The vinegar smell lingers, too.

Well if you can’t get over the border you don’t have much option really.
It’ll cost you a bit more for a while but you’ll get the same overall result.

A 6 pack of Backpulver at Denner costs 30 Rappen, I use that all the time for cleaning. Small packs but it does the trick for what I need it for.


Or go to a turkish store, they have bigger jars/packs for a small amount of money.

I just like that my local Carrefour has a whole range of stuff like that which is just not easy to find here.

Example : Hydrochloric acid, a litre for 1.30 eur.. The nearest thing here is Durgol or Potz for about 10 times the price and 10 times less effective for those stubborn calc spots or moss around the patio..

https://www.carrefour.fr/p/acide-chl...-3256630030116

That's how I make my own cleaning solutions

If you can´t go to France/Germany yet, I often buy cleaning products at Landi. Lots cheaper and good stuff. The antical stuff from Landi is excellent and cheap comparatively (3 CHF for a bottle?)

Ah yes, I forgot, I am too spoiled to know about counting pennies.

Now I can't get you the equivalent in spray format but if the cost really matters that much, you can probably accept a less fancy version that will work just as well because "c'est la recette de ma grandmaman" (my grandmother's recipe). She was a single mother who raised three kids on her own while working night shifts as a nurse and who balanced her accounts so precisely that she was never in debt but sometimes ended the month with just 20 Rappen left on her account.

To clean stubborn stains in the kitchen and bathroom, you need:
3 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda (50 gram packet ist CHF 0.50 in the Migros - say 3 tablespoons are half a packet, cost of materials: CHF 0.25)
1 tablespoon of savon noir/Schmierseife/sapone tenero (1 liter is CHF 3.25 in the Migros, can be used for a ton of different things, 1 tablespoon is 15 ml, cost of materials: CHF 0.05)
enough cold water to make a paste by adding slowly to the mixture (comes from your tap)
elbow grease (technically free but harder to produce for some than for others)

This will produce around 50 ml of paste, probably a bit more, depending on how liquid you make it, at a total cost of CHF 0.30, so the cost for 500ml will be CHF 3.00. Less if you find a cheaper source of soda, of which there are quite a few. For extra cleaning power you could use sodium carbonate (not available in Migros but Amavita sells 1kg packets for CHF 4.90), just be sure not to confuse the two and accidentally use this for baking, it will make you very unwell indeed.

This paste will also make a pretty decent job of cleaning your oven if you use a hard scrubbing sponge and let it soak in overnight.

Now, that looks like a great alternative.

Is your cleaner happy with it?

I do have javel (the real chloro bleach), too, but prefer not to use it, since I have the idea of inhaling the vapors and flushing the residues down the drains, making our precious water purifying station STEP work too hard. It is already dealing with too much.

Root canal treatment with my French dentist just over the border had to be stopped on 24th of March. My dentist e-mailed be an attestation and appointment for today as things have been relaxed a bit in France. Explained where I was going (less than 1 km away) and why and gave him the 'attestation'. He asked if the condition was life threatening. I said no but there is risk of infection. Asked if I could eat by chewing on other side- I replied that I could. He phoned dentist and spoke to receptionist. Then asked me to wait some more as he wanted to speak to the dentist himself- who explained the treatment was urgent as there was high risk of infection that could turn to septicemia- so after 20+ minutes wait- he said 'ok you can go, but must come right back'. I was stopped again on return, and he recognised me so let me go. Was stopped at Swiss border and asked where I had been, why, if I had done any shopping at all, and where I lived. And asked to show my identity card. When I told them who my neighbours are, the woman apologised.

So to go shopping - NO.

Why make your own cleaner? The environment- I have been using the same spray bottle for a couple of years. For bleach, conditioner, hand soap- I buy refills for same reason. And have gone back to powder wash for same reason- can recycle cardboard box - takes 2 seconds to remove plastic handle and metal fixers.

My cleaner likes things in spray bottles, so I buy the eco-friendly stuff from Coop / refills of it. I'm happy with the mix when I use it to clean the oven and grime on the balcony (those are both not part of her tasks).

German border opens on June 11

15th

As Odile said, the plan is to open on the 15th of June. However, France has categorised its regions red or green depending on how many cases of COVID-19 they have, the number of hospitalised patients and where they are in terms of testing; the top right corner of France is completely red at the moment. The categorisation determines what is permissible in that zone (information is in French).

So is anyone going to hop over the border on Monday for shopping?

No. For one because I do not do that often and secondly because half Switzerland will be there

Yeah I was thinking this would be the case. Also wondering how vigilant the Zoll officers will be after they get kilometer long lines banking up out the door to get receipts stamped.

Give it some weeks and let others stand in long lines.

YES!! I'm going to be popping into Geneva and going mad in the nearest Migros.

Did my main food shopping in the Saint Julien Grand Frais earlier to avoid the predicted rush on Monday.... and despite the border still being (technically) shut half the numberplates were genevois, I even spotted one from Vaud.

That makes me rather cross as although I now life in France my life still revolves around Switzerland.
I've been obeying the rules, have missed several big family birthdays, had to cancel important doctors appointments, I haven't seen my children and grandchildren for months... yet some people think they're above such things and that sneaking across is somehow okay, that possibly risking other peoples lives is clever.

I'm told the German border at Basel opens at midnight on Monday. So really it's only open from Tuesday.

We have a box to collect from Weil Am Rhein that we shipped from Scotland back in March, but we're not going to collect until the end of next week. OH said he had an email to say you have to get a ticket, wait outside and they bring the box out to you. It'll be interesting to open because all I can remember about the contents at the moment is a couple of saucepans, a tablecloth, bedlinen and OH's new underpants. I know there are all sorts of other goodies in there

For food shopping?

You need to buy at least EUR 150, and VAT is only 4%, hardly worth the trouble.

Tom