To continue our Natural Cleaning series, today I’m going to talk about how to make your own All-Purpose Cleaning Spray. This is one that I use every single day – many times per day. It can even be made with foraged ingredients, plus kitchen ingredients you’d normally toss in the compost!
I haven’t bought cleaning sprays in years. Ever since I started making this totally natural cleaning spray at home. Seriously, we even travel with it, because it can do almost anything.
What’s so great about this all-purpose cleaning spray?
- Effective for literally dozens of cleaning tasks (see an ongoing list below)
- Uses ingredients you probably already have on hand – including those you’d normally just throw in the compost!
- Can be easily adapted with the seasons
- Contains no chemicals, fillers or industrial by-products
- Won’t give you headaches or weird vibes as many cleaning products can
- Makes your space smell and feel fresh
- Cost very little to make
- Brings a sense of joy into the everyday mundane tasks of cleaning and caring
And yes, I am going to show you how to make it today! In fact, I will show you a few different ways to make it, modifying it to what you have on hand, plus many different ways it can be used.
What you need to make this all-purpose cleaning spray
Just 4 ingredients! Citrus peels, herbs or spices of choice, distilled vinegar, essential oils.
Citrus peels – you can use grapefruit, lemon, lime or orange. And you can use the peels you’d normally just thrown into the compost! We personally use a lot of citrus juices in our kitchen – for cooking, making salad dressings, in smoothies, sauces, cakes, cocktails, etc. Instead of composting the rinds, I put them aside in a big container. Store them in the freezer until you have enough citrus peels to make your cleaning spray. Just let them come to room temperature before continuing on with the recipe. You can of course use shiny new citrus fruits too, so if you want to make this now and don’t have a lot of citrus peels saved up, fret not! In the youtube video below, I show you how to make this both ways.
Herbs / Spices – this is very flexible and can be “matched” with your citrus of choice. Some of my favorite combos are below, if you need some ideas! But some herbs and spices with properties that are great for cleaning include: pine, rosemary, lavender, thyme, eucalyptus, mint, cloves, cinnamon, marjoram.
Distilled white vinegar – this is a basic item in almost any shop. Just keep in mind that the white distilled vinegar you find in food aisles contains about 5% acidity. That means 5% acetic acid and 95% water. When you’re diluting your cleaning spray with water, you’ll need a higher amount of vinegar, less water. If your vinegar has a higher level of acetic acid, you’ll need to dilute it with more water, or it will smell way too vinegary. The white distilled vinegar I use for Wyld products contains 15% acidic content, which is rather high, but it also makes for a much more potent and effective cleaning agent! Yet also requires the right sort of dilution later.
Essential oils – These can really boost the cleaning spray. Essential oils are very concentrated forms of plants, so all of the properties of each plant are infused into the spray. They can also clear your air by tackling airborne particles, germs, dust, etc. Plus they smell amazing. You may want to match your essential oils with your chosen citrus and herbs. For example, when I make the Grapefruit Mint all-purpose cleaning spray, I use essential oils of grapefruit and peppermint. But it’s your cleaning spray, so go rouge if you want to!
A few of my favorite blends
Lavender Lime – this may sound like a strange combo, but trust me on this, it’s probably my favorite! Lime peels, lots of fresh lavender, distilled vinegar, essential oils of lemon and lavender.
Grapefruit Mint – summer bottled up. This one is straightforward but always so nice. Grapefruit peels, fresh mint, essential oils of pink grapefruit and peppermint.
Lemon Pine – classic in our home, because we use a lot of lemons and because we’re surrounded by pine trees. I often add fresh rosemary if I have extra on hand. Once I stumbled across some wild thyme in the forest and added it to the lemon and pine mixture – gah it was good. Lemon peels, foraged pine needles, essential oils of lemon, thyme and pine (or any other conifer, like spruce, cedar, etc.)
Spiced Orange – especially nice during the winter, it’s got holiday vibes. Orange peels, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise and cardamom pods, essential oils of sweet orange and clove.
Citrus Eucalyptus – for this one, a mix of various citrus peels – whatever you have on hand – and fresh eucalyptus leaves, plus essential oils of sweet orange, lemon, grapefruit and eucalyptus.
Four Thieves – this is the closest thing to the Wyld all-purpose cleaning spray that we offer in our shop. The formula is inspired by an old medieval legend about four thieves who survived the plague with the help of certain aromatic plants that can fight infections and boost immunity. For this you’ll infuse your vinegar with lemon peels, fresh rosemary, wild thyme, eucalyptus leaves, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks, and then add essential oils of lemon, rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus and clove.
How to use this all-purpose cleaning spray
- Cleaning the gunk and goop from bathtubs, showers and sinks
- Wiping down the kitchen counters (except marble) after cooking
- Mopping solution for floors, especially tile and laminate
- Sanitizing garbage cans
- Cleaning baby and toddler toys. And also their car seats, strollers, etc.
- Refreshing carpets, furniture and other upholstery
- Dusting off window frames, metal surfaces, etc.
- Removing sticker residue from bottles and jars
- Cleaning grease residue inside ovens or microwaves
- Getting rid of fingerprints on refrigerators, freezers and cabinets
- If you add clove oil, it can tackle mold issues on things like shower curtains
- Cleaning dirty bicycle frames
- As a fabric softener (about 15 squirts in the dryer for a full-size load)
- Reducing odor inside stinky shoes or other sweaty items
- Cleaning outdoor furniture before its polished
- Washing non-organic fruits and vegetables
….and more. I’d love to hear how you’re using your all-purpose cleaning spray!
So let’s get on with making then. Not only do I have the simple process written out for you below in 5 easy steps, but I also made a youtube video showing the entire process – from foraging the plant material to bottling up the cleaning spray.
Make your own all-purpose cleaning spray
Step 1: Get your citrus peels and herbs ready
For the citrus peels, you can use lemons, grapefruits, limes or oranges. You want just the rind, not the inside of the fruit. For the herbs, you can use any plant material that has good cleaning properties. Some examples are rosemary, mint, pine, eucalyptus, lavender, sage, thyme, or whole spices like cloves, cinnamon sticks, etc. See My Favorite Blends above for some of my favorite combinations!
Step 2: Infuse the vinegar
Fill a large glass jar (with seal top) with your citrus peels and herbs/spices of choice. Cover it completely with distilled white vinegar. Set aside in a cool, dark place for about 3-4 weeks, giving it a gentle shake every now and then.
Step 3: Strain out the citrus and herbs
Once the vinegar is infused, strain out the solids using a fine mesh strainer. Discard solids. Set the infused vinegar aside.
Step 4: Combine infused vinegar and essential oils
Get your spray bottle out. Fill it halfway full with the infused vinegar. Add your essential oils – about 15 drops total per 500 ml. You can adjust the amount of essential oils later if you aren’t happy.
(Optional step: before adding the essential oils to the vinegar, you can mix the essential oils into a spoonful of vegetable glycerin, and then add the glycerin/essential oil mixture to the infused vinegar. This will help emulsify the oils so that they are more evenly mixed into the final product. It’s okay to skip this if you don’t have vegetable glycerin.)
We are aiming for a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water. So since my spray bottle is 500 ml, I am going to use 250 ml of infused vinegar with essential oils.
Step 5: Dilute with water
Finally, fill your spray bottle with fresh cold water. Again, my spray bottle is 500 ml, and I already filled it with 250 ml infused vinegar and essential oils. Now I will add 250 ml water. Put on your spray top, give the bottle a gentle shake and it’s ready to go!
Note: the dilution ratio is very much dependent on your preferences, and on the strength of the distilled vinegar you used. If your distilled vinegar contained a higher percentage of acidity, then you may need to dilute the cleaning spray with more water. Likewise, if you used a distilled vinegar with only 5% acetic acid, then you may need less water.
Another note: if you made a lot of infused vinegar, you will not use it all to make one bottle of cleaning spray. But please keep the infused vinegar in a cool, dark place! It will last for a long time and next time you want to make an all-purpose cleaning spray, you can skip steps 1-3 above and go straight into putting it together in step 4!
So now you can make your very own all-purpose cleaning spray! Or buy it here if can’t be bothered, ha.
I’ve already shared how to make a natural, very effective glass and mirror cleaner at home, so all of your mirrors and windows stay streak- and dust-free.
As well as how to make your own wood and surface cleaner. Which is infused with local pine needles and keeps your wood shiny, conditioned and healthy.
With these three cleaning sprays, all you need is a good all-purpose soap like castile or linseed oils soap, and then you can clean your entire home from top to bottom naturally and sustainably, cheaply and effectively.
You can even make your own natural laundry soap with just one ingredient – soap nuts!
I’m still planning to take you on a tour of our humble little cleaning closet in the future, sharing some tips for avoiding chemicals and plastics, plus how to find natural materials and products that elevate the everyday humdrum tasks of cleaning. I’d love to share some of the brands I love and use daily too!
Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’re curious about.