Four Homemade Cleaners

January 12, 2011 | By Nick | 227 Comments

This was easier than I thought it would be.

One of Betsy’s goals for the year was to ditch some of our standard cleaners that we use around the house and make them! Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this project mainly because I wasn’t sure that homemade cleaners would really get the job done.

And my lovely wife is a bit of a neat freak so there’s no way she would use something that didn’t perform well.

So a couple of weekends ago she went out and bought a few staple ingredients and some empty spray bottles and we spent a few minutes mixing up four different homemade cleaners that have since replaced 90% of the cleaners we use around the house.

For the last few weeks we’ve been using them now and I’ve been so impressed by how well they are working, I thought I’d share them all with you in case any of you are interested in ditching the chemicals.

The Cost of Cleaning. The thing about homemade cleaners is that the initial start-up costs might seem a bit high. A tiny bottle of lavender oil (.5 ounces), for example, will run you $7-$8. But the thing to remember is that for each batch of cleaning solution, you’ll be using literally just a few drops of oil.

I would guess we spent around $30 on our homemade cleaning supplies for these four solutions, but now we have enough supplies to last us years. By the time we run out of lavender oil, for example, our cost per bottle for these cleaners will be reduces to cents.

Basic stuff.

Really Clean Cleaning. After using these solutions for a few weeks, what I’m most impressed with is their cleaning power. They really work. Not only do they work, but I get the strange impression that they are even cleaner than the standard products.

When you clean a counter with the all-purpose cleaner it’s squeaky clean and the whole room smells awesome, not chemical at all. I hate to say this, but having these easily accessible actually makes me like cleaning. DON’T TELL MY WIFE.

My ultimate decision to post on these solutions was just because they worked surprisingly well.

The Basics. Betsy and I did some research on books for home cleaning solutions and I would recommend these two to anyone who wants to learn more:

- Green Clean including vinegar, citrus fruits and baking soda (I guess unavailable for now on Amazon)

- Homemade: How to Make 100′s of Everyday Products

As far as ingredients go, a good number of ingredients you will probably have on hand already at home. Things like vinegar, baking soda, citrus, etc. Those are easy.

The tricky stuff are these items:

Some of these are a bit expensive.

Most of the recipes involve castile soap and a few drops of essential oils. These are the pricey items and the ones that you won’t need to buy very often even if you make a ton of these solutions.

For the recipes I’m giving in this post, you’ll need the below items. You can find all of these at your local supermarket or health food store or you can grab them from Amazon. I’ve included links to the amazon pages.

- Castile Soap - An all-natural soap that’s surprisingly strong. A few drops go a long way. We like the lavender scent, but they have others available.

- Lavender Oil – A natural anti-bacterial oil that smells wonderful.

- Tea Tree Oil – A natural oil that cleanses and disinfects.

- Washing Soda – Sodium Carbonate which is just a strong base that works great as a laundry detergent. It has a million uses around the house.

Mixing the Solutions. If you’re going to do this, definitely buy new, clean plastic bottles. Don’t use old bottles as the trace chemicals in them might react badly.

Also, I’d recommend getting some labels because while they are all different, these solutions all look a bit similar.

The Recipes!

Let’s start with an easy one.

Lavender Anti-Bacterial Spray

- 1 Cup water
- 20 drops lavender essential oil

Easy right?! It’s smells great and lavender is very high in linalool which is naturally antibacterial.

Just a few drops...

The next recipe is the one that we use the most which is the all-purpose cleaner. It’s our daily cleaner now on everything from counters to floors.

One note about this one is that it will bubble A LOT (think high school science volcano) so make sure you leave plenty of room in your bottle for an eruption and mix it over the sink just in case.

All-Purpose Cleaner (Watch out for a reaction! It will bubble a lot.)

- 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Teaspoon washing soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon castile soap
- 2 Cups hot water

I think you can see how little of each ingredient is used for a batch.

All mixed up.

The next formula is the one we use on the stove or any place that accumulates a lot of oil or grease.

Grease Cutter (Note that if you have a good eye, I messed up the label on this one for my bottles.)

- 2 Cups water
- 1/4 Cup castile soap
- 10 drops lavender oil

And finally the strongest of the solutions that we made which is for really scrubbing hard to clean areas like bathroom sinks and mildewed tubs.

Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner (Again, watch out for some bubbling.)
NOTE: Ideally, mix this one in a SQUIRT bottle, not a SPRAY bottle. It’s pretty thick and almost a paste.

- 2/3 Cup baking soda
- 1/2 Cup castile soap
- 2 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Cup water
- A few drops of Tea Tree oil

Labels definitely help.

Like I said, we’ve been testing these out for the last few weeks now and I really love all of them. My favorite is the all-purpose cleaner and the antibacterial spray which just leaves everything really clean and smells fantastic without being overpowering.

If you’re looking to cut out some chemicals from your cleaning products and save some money (in the long term), you should try these out!

Anybody make their own cleaning supplies? If you have a good tip or recipe, leave a comment!

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