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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Homemade All-purpose Cleaner

I have seen a ton of all-purpose DIY sprays all over Pinterest.  I tried a few, but none worked exactly the way I wanted.  We have granite counter tops, and for me, they need to shine if they are clean.  I found some sprays that left the counter top all streaky and wet looking, like your car windshield after a rain.  I found other sprays that left a white film over the counters that made it look like I wiped with a dirty rag.  Finally I got frustrated and decided to just improvise.  Well with a tiny bit of tweaking, voila! I have something that works.  It cleans fantastically and leaves my counter tops all shiny and beautiful.  It even got dried up bbq sauce up like nothing.  AND for me, I *hate* the pure vinegar smell and this one doesn't bother me a bit. So here's what I came up with:

Homemade All-purpose Countertop Spray (works on Granite!) :
3 cups hot water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 tsp liquid castile soap (I used Dr. Bronner's lavender)
10 drops lavender essential oil

Use a cleaned-out spray bottle from a cleaner that you use up, I like the white one because I can write the "recipe" on the bottle. Shake it up, and you're good to go!

This recipe is crazy cheap, here's the break-down:
1 cup of vinegar - I buy 1.32 gallons of vinegar from Costco for ~$3, so this works out to: $0.19
1/4 tsp castile soap - I bought 32oz from Amazon for $16, so this works out to:  $0.021
10 drops lavender oil - bought on Amazon for $9.99, so this works out to: $0.05

Grand Total:  $0.261

Compared to ~$3 for a spray you'd buy at Target, that's a 10 on the cheap scale.  And it's also very green and safe, no chemicals to worry about with your food or the kiddos.

I'm sharing this on frugal days, sustainable ways today!

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Let me know how it works out for you! I've used it on the stainless appliances too and have had great results so far

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