Fail

You know those pins that say, "Never by laundry detergent again! Quick, easy recipe!" I am always intrigued by those. I love the idea of spending mere pennies on common household goods like stain remover or bathroom cleaner. While I'm sure there are some truly good recipes out there (this one on A Beautiful Mess looks promising), I have had zero luck. Case in point, my attempt at homemade stain remover. It all came about because I was needing to wash a load of very stained baby clothes. In the past, I have used OxiClean with great success. On this particular day, I was completely out of the heavy duty stuff and there were some pretty set in stains on his clothes. Instead of going to the store like a normal person, I took to the Internet in search of a quick, powerful, homemade stain remover recipes. The one I found looked promising. All it called for was dish soap, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Mix it all up, let it sit, apply to stains, wait and wash. You can see the mixing process at the top. It was really cool to watch the bubbles form as the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide mixed together. I was really hopefully that I had a winner on my hands.
Sadly, after washing and reviewing the clothes, I didn't even bother taking an after picture. The mixture did little remove the stains. Most were merely lightened and others looked the same. I guess I will just have to add this to Pinterest fail category and just buy some OxiClean.

Have you attempted to make your own household cleaning products? Have you had any success?