How To Make Easy Citrus All Purpose Cleaner: Quick, Cheap, and Sustainable Recipe
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One of the best aspects to becoming more environmentally friendly and sustainable is that it can often be cheaper than you realize. Store bought all purpose cleaners tend to be relatively expensive and are filled with toxic chemicals and ingredients.
To ensure you are using toxin free cleaning products in your home, while saving money, and doing so in a sustainable way is easy with our citrus all purpose cleaner recipe.
Below I will outline a step by step guide on how to make the easy citrus all purpose cleaner, with photos. Feel free to jump to the recipe card at the end of the post.
Easy Citrus All Purpose Cleaner Recipe Step by Step Guide
1.Gather your citrus, cutting board, knife, distilled white vinegar, and a towel in case of any spills. I tend to make this recipe when I am meal prepping and know I will have citrus peels at the end of the day.
2. Cut up your citrus. Today I am chopping up grapefruit to add to a salad. I have made this recipe with orange and lemon peels before as well.
3. Remove the fruit from the peels and set aside.
4. Take a clean glass jar, I am using an old pasta sauce jar that I had lying around the house, and fill with your excess peels. I always keep glass jars from peanut butter, pasta sauces, pickles, etc. These jars can be washed clean and their wrappers tend to peel off easily under hot soapy water.
5. Once you have filled your jar full of citrus peels (you can fill your jar with just one type or mix all sorts of different citrus peels together: grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime,...) push them as far down in the jar as they will go.
6. Pour distilled white vinegar into the glass jar. Add enough to cover all of the citrus peels in your jar.
7. Make sure you tightly screw the lid on to reduce any chance of spilling.
8. Place your jar in a cool place, I tend to put mine under the sink or on the countertop away from the window.
9. After three days or so check to make sure all peels are still submerged under vinegar, if not top off the vinegar.
10. In 2-3 weeks open the jar. The longer the peels stay in the jar the more likely the color and smell will transfer. Using sooner isn’t bad, it will simply have a stronger vinegar smell.
11. Once your peels are ready to be removed, gather an empty and clean spray bottle, a funnel, strainer, and large bowl.
12. Place the large bowl in your sink. Then put the strainer over the top of the bowl.
13. Open your citrus peel jar and pour into the strainer. The strainer will catch the citrus peels, while the cleaning liquid will pour into the bowl.
14. Remove the strainer and empty your citrus peels into your compost or however you usually dispose of citrus peels.
15. Take your spray bottle and unscrew the cap. Place the funnel in the spray bottle.
16. Over the sink pour the liquid from the large bowl into the funnel. You should now have a full spray bottle that is ready for cleaning.
I love this all purpose cleaner because it is a simple recipe and quick to make. It repurposes citrus peels before they wind up in the compost and it’s WAY cheaper than buying toxic cleaners that usually run over $10 a bottle.
How to Use Your Cleaner
Because this is a multi-purpose cleaner, it can have many uses. For example, after dinner I like to wipe down the countertops with this all purpose cleaner. I use it to clean off my stove top, wipe down bathroom sinks and have even used it to spray down our shower.
Simply take a clean cloth, cleaning rag, or paper towel and either spray your cleaner onto the surface you’re about to clean or onto the cloth/towel. Then wipe down the surface.
As you use different citrus peels you will notice that the color of your cleaner will slightly change. This coloring shouldn’t stain hard surfaces, however I wouldn’t recommend leaving the cleaner on surfaces for very long before wiping down.
I have never tried this cleaner on fabrics, leather, or porous surfaces. Be careful if you choose to do so as the cleaner may stain.
White Spots Grew On My Citrus Peels While Making This Cleaner - Help!
I have made this cleaner multiple times and with mixed results. The first time I made the cleaner everything went beyond smoothly. However, the next few times I made it, my citrus peels grew little white dots on them, reminiscent of mold. I was so confused and frustrated. As you can see in the photos that I used in the step by step guide I used grapefruit peels to start, but if you look closely you will notice part way through they switch to orange peels.
The reason is when I made this cleaner with the grapefruit peels they grew the little white dots on them, as you can see below.
After a few more cleaner making attempts I believe I have figured out how to avoid this.
Make sure to keep your citrus peels completely submerged in vinegar for the whole process
The thicker your peels, such as the grapefruit peels, the more likely they will absorb more vinegar, meaning you may need to top off your vinegar multiple times before the 2-3 weeks is up
Keep your cleaning mixture out of sunlight while it is going through this whole process
By doing so I have managed to keep the white dots from forming on my citrus peels. I am pretty sure these dots are mold, so I do not recommend using any of the cleaner that you were making from a batch that grew the white dots. Instead start from scratch making sure to follow the three steps above.
