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Natural Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

October 7, 2010 By 28 Comments

Larg9 30 2007lavender Natural Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

After I realized all the chemicals in household cleaning products and that I could make healthier ones at home, I started making my own. One of the hardest ones to create was an all-purpose cleaner, but I finally found one that works well (and my kids have tested it hard!)

In a spray bottle mix:

  • 1 tsp borax
  • 1/2 tsp washing soda
  • 1 tsp liquid castille soap
  • essential oils as preferred- I use 4 drops lemon, 4 drops lavender and 10 drops orange

Add 2 cups of warm water. Distilled is best, but any water that has been boiled will work. Cover bottle and shake well. Use as needed. I use as bathroom cleaner, floor pre-treater, kitchen cleaner and on toys to disinfect.

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About Wellness Mama

Wellness Mama is a full-time housewife with a background in nutrition, journalism and communications. Her passion is helping others achieve optimal health through a “Wellness Lifestyle.” She has helped hundreds of clients lose weight, increase athletic performance, improve fertility, and overcome numerous health problems and diseases. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & Pinterest.

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  • Anonymous

    I love this stuff! It works just as well as the store bought stuff at a fraction of the cost!

  • Tar Gzip

    Does this work with semi-hard water? (I mean, I hope it does not leave a deposit… and I hope I used the right word, as English is not my first language :) )

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    It does, I’ve used it when we lived in places with hard water and it
    worked just fine.

  • Brittenemily

    what is “washing soda?”

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    It is sodium carbonate and you can find it in most laundry aisles in
    grocery stores. Arm and Hammer makes the most popular one and it is
    just called “washing soda”

  • Lois

    Hi, is Vitamin E a safe oil to use in homemade cosmetics? It uses wheat germ I believe…

  • Lois

    Hi, is Vitamin E a safe oil to use in homemade cosmetics? It uses wheat germ I believe…

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    Unless you are officially a celiac, you shouldn’t have any trouble
    with it, especially just topically.

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    Unless you are officially a celiac, you shouldn’t have any trouble
    with it, especially just topically.

  • SilentMachinery

    Hi! Wonderful blog with great tips.

    One thing I worry about is the disinfectant capacity of this mixture. Is this really effective in killing germs in kitchen/bathroom areas? Thanks!

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    The essential oils are effective in killing germs, though you could always up the amount if you were especially worried about the germs. In my own opinion, we focus to much on killing germs rather than just having a strong immune system to be able to resist them. At least for kids, it seems that a lot of the recent research is showing that exposure to some germs can actually help prevent allergies and such.

  • http://whatissharondoingnow.wordpress.com/ Sharon

    Made this today (after months of thinking about it) and so far very pleased.  Thank you Wellness Mama

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    You are welcome :-)

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  • Amanda

    Is there a reason your recipe does not use white vinegar? I noticed that most other recipe’s call for it. I still have not made my own cleaner and am looking for input from several sources before I do.  Thanks! Amanda

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    I’ve found it isn’t needed in this one, and while it does clean very well, I’m not a huge fan of the house smelling like pickles all day :-)

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  • Anitra Sweet

    I have heard recently about how borax isn’t good to use. Is this true? I love this all purpose cleaner but wanted to ask you. I will try to find the article someone sent me.

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    A lof of the research on this looks at boric acix and in a different concentration than what is used in borax. Borax is sodium tetraborate, which is a different chemical structure. In general, i don’t use borax on areas where food will be directly prepared and consider it safe everywhere else…

  • Holly Dispain

    Doesn’t vinegar natural antibacterial properties? Can you use delisted vinegar as a cleaning agent?

  • http://www.facebook.com/michelle.albanese2 Michelle Albanese

    I take my lemon peels and soak them in vinegar for a few weeks and use this liquid to clean with. It really extracts the oils from the lemon peels. You can also use orange and grapefruit peels. I also add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to disinfect. 

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    You can and it works great. I’ve just gotten out of the habit since we have granite countertops and you aren’t supposed to use vinegar on them. A 50/50 vinegar and water mix will clean most hard surfaces though.

  • http://wellnessmama.com Wellness Mama

    I’ve actually got some of this on my counter right now too :-)

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