5 Favourite Natural Homemade Cleaning Recipes You Need - (2024)

Making your own Natural Homemade Cleaning Recipes is a great way to start reducing plastic waste in your home. I’m not a zealous environmentalist but I do like to do my bit for the Planet where I can as I believe every little help. It may be reducing the amount of single use plastic, recycling as much as possible, aiming for zero waste or using homemade cleaning products.

The goal should be zero waste and reducing the amount of rubbish that we send to the dump so my new mantra is:

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot.

When I was little I spent a lot of time with my Nan and I always remember her using things like vinegar and scrunched up newspaper to clean the windows and bicarbonate of soda and lemon juice to clean things.

I do still use some shop bought cleaning products, but I do try to buy environmentally friendly ones where possible. However, I also still use a lot of the things my Nan used as they actually work really well; and quite often better than the shop bought equivalents.

Here’s my top 5 favourites ingredients:

1. Bicarbonate of Soda (bicarb) – this has so many uses and is made from a naturally mined mineral trona, which apparently there is plenty of.

2. White Vinegar – this is basically an alcoholic liquid that has been allowed to sour, it’s bee around for a long time. Apparently around 5000 BC the Babylonians were using the fruit of the date palm to make wine and vinegar to be used as food and a preservative or pickling agent. For cleaning purposes, I would use Distilled White Vinegar. Remember – never use vinegar based cleaners on granite, marble, stone or ceramic surface.

3. Lemons – obviously a fruit they are high in citric acid. Lemon juice is one of the best natural cleaners due to its low pH and antibacterial properties. Lemons also smell great and aren’t likely to cause damage anything.

4. Castile Soap – named after the olive oil-based soaps originating in Castile, Spain. Castile soap can be either liquid or solid bar form, but it is made only from vegetable oils such as coconut, olive, and hemp oils and never from animal fats. Don’t mix Castile Soap and Vinegar as they cancel each other out and won’t work.

5. Essential Oils (or fresh woody herbs) – naturally occurring plant compounds that are useful for adding a lovely scent to your homemade products and are also antibacterial, just be careful not to use them neat. My favourites are lemon, tea tree, rosemary and lavender.

You can find the perfect Natural Homemade Cleaning Starter Kit in my shop, it has everything you need to start making your own Natural Homemade Cleaning Recipes.

You can virtually use this cleaner to tackle anything from kitchen surfaces to baths and sinks.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Spray Bottle
• White Vinegar
• Water
• Essential Oils optional

HOW TO:

• Combine 1 part white vinegar with 1 part water in a spray bottle.
• You can add a few drops of essential oil or you could use citrus infused vinegar (see my Blog for instructions)

Remember – Never use vinegar based cleaners on marble, stone, ceramic or granite surfaces

This all purpose cleaner is great at tackling the greasy areas especially in the kitchen and is safe to use on granite, marble, stone or ceramic surfaces.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Glass spray bottle
• ½ Tbsp washing soda
• 1 Tbsp castile soap
• 2 cups of hot water
• 20 drops of essential oils, lemon or tea tree are my favourites (don’t use citrus oils if you want to use it on granite, marble, stone or ceramic surfaces)

HOW TO:

• Add washing soda, castile soap and two cups of hot water into the bottle, and shake well.
• After mixing, remove the top and add the essential oils to the bottle. Replace the top and shake lightly again.

This is safe for granite, marble ,stone and ceramic worktops as long as you don’t use citrus based essential oils in the recipe, lavender, tea tree and rosemary are fine

Perfect for cleaning the bath to get rid of soap scum or tackling the kitchen hob.

YOU’LL NEED:

• 50g Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1 Tbsp Castile Soap
• Warm water

HOW TO:

• Combine everything together to make a soft but not too runny paste.
• Use with a non abrasive unsponge to clean bathroom or kitchen surfaces.
• Rinse with warm water

These are great to keep on the side in the kitchen ready for when you need to wipe down the worktops

YOU’LL NEED:

• 1 cup distilled or boiled water
• ¼ cup vinegar
• 12 drops tea tree oil
• 12 drops lemon essential oil
• Jar with lid
• 15 – 20 cloth squares

HOW TO:

• Put the cloths into the jar. Mix the water, vinegar, and essential oils.
• Pour the mixture over the cloths in the jar. They will soak up the liquid and be ready use.
• Wash after use & make a new batch

Remember not to use vinegar based cleaners on granite, marble, stone or ceramic surfaces and use within a week.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Empty bottle
• ¼ cup grated castile soap bar
• 1 Tbsp washing soda
• ¼ cup liquid castile soap
• 1 ¼ cups hot water
• 20 drops of essential oils, lavender and tea tree work well

HOW TO:

• Dissolve the grated castile soap in the hot water
• Pour in the liquid castile soap and mix thoroughly
• Add the washing soda to the mixture and stir well
• Add the essential oils, if using, when the liquid has cooled
• Pour into your empty bottle ready to use

The washing soda thickens the mixture so you may need to add a bit more to achieve the consistency you want. If it gets too thick just add some more warm water. Washing Soda can sometimes irritate the skin so you may want to wear gloves for washing up, it’s not harmful but highly alkaline.

Happy cleaning but remember to keep all your cleaning products out of the reach of children, even the lovely natural ones.

I hope you find some of these recipes useful and I’m sure there are lots more ways that we can use Natural Cleaning products around the home. I have some more tips in myNatural Cleaning Tips and TricksBlog.

And, just remember you may need to tweak the recipes a little bit depending on how soft or hard your water is and always test on a small area first.

Please share you favourite recipes I’m always keen to try out new ones.