Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Homemade kitchen cleaner

This is a combination of being cheap and also worrying about chemicals. For the kitchen counters, at least. I'm still very pro-chemical when it comes to the bathrooms.

DIYing it
{DIYing it}

I love the Method pink grapefruit cleaner but I got sick of paying for it so I started searching around for a DIY method. There are tons of resources but I wanted to start simple and this post was the most helpful for me.

I picked up a jug of white vinegar at Costco, started saving our citrus peels, and a few weeks later I had three different cleaners. It helps that we're doing this during cocktail season, because we go through citrus much faster. Cleaning up the peels is a little bit of pain, because they need to have all the fruit removed from them. I found lemons to be easy. The grapefruit you can use a small knife to just cut through the pith since it's so thick. The limes suck. Sorry. The peels are so thin that it isn't as easy to get them entirely clean.

I didn't worry about exact measurements, just packed the jars full with peels and herbs and then poured vinegar over them.

I tried lime + thyme, grapefruit + mint and lemon + basil. They're all functional but the lemon + basil is so much better that I may stick with that one from now on. The lemon scent completely overtook the vinegar and it's amazing - not at all that chemical lemon smell that you normally get from a cleaner. The lime is only vaguely citrus-y and the grapefruit is still mostly vinegar scented even after I added a few drops of grapefruit essential oil to the mix. I still use all three because I find the vinegar smell more palatable than the idea of wasting all that peeling effort.

I still have a ton of grapefruit peels waiting in the freezer, so I might try another batch and see if reducing the amount of vinegar and really increasing the amount of peels will help. The lemon was a bit more tightly packed than the grapefruit and I wonder if that may have contributed to its success.

You can get away without purchasing all the stuff on the list if you save your spray bottles. I'd been planning to try this for a while so I had a few empty Method bottles hanging out under the sink. Mine do not have cute labels on the front, but I did scribble on them with a black sharpie so I would know which one is which.

Looking forward to January, when oranges are back in season. I want to test that one out too.

P.S. - I think I promised I'd get an LA guide ready for summer travel MONTHS ago. Sorry. It's finally almost ready and I'll have it up tomorrow. It was a beast of a post and I keep adding to it.

17 comments:

  1. For the bathroom - try cheap vodka. Disinfects and doesn't leave a smell!

    Looking forward to the LA guide. I visited a couple of times when I was younger, but I would love to visit again as an adult.

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    1. I've read that but it totally weirds me out for some reason! Which makes no sense because I use ethanol to clean at work all the time and it's the same thing. But if I went to the trouble of infusing vodka, I would surely drink it. : )

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  2. interesting, i never thought to try adding citrus or herbs. i guess because i don't mind the vinegar smell that much. i usually do vinegar + water + few drops of peppermint essential oil, which is supposed to have antibacterial properties and also makes it smell more minty than vinegary.

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    1. I think the vinegar alone isn't that bad, but it's so nice with the citrus and we have the peels anyways! I haven't tried vinegar with peppermint. The essential oil is probably different from the extract, right?

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  3. Nice Rachel, I am looking forward to the guide you are going to put up, perfect timing as my family is coming in on Friday and I was trying to think where to go to dinner on couple of the nights :) I just got back from Mykonos, Greece for business and I HAD to get those Grecian sandals you mentioned last year! There's a picture on my blog if you want to check it out :) xoxo

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    1. Oh, good! I was afraid I'd put it off too long and missed everyone's vacations. I just didn't expect it to take so long to put together (adding the links takes forever!).

      Lucky you being in Greece! So glad you got the sandals.

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  4. Just don't start making your own shampoo, ok???

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    1. Yeah, never going to happen. I'm pretty sure the entire bathroom is going to remain a no DIY zone.

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    2. that's been the dealbreaker for us as well. we only recently graduated to a non-vinyl shower curtain, even, and that's just embarrassing. i am sorry, earth.

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  5. i always want to make my own cleaner, but I absolutely cannot stand the smell of vinegar. And 99% of homemade recipes call for it as an ingredient. Ended up mopping the floors with hot water & lemon one time - didn't really do much. Oh well! Guess I just have to fork over the $$ for the method.

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  6. Perfect!!! Excited for the guide! It couldnt have come at a better time. Visiting LA in September for the first time, from Australia and guessing (hoping) the guide will still be relevant then. :)

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  7. Ha! I adore kitchen cleaners by Method and Mrs. Meyer, but I dislike their prices. I know-you get what you pay for. But, still...! I have been searching for cheaper alternatives, and then I saw this post. Perfect! Thanks so much! I am going to give it a try!

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  8. I live in Ventura, and our water is impossibly hard, so I've been cleaning with vinegar for years. Thanks for this info on de-vinegarizing the smell since I nearly faint when I clean the shower doors.

    On a randomly related note, if you like spicy stuff, it's fun to make hot pepper infused vinegar (for ingesting) too. Had some at a restaurant, and it was delic!

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  9. we are exactly the same! i'm not as fancy as i just use vinegar and water, but i stay pro chemical in the bathroom. i mean, you are technically dumping toxic waste in there, ya know?

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  10. Look at you, going fancy with herbs in there. Haha! Anyway, I'm with you on still using chemical cleaners even though I'm a huge fan of DIY myself. While the DIY stuff works, I do find that some of them require more elbow grease to get the job done and I just don't have the energy for it at times.

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  12. I like the idea of adding herbs to the citrus peel-vinegar cleaner! I've only tried adding essential oils to my cleaning solutions. Thanks for the hint.

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