It isn’t difficult to make a non-toxic, multi purpose DIY cleaning spray that is effective for cleaning the kitchen and other areas of your house.
Today Patricia Cornwell is bringing us another post about DIY natural cleaning. Patricia is a small cleaning business owner, writer and self-proclaimed home improvement DIY expert, and last time she was here, she shared here her expertise in the area of cleaning and disinfecting using essential oils.
Today she’s choosing to focus on cleaning within the kitchen using natural ingredients that you likely already have in your home:
There is no doubt that the kitchen usually requires more care when it comes to cleaning than the other rooms. The constant cooking can create a big mess, and it’s best to take care of it immediately. Unfortunately, that is not always possible and by the time you decide to disinfect everything, the appliances and other areas are already covered with greasy stains and other grime.
There are all kinds of effective cleaning products in the shops that you could use that are filled with chemicals that could endanger your health and the health of the other members of your family. That is not necessary, though, because there an easier, but also more effective way to disinfect your kitchen.
The cleaning of the kitchen and other parts of your home don’t have to be a torture. You don’t actually need strong and toxic cleaning products; you can make your own eco cleaners at home that can be just as effective. You only need a few inexpensive ingredients which you can find without problems in almost any shop. There is a wide variety of DIY cleaning recipes available, but cleaning with natural sprays is the easiest way to provide your kitchen with sparkling cleanness.
DIY cleaning recipes:
DIY Cleaning spray with white vinegar –
If you have never used white vinegar for cleaning before, now is the right time to give it a try. You can make a natural cleaning spray which you can use as an all-purpose cleaner in your kitchen and other areas of your home. You need a clean spray bottle, 1 part white vinegar, 3 parts filtered water and little lemon juice. Put everything in the spray bottle and shake it to mix together the ingredients. You can start cleaning immediately.
DIY Cleaning spray with essential oil –
The professionals at CleanToPerfection N17 affirm that many essential oils have the ability to effectively disinfect all kinds of surfaces and objects. As a bonus, they also add a nice fragrance and are usually not dangerous to human health. That is why you can include them in your recipes for an effective kitchen cleaning spray.
To make a DIY cleaning spray with essential oils, mix together 1 part apple cider vinegar with 3 parts water and several drops of an essential oil like lemon, lavender, or eucalyptus in a clean spray bottle. (Read about the best essential oils for disinfecting.) You can even combine two or more essential oils. Just make sure that you are informed about the different qualities of each oil. Apart from cleaning, you can use this mixture to freshen up the air in your kitchen and in the other parts of your home.
DIY Cleaning spray with dish soap –
Another effective kitchen cleaning spray that you can try uses either dish soap or even grated bar soap. (I make my own basic beginner soap for these sorts of projects!) Apart from a clean spray bottle, you will also need water, some natural dish soap or dissolved bar soap, and a couple of drops of the essential oil you like most. This cleaner is very effective when you have to disinfect different surfaces in your kitchen, as well as when you have to remove effectively the grease and dust from appliances or other objects.
As you can see, all of the ingredients necessary for preparing different effective kitchen cleaning sprays are simple and quite affordable. It isn’t difficult for you to find them and make your sprays whenever you like. With these DIY cleaning sprays you will be able to disinfect your kitchen from top to bottom without worrying about chemical residues that could endanger your family’s health. You can also easily use them to disinfect other parts of your home. Before you know it, you will find yourself only using these natural cleaning products.
Looking for more great DIY cleaning recipes and tips?
I highly recommend the new e-book from Live Simply- find out more here:
Grace
Hi! I just found your site and it is amaaaaazing. I am from México and recently decided to minimize the purchase of cleaning, shower and cosmetic products so your site and all the love you share here are solid gold for me 🙂
I recently used white vinegar, Sodium Carbonate and some drops of lavender essential oil for cleaning and it was great for kitchen and floors, however, when I sprayed with it the glass of the shower… it resulted as if I’d applied some sort of butter in it. I was really hard to remove (I had to clean it with soap, actually). It was oily 🙁
As I do not like the smell of vinegar in my home, I added yellow lemon juice and citrix peels in the bottle and it is working really good.
What is your experience using essential oils in this type of products? What do you do to avoid oiliness?
Hugs.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Grace,
Thank you so much!
First, I’d like to say that you really shouldn’t mix the vinegar and the baking soda together or they won’t be as effective. Vinegar is an acid and baking soda is alkaline. They both partly rely on their extreme pH’s to help clean. When you mix them together, you are really neutralizing them. The resulting mixture isn’t as effective for cleaning.
You could instead use the baking soda as a scouring powder directly on the area you are cleaning. After rinsing it off, you can do a final vinegar rinse.
The gunk you made when you sprayed vinegar on the soap residue is basically unsaponified soap. Soap is made from oils and lye. It’s naturally alkaline. When you combine it with vinegar, the pH is brought down and the soap basically falls apart into its original oils. Ideally, you want to get as much soap off before spraying the vinegar on it.
I just actually read through this post again, and I think I’m going to have to update it.
It was a guest post, not one I wrote, and I didn’t catch that she suggested mixing vinegar with soap. That’s not really good advice (I probably didn’t even really know that when she first posted this). I may have to completely overhaul the post and rewrite it my way. 😉
I don’t add too many EO’s to this sort of thing, just enough for a bit of fragrance, so I haven’t found it to be too oily. If you are having issues, though, you could try using a hydrosol instead of EO’s to add some scent. Mix the vinegar with a bit of lavender hydrosol or something like that, perhaps?
The citrus peels is also a great idea. I also have done that. 🙂
Jennifer saxton
A mix of white vinegar and lemon is a magic product indeed!! But what Benaz and Valore did to my house cleaning routine is simply amazing and unbelievable. It eliminates the toughest stain without any effort at all!! Must TRY !!!!!!
Lani
Can we use this any of the cleaning spray above in wood floors or granite countertops?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Lani,
Yes, a mix of water, vinegar, and essential oils is mild enough for either one. It’s pretty multipurpose. 😉
Tami Mendoza
Fantastic! I use cleaning spray with dish soap. It is easy to clean with it. The most important thing is that all homemade cleaners are really cheap. You spent dollar or two most. Thank you for sharing your article! Best regards!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Tami,
Thanks for your comment!
Yes, I agree. It’s nice to be able to save a bit of money when making your own household cleaners.