• Try covering the stain with a paste of borax and lemon juice. Let the paste stand for about 5 minutes and then rinse clean.
• Salt and turpentine work well to remove yellow water stains.
• For the really hard to remove stains, scrub with a brush and a mixture of 3 tablespoons of cream of tartar and one cup of hydrogen peroxide.

For normal cleaning try:

• Washing with 1 gallon of warm water mixed with 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 cub of baking soda. Use a sponge soaked in the mixture to scrub the tub working from the top down, then from the back to the drain. Rinse well with clean water and then buff with a microfiber cloth.
• A slightly stronger cleaner is 1 gallon of hot water and 1 tablespoon of a TSP (trisodium phosphate) . TSP can react with other cleaners, so don't add anything else to this recipe. Be sure to rinse well after you have scrubbed the tub.

Drying Flowers in your Microwave

Dried flowers add a touch of color and a wonderful scent to any room. But did you know that you can dry your own flowers in your microwave? Microwave drying is not for thick-petaled flowers but works great for daisies, marigolds, buttercups, daffodils, lilacs, pansies, roses, and tulips. Make sure that the buds have not fully opened. Then, support the flowers in the position that you want in a mixture of Borax and sand, covering them completely. Microwave on 40% power for about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Some testing will be required and you may have to adjust the microwave settings and time depending on your particular microwave. Cover the flowers and borax with a towel and let sit for about 24 hours. Remove the flowers, wipe off the extra Borax and enjoy!

Removing Lingering Smells from Carpet

Carpets absorb smells from everything. When we were first dating my wife's roommate cooked interesting foods all of the time and left her clothing in piles everywhere. When she moved out we were left with a wall-to-wall stink and no time for professional cleaning. Sprays just cover smells, you really need to remove the particles that are causing the lingering smells. The best method for this is to dust the carpet with Borax. Grind the Borax in by walking over the entire floor and letting it sit for about an hour. Then vaccuum the entire floor with a shop vac with a fine particulate filter. Use the wide attachment and work small areas constantly changing direction. This is hard work, but well worth the effort. Once your have completely vaccuumed, the smells will be gone for good.

Wiping Out Fleas!

Fleas are one of the most impressive creatures that I have ever seen. They are next to impossible to kill, breed rapidly, and can even enter a coma-like state when environmental conditions become hazardous and re-emerge years later. When my wife and I moved into a 1800's farm house we got to deal with them directly. There were no signs of them for months. Then, all of a sudden, they were everywhere! The most common flea sprays do not kill fleas directly. They simply neuter them. Be very careful with these products, read their labels fully because many of them also can affect humans in the same manner. If you get fleas here is what you need to do: First, vacuum every surface in your home with a bagged vacuum cleaner. Seal the bag and take it to the dump (or incinerator, if you have one!). Second, cover the floors of your home with 20 Mule Team Borax, or any product primarily made up of boric acid. Work the Borax into carpets and floors with a stiff-bristled broom. Third, find a time that everyone in your home can vacate for a few hours and spray every floor in your entire house with Raid's Flea killer spray. Fleas will try and escape the poison, and will simply move from room to room if you do not do this. Raid's flea insecticide kills them dead and costs about half what the other products cost. Keep working the Borax into your floors for a few days. Reapply the Raid and vacuum your entire house again, remembering to seal and dispose of the bag immediately after use. A simple, but effective way to test if you have killed them all is to place a bowel of water with a drop of hand soap in it under a lamp. The fleas will jump into the bowel and drown because the soap removes their ability to cling to the surface of the water. If you still find adult fleas repeat the entire process. This seems like a lot of work, but trust me, this is worth it. Also, it is a whole lot better and cheaper than having your house professionally fumigated. On a side note, it has been three years since I did this and we have never seen a flea since. I do continue to sprinkle small amounts of Borax on my carpets before I vacuum them, as a precaution I guess, but mainly because it works better and is much cheaper than any commercial carpet freshener!

Cockroaches May Live Through A Nuclear War, But Boric Acid Will Kill Them

Cockroaches, what can you say except they're nasty. If you find that you have cockroaches the first thing to do is make sure you clean well, keeping all food in sealed containers. Don't leave dirty dishes in the sink and take out the trash. After you have cleaned thoroughly, try sprinkling Borax inside all of your cupboards, except where you store food. Brush it all over the bottom of the cupboards and be sure to get the Borax into all of the cracks. Where you store your food you can leave an open container of Borax to keep the cockroaches out. Boric acid will take some time to kill the cockroaches, but it and cleaning well are your best defences. Also be sure not to step on cockroaches as you can get their eggs on your shoes, enabling them to spread.

Tips for Cleaning Glassware

Bartenders know more than just how to make drinks. More likely than not, you will not be given a dirty or spotted glass at any bar. There is a reason for this, bartenders have perfected the method for quickly cleaning and sanitizing glassware. Unlike them, I doubt that you have a three compartment sink, but you can get the same results at home. Number one, fill a sink with very hot, sudsy water. Holding the base of your glassware, rapidly pump the glassware into the water. The suction helps scrub the glass all the way to the bottom. Once clean, rinse it in warm water. Adding borax or a little vinegar to the final rinse water will give you a streak-free shine. Be careful about your rinse water temperature. Too cold of rinse water could cause the glass to shatter! Place the glassware face down on a dry towel and let sit until dry.

Homemade vomit cleaner for carpets and upholstery

The most important thing with cleaning vomit is removing it as fast as possible. The acidic nature of bile can stain fabrics very quickly. This is especially true depending on what was just eaten. A good general vomit cleaner is 1 tablespoon of borax and 3 cups of water. Remove as much of the solid matter using a spoon or paper towel. Use a sponge to wipe the area with the mixture then blot dry with a clean cloth. The borax will neutralize the smell of the vomit. On microfiber there may be water stains left behind, you can use a baby wipe to gently rub the area to remove the water stain. On carpet if there is any stain left you can use foaming shaving cream and a sponge and water to clean the effected area.

Cleaning Your Kitchen Sink

For light stains in and around your sink, rub with a fresh cut lemon. Rinse thoroughly and enjoy the clean smell. For rust and dark stains, rub the sink with a paste of borax and lemon juice. This combination will break up even the toughest stains and leaves a clean, fresh scent. Rinse with clean water and wipe dry.

Borax, One Of My Best Friends!

Years ago, I was introduced to something that humans have been utilizing for thousands of years...boric acid. In the modern age, we can aquire it cheaply in a product called Borax. Borax is one product that all homeowners should own. Advertised as a laundry booster, borax can be used with warm water to clean porcelain, fiberglass, fine china, toilet bowls, garbage cans, and it can remove hard water stains. Borax removes odor just like baking soda and can also be used to freshen carpets. Simply sprinkle borax on your carpets an hour or two before vacuuming. It can also be used to keep refrigerators fresh. Just wipe down the inside of your fridge with a combo of 1 quart warm water and 1 tablespoon of borax. It kills odors and cleans the surface. Once done, rinse thoroughly with water. Borax can also keep your humidifier free of odors. Add one tablespoon of borax per gallon. Rinse with pure water between refills. Borax in your laundry also helps remove stains and is safe for delicates and baby clothes. Just add 1/2 cup of borax to each load. Borax has two other less know benefits. Borax kills black mold, a well known respiratory attacker, and it kills most bugs. With even a little residue of borax in your carpets, furniture, etc., most bugs have their moisture sucked out of them, reducing the chance of infestation. You can also wipe out a nasty flea infestation. Just repeatedly stab a screw driver into the top of a box of Borax (thus turning it into a giant salt shaker) and shake it over all infested surfaces. Take a broom and brush it all over the place. Get into all the cracks and corners. Let it sit for a few hours, and then vacuum it all up. Immediately dispose of the vacuum cleaner bag. Borax is cheap and readily available in the laundry isle of your local grocery store.