Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This all-purpose cleaner spray is super easy to make and basically free with things that you already have in your home. Over the years I have stopped buying toxic commercial cleaners from grocery stores and rely on my own homemade cleaners. They cost pennies and don’t have harmful chemicals since they contain natural ingredients.

The Easiest Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This all-purpose cleaner recipe is one of the easiest to make. You don’t need to buy any special ingredients and it works well anywhere in your home with a few exceptions.

I have been relying on my castile soap natural cleaning lately, but after making our homemade lemonade concentrate, I have an abundance of lemon peels so it was only fitting to whip up a few batches of this natural cleaning recipe.

Supplies Needed:

1. Mason jar
2. Glass spray bottle

Glass Spray Bottles

These are my favorite glass spray bottles that I use for all of my cleaning recipes!

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Ingredients for DIY Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner:

1. White vinegar
2. Lemon peels

How to Make This Lemon Vinegar All-Purpose Cleaner

1. In a mason jar fill as many lemon peels as you can. Push down on the peels to squeeze as much in as you can and fill them right to the neck of the mason jar.
2. with a canning funnel, funnel in the white vinegar. Gently shaking the jar to fill in any air pockets. Fill with vinegar with a 1/4 head space.
3. Seal the mason jar with a recycled lid and place it in a cool dark place for a month, gently shaking it once a week.
4. Once the lemon oils have been extracted into the oil, the vinegar will have a yellow tinge to it.
5. Transfer to a glass spray bottle, label, and enjoy!
6. Store in a cupboard or closet to avoid direct sunlight.

Vinegar-Based Natural Cleaning Products

When using this natural solution in your home there are a few areas that you may want to avoid. If your kitchen countertops are natural stone, the homemade cleaning solution can eat away at the marble and granite causing discoloration. Vinegar-based cleaners cause a chemical reaction with some hard surfaces, so I suggest avoiding any stone surfaces if possible.

So why even use a vinegar-based cleaning product? Well, just as you wouldn’t use bleach on everything, you wouldn’t use vinegar either. Vinegar has natural antibacterial properties which are fantastic for DIY cleaners to avoid toxic chemicals.

How to Use Your Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

I use my own cleaners in my bathroom to remove soap scum, my kitchen counters to clean and sanitize our butcherblock, the kitchen sink, and any wood furniture we have. It works wonders as an alternative to my homemade glass cleaner as well on windows, mirrors, and even stainless steel.

Can You Use the DIY multi-purpose cleaner on hardwood floors?

I don’t recommend using this DIY all-purpose cleaner recipe for hardwood floors. Hardwood is so delicate when it comes to cleaning, and you don’t want to damage them. I like to use my castile soap cleaner which is a gentler product.

Fresh Lemon Alternatives

If you don’t have lemons on hand you can swap the lemons for orange essential oil, lemon juice, lemon oil, or even tea tree oil. You do not need to let your cleaner sit for a month if you are using essential oils. Just add 3-4 drops of lemon essential oil into the vinegar, shake, and your cleaner is ready.

If you are using essential oils in your cleaner, use amber spray bottles.

What’s In My Cleaning Kit

Over the last few years, I have narrowed down my cleaning kit to a few tried-and-true basics for cleaning products. Just like the way we ate, we wanted to simplify the way we cleaned by focusing on simple ingredients.

1. Castile soap
2. White vinegar
3. Hydrogen peroxide
4. Chlorine bleach
5. Baking soda

More Homemade Cleaning Products

• DIY Natural Gentle Cleaner
• DIY Streak-Free Glass Cleaner