We’ll be picking a random commenter from the next 24 hours (beginning 12/7, 3pm EST) to win our copy of the book reviewed below!

Reader’s Digest is a great source for a wide array of interesting books, ranging from informational to guides on maintaining a household. Homemade: How-to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products Fast, Fresh, and More Naturally is from their line of useful and handy books. This edition serves as a “cookbook” full of recipes to make household commercial products.

Buying name brand products at the store can be very expensive. Some contain extra chemicals intended to prolong the shelf life of the product. For the most part, those chemicals aren’t harmful to you, but it’s nice to know the alternatives when you run out and still want to wash a sinkful of dishes or wash a load of laundry without running to the store.

Homemade has a variety of recipes from ketchup, mustard and mayo to dishwashing liquid and drain cleaner and makeup, ointment, window cleaner and pet food.

Homemade also advises readers on the benefits of making homemade household products, how to live more organic, what pratfalls to avoid, what precautions to take and how much money you’ll really save. Included is a nice table pointing out the cost of some of the most popular brands, as well as costs to buy and make the homemade equivalent.

This book is a great addition for every Cleaning Hero. Buying gallons and tons of cleaning products can become very taxing on the household budget. This book doesn’t contain a lot of homemade cleaning products, but there are some valuable methods to create laundry soap, basic cleaning solutions and deodorizers.

Here are a few of our favorite recipes included in the book:

Citrus Disinfectant
What you’ll need:
1 orange, grapefruit, lemon or lime peel
3 cups white vinegar
1 clean quart jar with lid
Spray bottle

1. Combine the citrus peel and vinegar in the quart jar. Fasten the lid on the jar and store the mixture in a cupboard for two weeks, giving it an occasional shake.
2. Remove the peel from the jar, strain the vinegar, and return it to the jar.
3. To use as a spray cleaner, pour 1 cup of citrus vinegar in the spray bottle and fill with water.
4. To clean linoleum floors, add 1 cup citrus vinegar to 2 gallons water.

Laundry Soap
What you’ll need:
1/2 cup soap flakes
1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup washing soda
1/4 cup borax

1 clean, 16-ounce plastic container with lid.

1. Make soap flakes by gently grating a bar of pure soap on a coarse kitchen grater.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Store in tightly-sealed container.
3. Use about 1/2 cup of mixture in a laundry load.

Fabric Softener
What you’ll need:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar

1. Fill the washing machine with water.
2. Add the baking soda and then the clothing.
3. During the final rinse cycle, add the vinegar (pour it into the softener dispenser if your washing machine has one).

Please note: Reader’s Digest is not affiliated with this promotion. Giveaway open only to residents of the United States.