Kitchen Spray - It Changed My Life

The kitchen spray that changed my life

Hi Folks

Did I tell you the story about the day kitchen spray changed my life?  Well, you see, one evening a couple of years ago now, we ran out of kitchen bench spray. As per my usual style I ran (read drove my gas guzzling truck) down to the shops to pick up this single item. I was surpised how easy it was to get a park and off I sauntered into Coles to buy said kitchen spray on my credit card. Coles was shut - it was a public holiday and thus all the shops were shut.

The white butter cow snuggling up to the weighted baking beads
who is sharing secrets with the Indian tea canister

Annoyed, I drove back home and had an immature rant about shops being shut on public holidays to anyone caring to listen.  Still miffed I jumped on the 'interwebs' and idly searched the ingredients of kitchen spray.  This was more out of boredom and annoyance than really being interested. This simple act was the small action that became the turning point that changed my life - there on my screen was literally hundreds of sites showing how to easily, cheaply, frugally, thriftily make your own kitchen spray!  Who knew?!  Not me, that was for sure.  Of course all these sites were varying versions of the simple living movement that is a steadily growing community world wide - I was transfixed.  My current (then) life with its stupid fiscal habits, wastefulness, buy and throw-out, consumerist addiction and thinly veiled greed was instantly under the spotlight.  I converted  then and there in that very moment as the bigger implicit realisations rolled over me like a wave of wisdom.

 There is more to this story obviously but that will suffice for the time being.

Since then I have experimented with many version of DIY kitchen spray and I like the following one for ease, aroma, thriftiness and versatility the best:

Three simple ingredients ready to go

DIY KITCHEN SPRAY

1 x teaspoon of washing soda (not bicarb soda)
1 x dessertspoon of washing up detergent (any brand you have on hand)
750 mls of warm water

Combine all till dissolved and decant into an empty spray bottle - probably the one that had the store-bought version in it as the spray triggers on these last for ages.

I have experimented with vinegar based sprays and whilst really effective cleaners, they actually quickly seize up the spray trigger mechanism of your spray bottle - hence my preference for this recipe instead.

Go on - give it a whirl. Four cents worth!

DO THE MATH

Normal kitchen spray will cost you approx $3.50 a pop.
DIY kitchen spray will only cost you 4 cents to make.

We would use one spray bottle a week due to all the people living at our house.
Annually we therefore would have spent  $187.00 just on kitchen spray.
Now we only spend $2.08 in total per year using this DIY kitchen spray.

That is an annual saving of $184.92


Lean in folks - give this super simple DIY kitchen spray a shot.


Take care and stay nice folks.

Mr HM.

Mr Home Maker - Hey Folks!

Just at home with a beer or a cuppa

Hey folks!

I’m Mr Home Maker (Mr HM) an Aussie man who is just as comfortable changing the car brake pads as I am whipping up a batch of biscuits or a cinnamon tea cake for afternoon tea.  I love my challenging career nearly as much as my lovely Isa Brown chickens and container veggie gardens and can be found enthralled in either a Unique Car magazine or a vintage cook book. I relish the roar of a V8 as much as I do the whir of the sewing machine and have a love/hate relationship with money – ‘frugal as’ one moment and drooling after a major purchase 3 second later (I battle this demon with increasing skill - just sayin'.).

For all the men world-over that enjoy, or want to learn to enjoy homemaking – this Mr Home Maker  chronicle is for you to perhaps gain some courage to be as dangerous and cunning with a darning needle, egg beater or watering can as you are out on the field, behind the wheel or thumping the proverbial boardroom table.

I have some goals which will be shared with you all as the topics naturally unfold here, however I have recently learnt to leave room in my life for the unexpected.  A life jammed-packed tight with goals leaves no room for wonder, serendipity or the odd unexpected piece of awesomeness.

So if you are single, married, partnered, confirmed loner, still ‘looking’, no kids, too many kids, blended posse of kids, cashed up, battling, successful, self-made, starting out, still on the bottom rung, privileged, pauper, prophet, professor or wall flower – you are all heaps welcome here.  You can lurk or comment, I don’t care – just enjoy and perhaps, just perhaps, shift a paradigm or two.

Books - both borrowed and bought

For all the women world over, I believe that change cannot be quick enough for you all (why aren’t we there already?). Your wisdom is needed here as we share (or indeed unearth) age-old truths on home making. Your input is highly valued and significant as we dabble in new ideas in home making.

Houses are aplenty in our society but homes are becoming much thinner on the ground. If only we can lure men back to the powerful alchemy the building, calming, maintaining, nurturing, feeding, empowering, mending and loving of our homes we could drive a shattering blow to the chokingly frustrating stereotypes and deeply embedded gender inequality that still persists in our world. Have you ever thought that the ‘traditional’ women’s roles promulgated by church and state have also been strangling the very essence out of many, many men? It is true – I am one of them. So many men see an endless horizonless (that’s not a word apparently) life-road of having to be the main income source/garbage bin putter-outerer/ideal lover/strong protector and warrior as being the only valid acceptable male existence. Blurgh.

A perfect match - who knew?!

No need to start out all radical like – the best changes are incremental, believable and sustainable. Leaning into new habits, discovering new creative challenges, experimenting with new societal structures and allowing ourselves to delight in the cerebral revelations that auto-manifest when we try new things, revive forgotten skills and walk against the tide is ample reward and motivation in itself. Irreversible change will happen.

Wade upstream folks!

Take care and stay nice.

Mr HM