- 1 qt (1 l) hot water
- 1 qt (1 l) white vinegar
- 1-2 tsp castile soap
- 20 drops tea tree oil
- 20 drops lavender essential oil
Pour some of the mixture into a spray bottle and use for all-purpose cleaning.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Homemade all-purpose cleaner
For the past 6 months or so, we've been making our own all-purpose cleaner. It's been wonderful not to have that chemical smell in the house, and it's a lot cheaper, too. Here's the recipe:
Pour some of the mixture into a spray bottle and use for all-purpose cleaning.
Pour some of the mixture into a spray bottle and use for all-purpose cleaning.
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7 comments:
Hi!
great post. I've been looking for recipes on-line for homemade all-purpose cleaners and yours came straight to the top of the list.
I have a few questions I'm hoping you can answer:
1. Do I need to use the lavender essential oil, or can I just get away with the tea tree oil?
2. I'm concerned about using a plastic bottle to store the cleaner, as I've read that tea tree oil, being the potent little thing it is, can degrade the plastic bottle. I'd really like to use a spray bottle for convenience. So I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on this.
Thanks!
Olivia: No, lavender essential oil isn't necessary. We just like how it smells. You should just substitute tea tree oil instead of lavender.
We've reused some Method spray bottles we used before switching to homemade. They've been fine for probably around 6 months now where we haven't seen any problems with the tea tree oil attacking the plastic. But we haven't researched it any further.
Thanks for the quick response. I'm definitely going to give your cleaner a try.
I hope you don't mind if I pose another related question. Do you have a recipe for dishwashing liquid? I have something I'm going to try with my dishwasher, but am looking for something to use when I hand wash.
Olivia: We haven't tried making our own dishwashing soap. We use one from Seventh Generation. I would suspect you could make your own based on castile soap, though. But I'd love to hear what you come up with.
Castile soap is definitely the direction I'm headed. I will definitely let you know what I come up with. As soon as I do, I will post it on my blog: http://girlwithredlipstick.com.
Thanks, again!
Great recipe. It works too
Toronto House Cleaning
Hi Jakob, Olivia,
I think it is pretty neat that you share your ideas on eco friendly recipes, etc.
We have tried your homemade all purpose cleaning soap and it works like a charm.
We even added diatomaceous earth to it and used it as a pet shampoo. The DE was referred to us by our VET. I guess it kills fleas.
Do you know what the differences is with Castile soap? I hear this term a lot now and wonder what it is made of?
Thanks and keep up the great articles
Darren
Toronto
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