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Make Your Own Natural All Purpose Spray Cleaner

Call me a prude, but the smell of most commercial household cleaners gives me a massive headache.

Obviously I’m not the only person with homemade cleaning products on the brain because the blog post containing my recipe for homemade laundry detergent powder is the most-visited page on this site. Then in November of last year, tucked away discreetly in a post called “What Does Clean Smell Like?” I shared a dead simple, homemade window cleaner recipe that can be mixed in about 60 seconds. If you don’t have the time to make that, then you are obviously so busy that you need to have someone else cleaning your house.

So now that you know how to have clean laundry and clean windows, I’m sure you are chomping at the bit to know how you can make your own all purpose spray cleaner and what would I be if I didn’t pay attention to those desperate cries for help?

To start, you’re going to need some citrus peels.

In the example photos I took while making a new batch yesterday, I use orange and grapefruit, but you can use whatever is handy, and in whatever combination makes you happy.

1.  Peel citrus fruits.

Fruit PeelsYou can peel them any way you like. I used a peeler and just took the rind because I wasn’t going to immediately use the fruit and the pith helped to keep them fresh in the fridge for an extra day or so.

Anyway, now that you have a respectable pile of peels that is similar but certainly not nearly as respectable as the one seen here, it’s time to move on to the most difficult part of this entire project. Take a deep breath, shore up your courage and

2.  Shove the citrus peels into a clean jar.

Peels in a Jar

Whoah.  Did you make it through that part okay? If you’re still with me after that, you’re pretty much a rockstar and you should probably take a break and have a snack because whoah.

3.  Pour vinegar over citrus peels to cover them and screw on a lid.

Cleaner in a JarFrom here on out it’s all downhill, I swear.

Once you’ve added the vinegar and capped off the jar, set it in an out of the way place for a couple of weeks. Unless of course you want your SO to mistake it for the new batch of limoncello that you started around the same time, in which case have at it.

After a couple of weeks, your homemade household cleaner is ready to use. Almost. Get yourself a spray bottle ready to go, because you’re about to be a cleanin’ fool. If you would like an alternative to plastic spray bottles, Crunchy Betty has a great tutorial on making a spray bottle from a jar.

4.  Strain the peels and solids out of the vinegar and pour into a spray bottle.

That’s all you have to do to make it happen. If you’re feeling extra fancy, you can add a few drops of essential oil to the spray bottle but that’s certainly not required.

Now get out there and clean something naturally!

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