Sweet, fresh, clean – Homemade orange cleaner

Looks yummy? – Yes, but in this case it isn’t for drinking what brews in this jar. But for cleaning! Inspired by Lina Jachmanns book “Einfach leben. Der Guide für einen minimalistischen Lebensstil” I gave this natural homemade cleaner a try.

For some years now not only our food, but all parts of our household are getting more and more eco-friendly, natural, waste reduced. Already when I got into natural DIY cosmetics, I realized that we actually don’t really need many fancy products and ingredients, that we have a lot of effective ingredients already in our house, mainly in our kitchen cabinet.

The same is true when it comes to cleaning. Indeed, if you have some kind of acid (vinegar, citric acid), baking soda and castile soap (f.ex. Dr. Bronner’s) you have basically all you need.

If you now add to the vinegar the natural fat-dissolving and anti-bacterial power of the essential oils of oranges … voilà: You have your perfect all-purpose cleaner! And you don’t even need to add some artificial “fresh” scent. The smell of oranges comes for free! You just have to wait a few weeks until it’s ready. You could go on holiday in the meantime 😉

Just be careful: Because of the acid, this cleaner shouldn’t be used with natural stone surfaces!

Orange vinegar cleaner

ingredients
5 oranges, 400 ml vinegar essence (organic), 1,2 l water

preparation
You will only need the orange peel for this cleaner. It’s up to you to eat the oranges first or make some fresh squeezed orange juice.

Roughly cut orange peel (discard most of the white parts) and transfer to a big jar. Fill up with vinegar essence and water. [Alternatively you could add simple natural vinegar. This cleaner has a ratio of 1:3 vinegar essence:water. If you want it less concentrated you can go up to 1:5.]

The rest of the work is done quietly: Let it sit for 2-3 weeks. Finally, filter the orange vinegar through a cheese cloth and fill into a spray bottle. That’s it.