Three DIY Recipes for Cleaning Solutions
Today, I ran out of cleaner while trying to scrub my house. Since I live a good half-hour from any store, I decided to see if Pinterest had any DIY recipes for cleaning solutions.
As you can imagine, Pinterest had a LOT of ideas. Most of the DIY recipes for cleaning solutions involved expensive essential oils and such, but a few seemed pretty feasible. I even had some of the ingredients on hand. Keep in mind, I’m not as green as I’d like to be. I’m just a girl living in the woods a far piece from the nearest organic market. My attempt at “holistic” involves the vitamin aisle at the Wal-Mart.
So here are a couple of the DIY recipes for cleaning solutions I tried and really liked. Please keep in mind, I’m not a chemist. I can’t guarantee that these recipes will work or that they won’t damage something in your house. If you have specialized surfaces, such as granite, check with your manufacturer before trying any of these. Use them in a small space first to make sure you’re comfortable with the results.
I also included a few affiliate links in here for you. If you buy through my links, you won’t pay any more, but I may make a small commission. That way, I can go buy more cleaning supplies.
Here are the recipes.
All Purpose Cleaner—movenourishbelieve.com
For this one, I just used one of my empty cleaning bottles and started mixing. I washed it out first. Don’t mix a bunch of strange stuff and make yourself sick, ya hear?
You need
- ½ cup hot water
- ½ cup apple cider or white vinegar
- 2 tbsp dish soap or Castile soap if you have it lying around (I used my trusty Equate brand from Wally World)
- 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil. I like to mix lemongrass and lavender—again from the vitamin aisle at the Wal-Mart. Try not to judge, people. We’re just sniffing them, not ingesting them.
Stir it around and shake it up in your bottle a bit. Then spray away. It may not kill the flu virus, but it’ll take the first layer of grime off your counters anyway.
Floor Cleaner—movenourishbelieve.com
This did great cleaning vinyl floors—it didn’t leave a sticky residue either. I did not use it on my hardwood because I hadn’t run out of that type of floor cleaner. I’m funny about what I use on wood anyway. This, however, made my kitchen happy.
You need
- 4 cups of hot water
- 4 cups white vinegar
- 1/3 cup dish detergent or Castile soap
- 20ish drops of your favorite essential oil–I used 10 drops of the Wal-Mart version of lavender and 10 drops of the Wal-Mart lemongrass.
I heated the water in a big cup in the microwave. Stir and shake it all around. If you don’t need this much, then back off the amounts. Keep the proportions the same, though.
Fabric Refresher—removeandreplace.com
One huge staple of my cleaning regimen is to spray something around that smells good. I can then pretend that the house is clean, simply because it smells freshly scrubbed, even if it isn’t.
I used an empty spray bottle of stink disguiser for this one.
You need:
3 tablespoons of fabric softener
3 cups of hot water
1 tbsp. baking soda
I added the baking soda and fabric softener first, then added the hot water I’d warmed in the microwave. After stirring, I shook the whole thing to keep the baking soda from clumping. This stuff was amazing, and it even cut down on eau de beagle dog.
So good luck with your cleaning. Hope these cheap DIY recipes for cleaning solutions will help make the whole process move much more smoothly! Have you ever tried DIY solutions? Let us know in the comments.
