DIY Lavender All-Purpose Cleaner

So easy you won’t ever want to spend money on store bought cleaners ever again. Vinegar can be used as a safer bleach alternative when cleaning your house. It cuts grease, eliminates odour, and it’s biodegradable. Moving away from toxic chemical cleaners feels so good and it's quite satisfying making your own products.

Let me preface this post by saying that just like anything, there is a time and place for natural products and there is a place for some stronger stuff. Use your judgment and go from there. If someone in your house has been sick, I’d stick to something a little stronger like a hydrogen peroxide based cleaner but for your general cleaning needs, this is the bees knees.

DIRECTIONS:

This is very easy process but there are a few very important steps that you must follow or else you'll end up with some moldy fruit or flowers soaking in vinegar. Got it?

First up, pick your scent, I've posted a couple ideas at the bottom of this post if you want some inspiration. This time, I chose to use lavender. Whatever container you decide to use, fill it halfway with lavender stems (fresh or dried). Fill the rest of the jar with vinegar leaving room at the top, you can go back and top it up after the next step. This is the important part... grab a smaller container that you can use to push the flower stems down but that will still allow the container to close once the lid is on. If any of the flowers are sticking out of the vinegar while it sits for the next 3 weeks, they will get moldy. The little flowers that float to the top will be fine. Guess what? You're done. Label the jar with the date that it'll be ready, 3 weeks after you made it. Then you wait. Strain it and transfer it to a spray bottle. I bought my glass spray bottle from Nature's Fare but you can easily re-use one of the ones you already have at home.

Different Scent-Infusions

You can pretty much use any scent you like but try to avoid dark coloured herbs or fruits so that the colour doesn't transfer in to the vinegar and potentially stain your surfaces.

Lemon, orange, or lime: A nice clean citrusy scent really helps cover up the scent of vinegar and also adds an extra antibacterial aspect. To make a citrus cleaner, simply save the rinds (peels) of whichever one you want and follow the same process as the lavender one above.

Pine: If you're not into the sweeter scents, try pine! Make your house smell like a winter wonderland.

If you try making any cool combinations of scents, please let me know! Lemon & Lavender? Cinnamon & Pine?

Happy cleaning!

Kaits xox