Everyday household cleaners can contain chemicals that can hurt our health and contribute to the symptoms we experience.
About a year ago I set out on a mission to find homemade cleaning solutions that aren’t bad for the health of our family and ones that will save us money. Because, let’s be honest, it’s always nice to save money especially when making healthier choices for our home.
That being said, let’s dive into my favorite homemade household cleaners.
All Purpose Cleaner
This cleaner is wonderful for all surfaces and purposes. It also smells wonderful. This cleaner helps to clean dirt and dirty smells within your kitchen or bathroom.
The major disinfectant in this cleaner is tea tree essential oil. Tea tree is known for its antibacterial and antifungal properties. Another disinfectant in this solution is castile soap. Castile soap is a mild natural soap that works as a surfactant, meaning it removes germs and bacteria and degrades viruses to break them down.
All Purpose Cleaner Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp Castile soap
- 30 drops tea tree oil
- 20 drops orange oil
- Spray bottle
- Fill the spray bottle with warm water.
- Add the baking soda and shake well to combine.
- Add the essential oils and Castile soap and gently shake.
- Spray on surface and use a damp washcloth to clean surface.
You can use this solution on kitchen counters and appliances, bathtubs, jacuzzi tubs, sinks, and showers. It works great to remove rust stains on toilets and showers.
Toilet Cleaner Recipe
Toilet bowl cleaners are filled with super harsh chemicals that can contribute to health symptoms and issues. Choosing to use a cleaner DIY option to clean your toilets can be inexpensive and effective. All though, you will need to still do a bit of scrubbing in order to clean it efficiently.
The main disinfecting power of this solution is the lavender essential oil. While the baking soda and vinegar are also helping to disinfect they are also working on cleaning any hardwarder stains in the bowl.
Toilet Cleaner Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup baking soda
- 50 drops lavender essential oil – about 1/2 tsp (or a other disinfectant essential oil like, tea tree, orange peel, or pine.)
- White vinegar – 20%
- Wooden Spoon
- Glass Storage Jar
Solution Instructions:
- Combine all ingredients except vinegar in a glass bowl.
- Make sure you are using a glass bowl essential oils can eat away at plastic and react with metal.
- Mix ingredients thoroughly. Breaking up any clumps. Hold off on adding the vinegar to this mixture.
- Store in an airtight container. This recipe should give you 15 uses.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not add vinegar to the powdered solution. Vinegar reacts with baking soda. The Vinegar will be added to the toilet bowl along with the powder solution when cleaning.
Instructions for cleaning:
- Drop 1 tablespoon of the baking powder mixture into the bottom of the toilet bowl. Also sprinkle some on the walls of the bowl and use your toilet brush to spread the powder around.
- Pour 1/2 cup of 20 percent vinegar into the bowl. (Note: This product isn’t your standard white vinegar found at the supermarket; it’s generally used only for killing weeds or cleaning, and it can be bought online. If you can’t find it, typical 5 percent distilled vinegar from the grocery store will work, but you’ll need to increase the quantity to 2 cups for each cleaning.)
- Once the homemade toilet bowl cleaner fizzes, use the brush to scrub away any stains or spots in the bowl.
- Let the remaining mixture sit for about 15 minutes, and then flush the toilet to enjoy a spotless bowl, free of gunk and harsh chemicals!
Hardwood Floor Cleaner Recipe
Hardwood floors are a little more maintenance than your typical vinyl or tile floors. Some commercial cleaning products contain chemicals that can irritate the eyes, skin, or respiratory system, or be toxic if ingested. If you have young children or pets often playing on (or eating off) the floor.
Our typical ‘go-to’ natural cleaning products are vinegar and baking soda. However, they aren’t the best option for hardwood floors. Harsh acidic ingredients like vinegar or lemon can strip the urethane finish, making floors appear cloudy and dull. And too-vigorous scrubbing—either with a cleaning tool or by adding an abrasive ingredient like baking soda to a cleaning solution—can also damage the finish.
When cleaning hardwood floors using castile soap as the base and an essential oil is the best way to clean your hardwood floors.
Hardwood Floor Cleaner Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon pure castile soap (like Dr. Bronner’s)
- 4 cups water, plus more for rinsing
- 5 to 10 drops essential oil of your choice (optional)
- Spray bottle
- Mop with microfiber pad
Solution Instructions:
- Add the castile soap, water, and essential oil (like peppermint, orange, or lavender) to a spray bottle.
- Screw the top on tightly and shake well to mix.
Instructions for cleaning:
- Sweep and swiffer your floors before applying this cleaner.
- Before using this cleanser on your entire floor test it on a spot, such as under a piece of furniture. Apply following the directions below and rinse, then check for any hint of damage before continuing with the rest of the floor.
- Working in small areas (about three square feet at a time), spritz the cleaning mixture onto the floor. Be careful not to spray too much of the homemade hardwood floor cleaner at once to avoid water sitting too long on the surface. Excess moisture can penetrate the wood and cause serious damage to the boards along the lines of swelling, cupping, warping, and even separating.
- Using back and forth motions along the grain of the wood, work in the cleaning solution with a dry microfiber mop.
Continue working in small patches, rinsing and squeezing excess water off your mop as it becomes soiled until you’ve done the whole floor.
