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The
Cyberspouse, March, 2004
Frugal Cleaning in the Foreign Service
This is the third in a series of articles on the Frugal Foreign Service Family. Click here to read the introductory article. Click here for advice on saving money on groceries while posted overseas.
House cleaning and laundry can take a big bite out of the frugal Foreign Service family's budget. American products can be terribly expensive when purchased at the Commissary or from import companies, and it's hard to know what to buy locally, particularly if you have environmental concerns or don't speak the language well. The pennies, Euros, or pesos can add up quickly! Here are a few tips for keeping cleaning costs under control and perhaps creating a more environmentally friendly home while you're at it.
Try local products.
Whether or not this works to your advantage depends on the cost of living at your current post, but the Cyberspouse has found that one trip to the grocery store with a dictionary, or with someone who can read labels in the local language, can save a lot of money in the long run. Bring along a pad and pencil and mark down the products that you think will be useful. Or visit your spouse's office and ask the local employees what you should use. A caveat: be careful that you are not using products that contain unsafe chemicals. It is not uncommon to find that the locals are happily scrubbing away with substances that have been banned for years in the United States. When in doubt, get a translation and ask your Embassy's Post Occupational Safety and Health Officer (POSHO-the General Services Office should be able to direct you to the right person), Regional Medical Officer (RMO), or just "Google it." In addition, if anyone in your family suffers from allergies or sinus problems, then be on the lookout for reactions. You may find that the more basic, non-perfumed, cleaning solutions listed below have the added advantage of being less irritating to sensitive respiratory systems. The Cyberspouse, whose daughter has severe allergies and asthma, has found this to be true.
Simplify your cleaning needs.
Isn't it amazing how many American cleaning products advertise that they contain baking soda? Have you ever wondered why that is? It's because baking soda makes a great scouring powder all by itself! It's cheap, smells good, can safely be mail-ordered if it's not available locally, and won't irritate your hands. To clean stainless steel, porcelain, ovens, or baked-on gunk, simply sprinkle baking soda over the surface in question (the Cyberspouse recycles a Parmesan cheese shaker for this purpose) and scrub with a damp sponge. You can also let damp baking soda sit for a few minutes on surfaces to soften up mineral deposits and other gunk. Dampen with vinegar for extra cleaning power. Honestly, this works as well as more expensive products like SoftScrub or Comet and smells much better. Sometimes baking soda will leave a white film on surfaces-this comes off right away with a swipe of vinegar or ammonia solution (see below.)
Vinegar is another cheap, non-toxic cleaner. The Cyberspouse uses a weak solution of one part plain white vinegar to three parts water in a plain spray bottle to wipe down kitchen counters, cabinets, tiles, shower curtains, and other ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic surfaces. The room will smell like salad for a few minutes, it's true, but the smell dissipates quickly, and you don't have to worry about ingesting any residue later because, after all, it's just vinegar. You can use a similar solution on lightly dirty floors and bathroom surfaces. (If your grocery store does not sell spray bottles, try a garden or hardware store.)
Vinegar has many other uses, particularly in countries with "hard" water. Most people know how to descale a coffee pot with vinegar, but you can also use it to clear mineral deposits out of drains, usually making toxic and expensive drain cleaners unnecessary. The Cyberspouse has also unscrewed balky shower heads and soaked them in vinegar overnight to unblock them with great success.
For grungier surfaces, try plain ammonia. This inexpensive, old-fashioned cleaner is available at military commissaries as well as locally in many countries. Put a couple of tablespoons in a spray bottle with water and use as a glass cleaner, just as you would use Windex. This also works well on bathroom fixtures. Put half a cup in a large bucket of water for mopping floors. Pour a little directly in the toilet bowl and scrub instead of using toilet bowl cleaner. Easy does it: ammonia does have strong fumes; however, the Cyberspouse has not encountered a floor cleaner yet that smells nice, and at least with plain ammonia you know exactly what you are breathing. Open a window and the odor is gone in no time. (Never, ever combine ammonia with bleach-this produces a toxic gas!)
For cleaning and polishing wood, the Cyberspouse has tried homemade solutions such as olive oil and lemon juice, but found that they did not measure up to purchased cleaners. (If you have a recipe that works well, though, by all means let her know!) However, Murphy's Oil Soap has served her well for both floors and furniture. This is a concentrate, so one bottle will last a long time. The directions say not to use it for furniture, but the Cyberspouse mixed a couple of tablespoons with a spray bottle of plain water, and has been very happy with the results. This is certainly less expensive and wasteful than buying less concentrated products, or dozens of aerosol cans of furniture spray. However, Murphy's Oil Soap only cleans and polishes furniture: it does not apply wax, and in fact will eventually remove it. If you prefer your furniture to be waxed, don't try this!
For more inexpensive, non-toxic, and creative cleaning and stain removal recipes, check out the websites listed at the end of this article.
Use alternatives to paper towels and sponges.
American paper towels can be worth their weight in gold at some overseas posts. Why waste them? Cut up old clothes to make cleaning rags. The very best cleaning rags are old cloth diapers, but if you don't have those, double-knits such as t-shirts, turtlenecks and pajamas are best: they are very absorbent and won't fray. They serve very well for dusting and window cleaning. Keep a basket full under the sink and use dry or dampened with water to wipe up spills. Keep a bucket in the laundry room for the dirty ones, and throw them in the washer every now and then, with a dollop of bleach for extra sanitizing if you like.
Some people give their kitchen sponges an extra cleaning by running them through the dishwasher. Others prefer to sanitize them by soaping them up, squeezing them out, and then microwaving them on high until they are dry (1-2 minutes.) Or, you can soak them in a weak bleach solution to kill germs. Whichever method you choose, it will surely prolong the working life of your expensive, imported kitchen sponges! When sponges have gotten too ratty to use in the kitchen, mark them somehow to differentiate them from kitchen sponges (by cutting a corner off with kitchen shears, for example), and put them in the same basket as your t-shirt cleaning rags. Use them for bathrooms and other heavy cleaning tasks. You can wash and machine-dry sponges many, many times and they will spring back to life as soon as you wet them again.
Take it easy on the detergent.
The Cyberspouse has found that the quality of laundry detergent varies wildly from country to country. You may well want to use American laundry detergent, but at least give the local brand one try before you do if it's cheaper than importing your favorite. In any case, don't always believe what you read on the label! Remember, the detergent manufacturer wants you to use up the box or bottle as quickly as possible so you'll buy more. Try using half the recommended amount, and see what happens. Chances are, your clothes will come out plenty clean. You don't need several different kinds of detergent either. The Cyberspouse has had no problem using plain liquid detergent on all her clothes, including delicates, and just keeps a bottle of (local) Woolite on hand for sweaters and such. Two bottles: that's it!
The Cyberspouse has never quite understood the need for dryer sheets, but if you are a fan of them, try going without just to see what happens. In a humid environment your clothes probably won't have any static cling at all. Or, if dryer sheets are an expensive item, try cutting them in half and see if your clothes are soft enough that way. Some people also swear by using a half-cup per load of vinegar to soften laundry and remove detergent residue. Add the vinegar during the rinse cycle if possible.
Ask yourself: how clean does your house really need to be?
In many countries, domestic help comes so cheap that the majority of Foreign Service families at post employ a maid. However, even in countries where domestic help is common, you shouldn't feel pressured to get a maid just because "everyone" does. The extra labor required to sanitize vegetables, clean off mold in the rainy season, dust daily in the dry/windy season, and answer a doorbell that rings 100 times per day may make full-time domestic help a necessity in your household. But if not, consider sharing a maid with another family, or going without a maid. The Cyberspouse initially employed a part-time maid at her current post, but as the dollar declined against the local currency and salaries became more expensive, decided that the balance had shifted in favor of going without household help. No, the Cyberspouse's house is not as clean as it used to be, but it is generally quite tidy, and her children are slowly learning that clothes do not wash themselves, or bedrooms magically clean themselves while one is at school!
For some Foreign Service families, having an immaculate home is one of the main attractions of living in countries where domestic help is more affordable than the U.S. (which is just about everywhere.) But if you'd rather spend the money on something else, or if it bothers you to have strangers underfoot in your house, don't worry if your house isn't as perfect as some others at post. To each his (or her) own!
Never be afraid to experiment.
In the Foreign Service, often the quickest way to spend your money is to continue doing things the way you've always done them. But a few minutes spent trying out new methods can lead to great savings over the course of one overseas tour, and to even greater savings over the course of a Foreign Service career. You may well find that American household products are preferable to local ones, or to homemade cleaners. But you won't know this for sure until you give the alternatives a try. Ask questions, experiment, and establish a standard of domestic tidiness and hygiene that works for you!
http://frugalliving.about.com/cs/cleaning/index.htm
A zillion uses for baking soda and vinegar, among many other frugal cleaning
tips.
http://organizedhome.com/
Includes a good article on homemade cleaning recipes.
http://www.cleaningrecipes.com/
An entire site devoted to natural and homemade cleaning recipes.
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/
Look under "articles" for several useful articles on alternative
cleaning methods.
http://stretcher.com/stories/04/04jan19d.cfm
One of several articles at The Dollar Stretcher site on non-toxic cleaning
methods.
The Cyberspouse is contributed by Kelly Bembry Midura, website designer, freelance writer, stay-at-home parent, and veteran Foreign Service Spouse. Click here to read more "Cyberspouse" columns. Email Kelly at kelly@aafsw.org.