How to Craft Candle Wicks with Borax
The thing about candles is that it’s all about the wick. If the wick burns too
fast, then the wax will snuff out the flame. That means it’s ultra-important that
the wick be prepared properly so it lasts longer than normal. The best way
to do this is to craft candle wicks with borax.
All-natural borax helps create long-lasting candle wicks, and they help reduce
ash and eliminate smoke problems. It’s super-simple to make, too!
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Boiling water
·
Salt
·
Butcher’s twine
·
Bowl
·
Pot
·
Candle wax
Directions:
1.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of borax per 1 cup
of boiling water
2. Soak heavy twine in the borax solution for 24 hours
3. Hang the twine and let it dry two days before using
4. Enjoy!
Tip:
Extend your candle’s life by simply replacing the wick. Remove the old wick,
reheat the wax, suspend a borax candle wick in the melted wax, and let it cool.
How to Make Crystal Formations with Borax
Let’s take a trip back to our childhood and make some seriously cool crafts
that we can use to decorate our homes with these super-cute crystal formations.
The crystals are relatively quick and easy to make with borax. But how does
it do this?
Borax is normally found in its crystal formation, and it’s dried, ground, and powdered for home use. So, when you create crystal formations, what’s actually
happening is that the borax is being returned to its natural form.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Boiling water
·
Pipe cleaners
·
Glass bowl or mason jars
·
String
·
Popsicle sticks, chopsticks, or pencils
·
Food coloring
Directions:
1.
Form the base of your crystal by shaping pipe cleaners (such as a flower)
2. Dissolve 3 tablespoons of borax for every 1 cup of boiling water
3. Fill your container with the borax solution. Add any food coloring to change
the color of your crystal
4. Suspend your pipe cleaner in the container, making sure it doesn’t touch
the sides. Let it sit overnight
5. Enjoy!
How to Preserve Flowers with Borax
Who doesn’t love flowers? Even more, who doesn’t love flowers preserved
for all eternity? It’s hugefor anyone who loves to create DIY crafts, or just love
having flowers as a part of their home décor. The best way to preserve flowers
is with borax and a bit of cornmeal, of course. They work together to remove
moisture from blossoms and leaves, preventing the wilting that’s typical of
other flower drying methods.
Here’s what you need:
·
1 part borax
·
2 parts cornmeal
·
Fresh Flowers
·
Airtight container
Directions:
1.
Gather fresh flowers with as little moisture on them as possible (you can
cut the stem from the base of the calyx if you want)
2. Combine the borax and cornmeal into a mixture, and pour some of it
into your container
3. Place flowers into the container, and sprinkle more mixture on them,
taking care not to crush the flowers as you cover them with the mixture
4. When covered, seal the box with tape. Store in a cool, dry place for 10 to 14 days
5. Open the box, pour out the mixture, and retrieve the flowers
6. Enjoy!
How to Use Borax as a Bathroom Cleaner
Borax comes as a powder that can be transformed easily into a potent
all-purpose bathroom cleaner. And it’s an economical way to tackle daunting
jobs like brightening grout and tile in your bathroom. With Borax as a bathroom
cleaner, you don’t have to scrub and scrape to remove hard water stains and
other tough bathroom grime.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Wet sponge
·
Toilet Brush
Directions:
1.
Sprinkle on sponge
2. Scrub on bathroom surfaces, & rinse with water
3. Sprinkle into toilet bowl
4. Scrubbytime!
5. Rinse with water
6. Enjoy!
How to Steam Clean Carpets with Borax
We all vacuum our carpets regularly to keep it clean of dirt and debris, but steam
cleaning is the only way to really get rid of caked-in dust, ground-in dirt, and
packed-in grime. Thing is you don’t need to hire a professional carpet cleaner
to get your carpet looking like new.
All you need is all-natural borax! Make this borax solution and add it to your carpet
steamer. For the best results, make sure to vacuum thoroughly before running the
carpet steamer. This will make sure that the carpet steamer can deal with spots
and stains exclusively.
Also make sure to clear the room of all furniture before you work on the carpet.
If it isn’t possible to get the furniture out, you can protect them by sliding wax paper
or aluminum foil underneath their feet. This will keep them from absorbing moisture
and getting damp from the steam cleaning.
Keep in mind that your carpets will take around twenty-four hours to dry completely.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Hot water
·
Carpet steam cleaner
Directions:
1.
Vacuum carpet thoroughly. Move or protect your furniture with wax paper or foil
2. Dissolve ½ cup of borax per gallon of hot water. Treat spots and stains using
borax solution
3. Perform a spot test. Steam clean your carpet
4. Enjoy!
How to Use Borax to Steam Clean Carpet
Tip:
Use borax on fresh spills. Blot the spill with a clean cloth or paper towel, and spray
with ice water. Sprinkle with borax and cover with a damp cloth. Continue to blot
and absorb with the cloth until the spot is gone!
How to Clean Pots, Pans, & Dishes using Borax
Soaps nowadays are just chemical concoctions teeming with ingredients that aren’t
so great for the environment. If they’re not good for the earth, how are they going to
be good for your pots, pans, & dishes?
Instead, ditch the crappy soap and make your own all-natural soap using borax.
This DIY, homemade dish soap is perfect to clean pots, pans, & dishes because it
keeps spots and streaks off them while they get cleaned in the dishwasher. It’s like
pre-treating your dishes!
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Hot water
·
20 drops 100% pure essential oils (optional)
·
Bottle for storage
Directions:
1.
Dissolve ½ cup of borax for every gallon of hot water and cool to room temperature
2. Use the borax solution on pots, pans, & dishes (rinse thoroughly)
3. Add them to the dishwasher
4. Enjoy!
Tip:
Transfer to a bottle. Optionally add essential oils for a light, fresh scent.
How to Boost Dishwasher Detergent with Borax
Ever wash your dishes in the dishwasher only to have them end up with a slimy
coating of soap or hard water stains? And the inside of the dishwasher itself
probably smells pretty awful thanks to whatever got deposited. Gross, right?
Cloudy glassware, bits of food, and stain spots are all signs that your dishwasher
itself needs cleaning. But borax can help with that! Increase the power of your
dishwasher detergent at every cycle by adding borax.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Sponge
·
Dishwasher detergent
Directions:
1.
Scrub the bottom and inside door of your dishwasher using borax
2. Line the bottom of the dishwasher with a ¼ cup of borax
3. Run your next load of dishes as normal
4. Enjoy!
How to Clean Kitchen Surfaces with Borax
Borax all-purpose kitchen cleaner solution provides a scratch-free cleaning of
stains, dirt, and other buildups throughout the kitchen on sinks, counter tops,
cookware, refrigerators, microwaves, toasters, and any other appliance in your
arsenal. Plus, it’s safe for use on any surface including tile, ceramic, porcelain,
slate, marble, granite, and stainless steel.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Hot water
·
Sponge
Directions:
1. Dissolve ½ cup of borax for every gallon of hot water
2. Scrubbytime!
3. Wipe down for a clean finish
4. Enjoy!
Tip:
Spray and store. Put the borax solution in a spray bottle, and refresh it once a month
to keep the natural minerals active
How to Use Borax to Clean Up Your Pet’s Area
Cleaning up after our pets can be a pretty big ordeal. They can track mud and dirt
into the house, tip their food and water bowls, and generally make things a bit stinky.
Plus they can sometimes leave an accident or two when you least expect it.
But don’t worry! Borax is an all-natural solution to help you clean up and deodorize
your pet’s area.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Hot water
·
Spray bottle
Directions:
1.
Dissolve ½ cup of borax for every gallon of hot water
2. Pour solution into spray bottle
3. Spray pet beds, wipe down pet carriers & bowls and rinse
4. Enjoy!
Tip:
Soak pet cleaning tools in borax solution.
How to Pre-soak Your Laundry with Borax
Stains are such a chore. They’re an inevitable fact of life, especially during the
holidays. Our clothes and fabrics are just magnets for tomato sauce, grease,
grass, dirt, and even blood. But it’s alright – it’s actually pretty easy to get rid
of those tough stains with borax.
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Warm water
Directions:
1.
Dissolve ½ cup of borax for every gallon of warm water
For any stain, just pre-soak your laundry items for about 30 minutes in the borax
solution. For tougher stains, flush the clothes and fabrics with water first before
pre-soaking in hot water. Then don’t forget to add even more borax to your
wash to boost your laundry detergent’s cleaning power!
The reason why borax is so effective is because of its pH. Stains are often acidic
in nature, and borax brings acids closer to base. This means borax breaks down
stains on a molecular level. How cool is that! But borax doesn’t fight every type
of stain, mostly it deals with grease or oil stains, fatty or protein stains, etcetera.
But that isn’t all!
Can stains “jump” from fabrics in the wash?
Oh, absolutely! You see, laundry detergent lifts the stains band dirt from your
fabrics while they’re tumbling around. But that doesn’t mean the dirt is gone!
In fact, the dirt is tumbling around in there while the detergent is busy trying
to break it down. But while it’s trying to do this, the stain and dirt can get
re-deposited back onto a different fabric altogether. That’s not good.
Borax fights stain jumping.
Asides from breaking down acidic or protein-based dirt, borax also maintains
a negative electrostatic charge between the fabrics and dirt. This makes it so
they repel each other while in the wash, and keeps dirt and soil from getting
re-deposited onto your clothes and fabrics. And all you had to do was simply
pre-soak your laundry with borax. Science is truly amazing.
pH balance, Water, Laundry, & Borax
pH stands for “potential of hydrogen”, and refers to the amount of hydrogen
ions in any given liquid solution. The lower the number, the more acidic it is,
while the higher it is, the more alkaline it is. Typically, water is normally
somewhere between 6.5 and 8.5 on the pH scale, but it’s also rarely very
neutral when it comes into your washing machine.
When your water’s pH balance is too far beyond neutral, it can start to damage
your fabrics and make them seem dingy or worn. Corrosive water really isn’t
the best thing for your clothes and fabrics, so you can use borax to fix that.
How does borax help?
Basically, borax acts as a buffer and raises the pH balance of water to a slightly
basic solution with a pH of 8. In other words, borax softens and neutralizes
water, and reduces damage to your fabrics and clothing. Cool, huh?
You can condition your water easily – just add ½ cup of borax to each laundry
load during the wash cycle. If you use a large capacity machine, bump it up to
¾ cup. This is perfect for your delicates, and fabrics that require hand washing.
Easy peasy!
How to Eliminate Odors with Borax
One of the best things about borax is that it occurs naturally in certain lake beds
around the world. That means that you can use it to eliminate odors in your
home while staying completely green and chemical-free!
Here’s what you need:
·
Borax
·
Warm water
·
5-10 drops 100% pure essential lemon oil (optional)
·
Spray bottle
Directions:
1.
Dissolve ½ cup of borax for every 12 ounces of warm water
2. Pour into a spray bottle. Optionally drop in essential lemon oil to add a fresh,
light scent
3. Use anywhere, on garbage disposal, clothes, mattresses, and the trash
4. Enjoy!
Tip:
Dissolve ½ cup of borax in a gallon of water, and add to any humidifier to keep
it free of odors. Be sure to rinse out the humidifier with pure water before using.
How to Control Teen Odors with Borax
Teens have it tough. They’re going through a ton of changes thanks to puberty.
Of course, this means changes in their hormones and changes in their sweat
glands. If you don’t take control of these teen odors on their clothes, they’re
going to have a pretty rough time!
Humans have a couple different types of sweat glands:
1.
Eccrine glands
These glands release a salty liquid that’s meant to cool the body down during
super hot days, or from a day playing sports. They’re pretty much all over your
body.
2. Apocrine glands
These glands emit a milky substance that regulates perspiration, and are found
in your armpits and genitals.
What happens during puberty is that your teen’s apocrine glands go into
overdrive, and produce a ton of sweat. Bacteria gets attracted to that sweat,
and starts to feed and grow on it. This bacteria is what causes those awful,
gassy odors!
Borax helps control teen odors.
Although the combination of bacteria and perspiration causes those crazy
strong odors, borax stops it before it starts. You see, borax inhibits certain
enzymes from producing odor right from the get-go. Odor doesn’t stand
a chance!
How to Get Rid of Ammonia odors in Baby Fabrics
with Borax
Let’s face it. Babies can get pretty stinky. Read on to see some tips on how to
get rid of bad baby odors. Baby odors and diaper rash are usually caused by
residual urine that remains in clothing and diapers
There are typically three signs of urine residue:
·
The fabric still smells like urine even after washing
·
The fabric smells clean, but has an ammonia odor when in contact with urine
·
Your child frequently has diaper rash when wearing cloth diapers
– that’s the ammonia burning your baby’s skin
What’s that smell?
In the body, ammonia is converted to urea and excreted. Once the urine is
released, the urea begins converting back to ammonia, so a little bit of ammonia
smell is normal. Now, residual urea and certain bacteria and enzymes increase
the production of ammonia. So if there’s a strong ammonia odor after your baby
urinates, that’s because of the residue in your diaper.
Use borax to get rid of ammonia odors
Borax helps stop the enzymes that increase ammonia production, and naturally
prevents that ammonia odor from being created from your baby clothes,
bedding, sleepwear, and diapers. All you have to do is add ½ cup of borax
to the wash at the same time as your detergent, and you’re good to go.
You can also pre-treat heavily soiled items by soaking them in a borax solution
that consists of hot water (about a gallon), and a half cup of borax. Be sure to
soak the fabrics for at least an hour before washing.
How to Control Odors in Your Home with Borax
Not only can borax help boost your detergent, but it can control odors that
occur in your home. Here’s a list of some of the places were you could add
a bit of borax to reduce those awful smells.
Refrigerators.
20 Mule Team Borax is excellent for cleaning & deodorizing your fridge.
Spilled food and drink can cause odors to linger for a long time, but luckily
can be wiped and washed away using a damp sponge or cloth that’s been
dipped in a borax solution. To make the solution, just add 1 tablespoon of
borax to a quart of warm water.
Garbage Disposals.
The disposal can get pretty acrid with acidic odors. But it’s pretty simple to
deodorize. Just sprinkle 2 or 3 tablespoons into the disposal, and let sit for
at least 15 minutes. Afterwards, just flush with water while running the
disposal itself.
Garbage Cans.
We all know just how stinky any garbage can gets, especially the ones in our
kitchens. This one is super easy – just pour 2 or 3 tablespoons of borax into
the can. That’s it! This also works for diaper bins and compost bins.
Toilet Bowls.
This location needs no introduction, just solutions. Sprinkle ¼ cup of borax into
the bowl, swish with your toilet brush, and let it stand overnight if possible. Then
simply wash and scrub as normal when ready.
Floors & Rugs.
These things easily soak up a ton of odors – from our pets, from spilled food
and drink, from anything really. Neutralize those odors (and stains) by dampening the spot and sprinkling borax over it. Rub it in as much as possible, then let
dry. Then simply vacuum up the borax when the stain is