I must confess, for more than a year, my friend Elizabeth has been asking me to do a post on homemade household cleaners. As a result of her prodding, I am proud to present part 1 of a series on non-toxic cleaners for your home. We’ll start off with a cleaning spray for my favorite room of the house –the kitchen!
So, first questions first. Why make your own cleaning products? Why go through the bother? To save money and protect the environment, of course! You can pay upwards of $4 for a bottle of cleaning spray or, you can easily make it yourself for less. Below are the top ten reasons for a DIY cleaning spray:
- Save money
- Keep bottles out of the landfill -use just ONE bottle over and over again
- Conserve fossil fuel –why pay for a product that is mostly water to be shipped from miles away?
- Eliminate strong synthetic fragrances –that merely mask the dirt, doing little to get rid of it
- Make your home a non-toxic zone
- Refrain from adding harmful toxins to our waterways
- Stop supporting companies and manufacturers that produce harmful substances
- Eliminate consumption of unnecessary products from multi-national corporations
- Customize cleaning sprays with your favorite essential oils
- Make your own sprays in the comfort of your own home
I have mixed my own cleaning products for more than a decade. First, I enjoy doing so! Second, I want my house to actually be clean, not smell of strong synthetic fragrances. Third, I enjoy the scent of simple cleaners made from natural products. That’s why I created the kitchen counter spray that follows.
Elana's Kitchen Cleaner
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) spray bottle
- 8 ounces peroxide (3%)
- 8 ounces water
- 5 drops tea tree oil
- 5 drops lemon oil
Instructions
- Pour all ingredients into 16 ounce spray bottle
- Shake well
- Spray on counter surfaces and wipe with a clean rag
Below you can see the price difference between making your own cleaning product and purchasing it:
DIY Spray (initial cost includes price of bottle) | $3.57 for 16 ounces |
DIY Spray (refill cost) | $1.70 for 16 ounces ($.09 per ounce) |
Fantastic All-Purpose Cleaner | $4.86 for 32 ounces ($.15 per ounce) |
Seventh Generation | $4.19 for 32 ounces ($.13 per ounce) |
Other tips: If you have an old spray bottle lying around the house use that instead of purchasing a new one; to further save money (and trees) use rags instead of paper towels to keep your kitchen spic and span.
Easy solutions are at our fingertips. We can save money and protect the planet’s precious resources in the process, creating win-win situations that show us why the words economy and ecology share a prefix!
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Now go ahead, let us know your favorite eco-cleaning tip in the comments section below!
Update: Thanks to a comment from Lucas, I have modified the cleaning spray recipe above.
Jessica says
Hi Elana –
Thank you for the recipe – I’m going to try it!
I’ve learned most of my chemical free ways (household, beauty, pest control) from a book called Better Basics for the Home by Annie Berthold-Bond. It’s worth it’s weight in gold.
I like white distilled vinegar for kitchen and laundry use (I add 1/2 C during the rinse cycle and don’t need dryer sheets) and apple cider vinegar for a hair rinse (diluted – a few TB in about 12 oz H2O). I stopped using conditioner on my hair b/c it leaves it so soft. Try it!
Apple cider vinegar has a lot of health benefits too – you can check out the Bragg website if you’re interested. It’s slightly kooky.
nancy pace says
could you say how many tablespoons of apple cider vinegar for the hair rinse
Stephanie says
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar per 1 cup water.For the conditioner hair rinse.
Courtney says
Hello everyone. As I am reading your posts, I can only imagine what it would be like if we were all to attend an “Elana’s Pantry Retreat”. I imagine Elana in the kitchen demonstrating her all time favorites… ~M sitting with us all in the family room giving us random tips and all of us in our lab coats diving in to our next concoction! I can tell you what I would be doing… taking notes like crazy. Many of you are brilliant! Some of these ideas are so simple I am wondering why I didn’t think of that. Just yesterday I cut up the clean T-Shirts my husband no longer wears and put them in a container where the paper towels usually set. Thanks for this tip, ~M. It took a minute or two to get used to, but this paper and money saving tip proved to be no problem. I decided from there to conquer the evening. I made this kitchen spray and then I made an elegant asparagus soup. Boy am I learning some new things about my husband! I am trying to get us to enjoy dinners together and he is NOT a fan of creamy soup. He prefers substance… I learned my lesson :). Just stick to what has proven to work for right now.
Moi says
I have been contemplating for a while on making my own cleansing formula. But I dont know what works best. This is the first time I’ve seen someone use a peroxide base. What’s your take on vinegar and baking soda? I’m not too crazy about Vinegar or baking soda, but peroxide is right up the alley for me. Seems like it would do a more intense job of cleaning and killing germs. But is it really safe for kitchens? Hmm…
By the way I second microfiber cloth for cleaning.
gizmar says
A couple of things – I have vinegar and water with me everywhere in the house.
Instead of disposable dryer sheets, I dip a jcloth into liquid softener, squeeze and throw it into the dryer with the clothes – I reuse it until it’s shredded.
Shari N. Leyshon says
Elana Hi!
… for hardwood floors, distilled white vinegar in warm water refreshes beautifully while preserving wood’s glow.
Vinegar produces so many lovely outcomes, I wanted to learn much more about this lovely material..which inspires more doing..
hence I googled .. vinegar and cleaning..and up came a site that is an ode to vinegar and it’s sweet and current uses…here it is!
http://www.answers.com/topic/vinegar?cat=technology
Since it very doable .. i’m dreaming of making vinegar from our good local harvests . I’ve taken the step to google “how to make vinegar” . …including dandelion and clover vinegar :O)
here is a sweet resource on vinegar making
http://www.naturemoms.com/homemade-vinegar.html
I love your site Elana! And all the ways you inspire us to engage with each other, to explore..to create, to give.
xx
Shari
Claire Adams says
Hi Elana, my mother in law is a devotee of baking soda and vinegar or lemon juice as a kitchen / bathroom ‘scrub’ for stubborn stuff, and vinegar and newspaper for sparkly windows. And vinegar as a final rinse for your hair which is amazing, squeeky clean, very shiny and no smell once it’s dry. Baking soda is also great added to your shower gel if you swim a lot as it gets rid of chlorine smell quicker.
Your blog is really inspiring, thank you so much :o) xx
nancy pace says
how much baking soda added to shower gel. i like this idea
Bobbi Kennedy says
FYI…..up you sweat the vinegar smell does come out again! Learned the hard way when out dancing one nighr! :)
elana says
~M -I do not think the oils are necessary, just very fun; tea tree oil is known as a disinfectant, however the peroxide will work on its own just as well, I think. Thanks for sharing your Swiffer use with us!
zebe -Thanks for the great tip and yes, works without the oils :-)
mama4I think the oils would be ok on a formica counter (it is 10 drops of oil –less than 1/8 teaspoon in 2 whole cups of water, not very oily, just good smelling) though works fine sans the oils…
mama4ever says
This is great! Now again, like some of the others have asked, do you need the oils? I don’t have a wood counter top so I don’t know if the oils would work on a formica counter very well. Your thoughts?
Nina says
Homemade cleaners with oils work fine on formica counters. I have been making my own cleaners too but they additionally include water and vinegar. I mix all the ingredients except the scented oil (hydrogen peroxide, water, vinegar, tea tree oil) and split the mix between 2 bottles, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen. Then I add the final oil to each, so I can do a floral in the bathroom and lemon or orange in the kitchen.
zebe912 says
For people who use dryer sheets, you can reuse them a couple of times, and then once they get pretty worn out, they can be used to scrub the counter. They provide a little bit of abrasion to remove sticky spots.
I’ve never tried using peroxide and have always done the vinegar or baking soda based cleaners. I am sensitive to fragrance, so I’m assuming this would work just as well without the essential oils, no?
~M says
Awesome post! I can’t wait to hear about your laundry tips!
How essential to the cleaning are the lemon and tea tree oils? Would it work just to mix equal parts hydrogen peroxide and water in a spray bottle?
We use my fiancé’s old, stained undershirts here as rags (we wash them first). They are also great for polishing silver. Another tip is that we use a (reusable) microfiber cloth in a Swiffer to clean our wood floors, instead of wasting money and many of the other reasons you so eloquently stated above with Swiffer cloths.
Take care, Elana!