It’s hard to even consider this a recipe… it’s that easy!
When I first graduated college and moved into my own apartment a few years ago, I needed to stock up on some cleaning products. I remember falling for the creative marketing techniques of certain name brands that I presumed to be green and all-natural. I was shelling out my hard-earned dough for products that actually weren’t all that great.
When I began to learn more about the ingredients lurking in our products, one of the first things I looked to replace was my cleaning products. It is mind-boggling how fast, easy and simple it is to make products that work and are WAY safer for us to be exposed to! Also – not to mention, SO much cheaper usually.
This recipe was a more recent experiment and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I’ve known vinegar was a great natural cleaner for a while, but was always discouraged by the thought of my house smelling like vinegar. Not to give false hope – this recipe won’t get rid of all vinegar smell, but it does help mask it!
Now, for the actual recipe, you will need:
- Plain ol’ distilled white vinegar
- Lemon(s)
*Feel free to use other citrus such as orange or grapefruit!
Instructions:
Cut up your lemon. You could just buy a lemon for this recipe and cut it up right away, or you could use the lemon juices for other things and save the leftover part after you juice it. For mine, I had a lemon with no purpose (other than for lemon water!) so I just cut it up into some slices.
Add slices to a jar. Use whatever you have! I used a larger sized mason jar. Then, fill up the jar with the vinegar. I don’t have an exact measurement because it really doesn’t need one, but see image below for how full I had the jar.
Then, stick it in a cupboard and forget about it for a few weeks! I left mine for about 3.5 weeks. Throughout the process, I would open the jar and smell it occasionally. After 3.5 weeks, the vinegar had a pleasant, light lemon smell.
Lastly, use a mesh strainer to strain out the liquid and discard lemon pieces/seeds. Pour the vinegar into a spray bottle and voila! You have a great cleaning solution to wipe down surfaces around your house with.
Note: not all surfaces are suitable for vinegar so be mindful around using on solid wood, stainless steel, and certain types of counter tops. I tend to reach for this cleaner for my stove top, dusting, and wiping down my kitchen counters and it works great.
Whether you decide to try this cleaner recipe or not, I hope it inspires you to seek alternatives to those name-brand cleaning products sold on store shelves that contain a laundry list of ingredients. Creating alternatives does not have to be time-consuming or expensive.
Thank you for reading!
