This citrus all-purpose cleaner recipe is simple and made with natural ingredients so fresh you could eat it! It may make an interesting salad dressing ingredient, but I’m more inclined to use it to clean the kitchen.
Store-bought household cleaners are full of potentially harmful chemicals and ingredients that most of us can’t even pronounce, let alone know what they are. I feel much better cleaning my home with something that I know for a fact (because I made it!) is all natural and has no chance of causing harm to myself, my family, or the environment.
This recipe is part of our Citrus Celebration series here on Garden Therapy and is in great company with:
- Mango Citrus Whipped Body Butter
- Meyer Lemon Limoncello
- Vegan Lemon Pudding Cakes
- Blood Orange and Raspberry Jam
- Tropical Citrus Lip Gloss Recipe
- Rosemary Lemon Soap-on-a-Rope {Stars and Bars}
Orange Cinnamon All-Purpose Cleaner Recipe
To make this recipe, add orange peels to a Mason jar and top up with distilled white vinegar. Add a few cinnamon sticks to spice it up. Let sit covered in a cool, dark place for two weeks and then strain into a spray bottle. If you would like a stronger spice smell when strained, add a few drops of cinnamon essential oil. It’s the perfect cleaning recipe for the winter months as it warms things up just a bit more.
Your homemade cleaner is all purpose and perfect for bathrooms, kitchens, and floors. The more citrus and spice you use, the less vinegar-y it will smell. Use within about 6 weeks and make smaller batches so that you always have some fresh cleaner on hand.
Hi. I have used this recipe before and it does work great. But I have a question, Can I substitute vodka for the vinegar? I don’t care for the lingering vinegar smell and vodka is a great disinfectant. Your help is greatly appreciated.
yes, absolutely!
I like the vodka idea too, would it lasts longer than 6 weeks with vodka?
yes, for sure.
Hi Where can I find the Label you have on your spray bottle?
I got them at Evermine.com
Straight 5% vinegar is a pretty strong cleaner. I generally dilute it in my plastic spray bottle, about 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar.
Hey, I’m just wondering why vinegar is considered a safe all-natural? Otherwise known as acetic acid and generally bought from and manufactured by companies like Heinz and so on, ie not home made, and full of a pretty a caustic “chemical”, is the definition of all-natural really just another way of saying “familiar” and “trusted”?
“Acetic acid is also known as ethanoic acid, ethylic acid, vinegar acid, and methane carboxylic acid; it has the chemical formula of CH3COOH. Acetic acid is a byproduct of fermentation, and gives vinegar its characteristic odor. Vinegar is about 4-6% acetic acid in water.”
Oh, and alcohol is a very toxic chemical, and many of us drink it! And of course we drive to a store to buy the vinegar and the alcohol, which means we are using gasoline which is another fairly toxic substance (fortunately most of it is burned up while pushing our cars around, leaving more chemicals in the air as by-products).
And this great “all natural” cleaning solution is kept in a plastic bottle which is arguably way less natural than the vinegar or alcohol, because it does not occur naturally anywhere.