The products you buy to clean your home don't always do their job as intended. Flip yours over and read the ingredients. Do they contain ethylene glycol monobutyl acetate, ammonia, trisodium phosphate or sodium hypochlorite?
If so, your all-purpose cleaner sprays could be doing more harm than good.
These ingredients and others can cause irritation of the throat, nose, skin and eyes. If someone happens to swallow a bit of any chemical-laden cleanser, they could get extremely sick.
With that in mind, it makes sense that you'd want to try a natural DIY all-purpose cleaner. These homemade solutions contain family-safe ingredients, and they work well, too. And that's especially important in today's current climate with COVID-19 still spreading and mutating.
To keep your house clean and safe, then, it's time to try an all-purpose disinfectant or cleaner. Here are the ingredients you need — and the natural DIY all-purpose cleaners recipes you have to try.
Top Ingredients to Make DIY All-Purpose Cleaners
Natural ingredients can work just as well as chemicals, so long as you know how to deploy them. Stock up on these essentials you'll need to make your all-purpose cleaners.
Baking Soda
You probably have a box of baking soda in your fridge or pantry already. It's not just for making cookies or removing odors, though.
Baking soda is a natural yet gentle abrasive, so you can use it to scour surfaces without chemicals. It is softer than other options, so you don't have to worry about scratching pots and pans.
And, as previously mentioned, it has deodorizing properties, too. So, it'll scrub and cleanse — and it costs much less than commercial products meant to do the same. Baking soda is one of the most frugal DIY cleaning supplies you can buy.
Hydrogen Peroxide
Next, we have hydrogen peroxide. If you know anything about chemistry, you know that this solution is made of just oxygen and water.
So, it is a safe, powerful alternative to using chlorine bleach. Stock up on hydrogen peroxide if you have some heavy-duty cleaning ahead in your bathroom, for example.
Distilled White Vinegar
Alkaline substances are no match for distilled white vinegar. It can cut through soap scum, mold and limescale. You can also use vinegar to cut through stains: coffee, tea and rust included.
Five-percent vinegar will be strong enough to do much of what is listed above. However, you can buy it at higher concentrations to get even more out of its all-natural scouring powers.
Lemon
Lemons are both antibacterial and antiseptic. They can work just as effectively as bleach to remove stains. Oh, and they smell nice — you won't miss your fragranced, store-bought cleaners when your house smells like lemon.
Essential Oils
On that note, grab a few essential oils in scents you love. You can drop them into your homemade cleaners so they leave behind a fresh, all-natural scent. Some of our favorites include:
• Lavender
• Eucalyptus
• Lemongrass
• Lemon
• Orange
• Tea tree
If you choose tea tree oil, you get an added benefit — this essential oil has antibacterial properties, too. That's why so many people use it to treat their acne.
Castille Soap
You can use Castille soap to wash away dirt. You can buy it in liquid or bar form, depending on the type of cleaning you need to do.
Borax
This alkali can help you slice through oil, grease and dirt.
Storage Containers and Spray Bottles
Don't forget that you'll need places to store your finished cleaning solutions. You'll need containers for homemade laundry detergents and scrubs. And, for the rest of your all-purpose cleaner solutions, you'll need bottles with which to spray them.
9 Top DIY All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes
Now that you have the supplies you need, you're ready to whip up a few DIY cleaners to scour your home. These are our favorite recipes.
1. Scented All-Purpose Cleaner
Have a big cleaning session coming up? You'll have to whip up this recipe a week in advance to get all of the goodness out of the ingredients. You'll need:
• A spray bottle
• 1 part water
• 1 part white vinegar
• Lemon rind
• Sprigs of rosemary
Pour all of the ingredients into a spray bottle, then let them sit and meld together for a week. After seven days, you'll have a sweet-smelling cleaner that can cut through water stains, wall smudges and more.
Just don't use this or other vinegar-based solutions on granite, as it can be damaging to the stone.
2. Peroxide-Based Cleaner
Here's another strong DIY cleaner.
• Spray bottle
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon unscented liquid Castile soap
• 10 drops tea tree oil
• 20 drops lavender essential oil
Pour all of this into a spray bottle, shake and start cleaning. For added power to clean mildew, spray it with this solution, then pour baking soda on top. Let that sit, then scrub it all away — mildew included — with a sponge.
3. Deodorizing Kitchen Cleaner
This cleaner's kitchen-centric, but you can use it throughout the space to fight grease and odors. All you need are:
• 4 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 quart water
Use the resulting paste to clean and deodorize the inside of your fridge and other appliances. You can also use this combination to restore stainless steel appliances to a shine.
4. Homemade Laundry Detergent
You can't have a set of DIY cleaners without considering your laundry setup. You need something to freshen up your clothes and remove stains, of course. Try this recipe:
• 1 bar of Castille laundry soap
• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda, which you can find in the laundry aisle
• 1 cup oxygen bleach
You'll grate up the soap, then mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Store them all in a container together. Then, add two tablespoons per load for lightly stained laundry, four tablespoons for dirtier clothes.
5. Castille Soap Surface Cleaner
This DIY all-purpose cleaner can be used on all surfaces, including sealed stone or granite. Just make sure to wipe it down with a wet cloth, as soap residue can linger. You'll need:
• Spray bottle
• 2 cups distilled water
• 2 tablespoons Castille soap
• 15 drops essential oil of your choice
Pour everything into the spray bottle, shake and start cleaning.
6. Vinegar All-Purpose Cleaner Spray
Mist this powerful DIY cleaner to scour non-stone surfaces. Grab:
• Spray bottle
• 1 cup distilled water
• 1 cup white distilled vinegar
• 15 drops essential oil of your choice
• 1/2 lemon, juiced (optional)
Mix everything together, then shake it up to create your DIY cleaner. Use a funnel if you need help getting all of the liquids into your spray bottle.
7. Natural Heavy-Duty DIY Scrub
Let's say you have a rust stain on your tub, enamel sink or porcelain surface. You can rely on an all-natural scrub to wipe it away. You'll need:
• 1/2 cup borax
• 1/2 of a lemon
You'll dip the lemon, fruit side down, into the borax. You'll use the fruit as a scrubber to gently tackle these stains. Scrub, then rinse away the borax — the stain will disappear with it.
8. Homemade Upholstery Spray
You can refresh your bedding, kitchen chairs, living room sofa and more with this all-purpose fabric spray. Round up the following supplies:
• Spray bottle
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 10 drops essential oil of your choice
Pour the baking soda into the bottle first. Then, add the essential oil droplets before funneling in the water. Shake everything gently to create your upholstery spray.
Just be sure to test your spray on a small patch of fabric before dousing an entire piece of furniture. That way, you can be sure it won't leave residue behind when you clean.
9. Quick All-Purpose Cleaner Spray
If you're in a pinch and out of any of the above ingredients, keep this recipe in your back pocket. Here's what you need:
• 1 tablespoon dish soap
• Spray bottle filled with water
Add the soap into the bottle and shake until you see bubbles. Then, spray it and wipe down your counters, stovetop and more. The solution will quickly cut through grease and dirt, no chemicals required.
This top gentle cleanser can be used on stone countertops, too. So, spray generously over your marble, granite or quartz countertops — and don't worry about damaging the sealant.
Clean Without Chemicals Thanks To DIY All Purpose Cleaner Solutions
These are only nine of the best DIY all-purpose cleaners you can make at home. You can rely on others do-it-yourself cleaner recipes including shea butter, or you can start to get creative. Once you know how these all-natural ingredients work, you may even be able to whip up your own DIY all-purpose cleaners solutions.
Keep It Clean
So, grab the supplies you need and get started on your chemical-free cleaning quest. And, if you have any more home cleaner or property-related questions, we can help with that. Check out the Real Estate section to learn more about keeping your home clean and disinfected!