Introduction: Homemade Green Cleaning Recipes
By jessyratfinkCLAMP Podcast
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About: Hi! I'm a slightly feral mountain hermit that likes to be helpful. I do community management at Instructables & Tinkercad. 🙌 Want to hear me chat about making? Search "CLAMP Podcast" on YouTube or your favorit… More About jessyratfink »
Clean nearly everything in your house with simple and non-toxic ingredients.
Whether you're worried about the chemicals you're using, wanting to save money, or hoping to save yourself from all those horrible added dyes and fragrances - these recipes are for you!
Step 1: Ingredients Used in These Recipes
The recipes use very few ingredients, most of which you should have around the house!
- water
- baking soda
- rubbing alcohol or vodka
- castile soap
- white vinegar
- essential oils
- unflavored gelatin
- salt
In addition, you'll need spray bottles and glass containers, depending on the recipe. You can reuse bottles from old cleaners - just make sure to clean them thoroughly! You can also buy cheap reusable ones from most grocery stores.
Step 2: All Purpose Cleaner
What you'll need:
- a large spray bottle
- 24 oz (3 cups) water
- 1/8 to 1/4 C liquid castile soap
- 2 T white vinegar
- essential oils, like lemon, lavender or tea tree
Fill your spray bottle with 3 cups of water. Add the tablespoons of vinegar and the castile soap. (Make sure you add the soap AFTER the water, or it will get very sudsy and exciting.)
Now you'll add the essential oils. I like adding 10 drops of lemon and 10 of tea tree!
I use this in my kitchen and my bathroom with great success! It's amazing at getting the stove top clean, and I love how clean it gets my counters and tabletops. Also great for cleaning the fridge.
I recently started scaling down the soap and adding more vinegar. I like it a lot. I'm using closer to 1/8 cup of castile soap now. :) The extra vinegar cuts down on soap scum/residue, and using less soap has been just as effective, but with less bubbles to clean up.
Step 3: Ghetto Febreze
This is a very easy Febreze alternative - I've seen a ton of recipes using fabric softener... but those aren't very "green".
What you'll need:
- a small spray bottle
- 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol or vodka
- essential oil
- 1 cup water
Fill the spray bottle with 1 cup water and 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol or vodka.
You'll now add the essential oils - I typically start with 30 drops and then work my way up. You can also mix oils to create custom scents. I also like using The Body Shop home fragrance oils in this mix and I've had no problems with them.
Note that you will be able to smell the alcohol, but only for a minute or so... after that things will just smell lovely. Rubbing alcohol has a stronger smell than vodka! :)
I use this on my couch, bed, curtains, dog bed, towels, etc. and the smell lingers for quite a while - for example, I sprayed my couch while cleaning yesterday and it still smells nice.
Step 4: Gel Air Freshener
Very simple to make and very, very cheap! Perfect for bathrooms or closets. Will last around a month.
The instructions for this will depend on the type of gelatin or pectin you use.
What you'll need:
- plain, unflavored gelatin or pectin
- water for preparing gelatin
- food coloring (optional, just for added flair)
- essential oils
- small glass jars or bowls (I filled three with 2 cups of finished gelatin)
- 1 tablespoon salt (prevents mold)
To make this, place 1-2 drops of food coloring in each of your glass jars or bowls, and then prepare the gelatin according to the package directions, adding the salt during boiling. Once the gelatin has dissolved in the water and it's ready to set, add 20-30 drops of essential oil and mix. Then pour into your individual containers and mix with the food coloring.
Check the strength of the smell at this time and add more oil if necessary.
This will firm up at room temperature, but if you want it to set quicker you can place it in the fridge.
I've got two of these in my closet right now, as well as one in the bathroom.
You can cover these with thin cloth or perforated paper if you like, but I keep mine up high enough that anything that sticks to the surface is out of sight. :)
Step 5: Window and Gloss Surface Cleaner
This one is easy, though a little smelly - but don't worry, the smell goes away pretty quickly and you'll have nice clean windows!
What you'll need:
- small spray bottle
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup vinegar
- squirt of castile soap (this is optional, but helps reduce streaks)
Pour the water and vinegar in the bottle, and add a tiny squirt of the castile soap. Shake it up and you're ready to clean!
Many people recommend using newspaper to clean your windows, but as I don't get it delivered, I use flour sack towels or old cut up tshirts. This solution takes a little longer to dry than your typical glass cleaner, but don't worry! It'll look very nice when totally dry.
You can also use this solution to clean appliances and countertops. :)
Step 6: Drain Cleaner
This is very simple - just baking soda and white vinegar. You can also use lemon juice if you have that on hand! This works best on drains that are running very slow, but not those with standing water. If your problem is soap scum or other build up, this will break it up and get things moving again. It also works as a good deodorizer for kitchen drains.
Shake a bit of baking soda over the drain - I'd say a 1/4 of a cup or so. Push it into and around the drain, and then pour a bit of vinegar over it until you get a good bit of bubbling and the vinegar begins to pool in the sink.
Let this drain and set for 15-20 minutes and then flush with hot water.
And as a bonus, you can also clean your sink with the little bit of mixture that'll be left at the top of the drain. :D
Step 7: Extra Cleaning for Pots and Pans
If you've burned food to a pan, or if you've made yourself a nice hardened, stuck-on food mess along with your dinner, there's an easy way to get it out. :)
Add about 1/4 cup baking soda to a couple of cups of water in your pan and bring to a boil on the stove for 5-10 minutes. While this is going, it helps to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.
After you take it off the heat, give it a good scrub. You should have a nice clean pan! If not, rinse and repeat with a little more baking soda. This will also help remove stains for things like tomato sauces.
Step 8: Additional Green Cleaning Tips
Try to use cloth towels for nearly everything. If you can't afford towels, a good way to save money is to cut up old tshirts into rags. My mother and grandmother did this when I was growing up, and I think it's such a good idea! Just clean with them, rinse in hot water, and hang to dry. I tend to hang mine on the sides of my recycling bin.
Once you've used them a few times (or for a really gross mess) they're easily thrown in the washer. :)
Also, here are some other uses for the ingredients used to make the cleaners in this instructable:
- use water and baking soda to make a paste to clean especially nasty messes - a greasy stove top, a spill in the oven, your toilet bowl.
- vinegar and baking soda can be left overnight in the toilet bowl and then scrubbed in the morning - gets rid of stains and odors.
- baking soda sprinkled in littler boxes and mixed in helps control all those urine odors... I've been doing this for years with both plant based and clay litter.
- straight vinegar is awesome at getting rid of hard water stains in showers... simply put it in a spray bottle, spray down the walls and let them soak for a few minutes, and then grab a brush and get scrubbing! I cleaned my mom's shower this way - it was all orange streaks before and the normal cream color after! It takes a little elbow grease, but it so worth it to avoid something like CLR.
- you can use castile soap as a cheap but effective hand wash - just fill an old soap dispenser with half water and half soap. It might not suds up as much, but rest assured - it's still doing the job.
Anyone else have great homemade cleaning products? Tell us about them in the comments! :D
First Prize in the
Spring Cleaning Contest
