Homemade All-Purpose Cleaning Spray with Essential Oils

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Learn how to make an all-purpose cleaning spray with essential oils. This recipe uses simple ingredients, and will save you money, while helping you reduce your family’s toxin load. Download your free essential oil cleaning recipes ebook!

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through one of these links, I make a small amount of commission at no extra cost to you. See full disclosure here.

Why Make Your Own Cleaning Spray?

I used to be one of those people who had an entire cupboard full of toxic household cleaners.

Not only did I feel that chemical cleaners were necessary in order for my home to feel truly ‘clean’, but I also believed that I needed a different cleaner for each and every job.

As I began to explore the world of DIY cleaners, I realized 2 things:

1. Of COURSE marketers want us to think we need a different cleaning product for every surface of our home (spoiler alert: we don’t), and
   
2. Safe, natural, homemade cleaning products do JUST as good of a job, if not better, than commercial cleaning products.

What I figured out, was that using those commercial cleaners from the grocery store, just basically coats your home in harmful chemicals. It’s not actually cleaning anything.

Artificial fragrances are very harmful to your health, and are the first thing I recommend eliminating from your home.

Even the American Lung Association advises against using harmful chemicals to clean your home.

When you make homemade cleaners using simple, natural ingredients, like vinegar, water, baking soda, and essential oils – not only will your body thank you, but you will suddenly realize what clean truly smells like. It doesn’t smell like poison… it smells like… well, nothing.

Once the vinegar scent dissipates (which it does fairly quickly), there should be no smell (other than the faint, lingering smell of essential oils!).

When you wipe your hand across your counter, or walk across your floor with your bare feet – there will be no residue. It will just feel… clean. 

You might be happy to know you absolutely do not need to use harsh chemicals to clean your home. In fact, the opposite is true. For your home to truly be clean, you want to use natural cleaning products.

Swap Out One Thing at a Time

When I first started swapping out my cleaning products, I literally started with one thing at a time. And of course, realized that many of my grocery store cleaners simply did not need an alternative – because this one homemade, all purpose cleaning spray would take care of most of those jobs.

The secret to preventing overwhelm when moving toward a non-toxic home, is to simply do one thing at a time. And a basic, all-purpose cleaning spray is the perfect place to start.

Ways to Use Homemade All-Purpose Cleaning Spray

This homemade, all-purpose cleaning spray with essential oils can be used on most hard surfaces, such as:

• Glass surfaces, such as mirrors, windows & doors
• Countertops
• Stove top
• Sinks
• Floors
• Light switches
• Kitchen sink

Now, be honest – do you use a different cleaner for every one of the above?

As a Simple Living enthusiast, not only do I try to live a natural & toxin-free life, but I also strive to minimize my possessions. That usually translates to every item in my home needing to serve more than one purpose. This homemade, all-natural cleaning spray fits the bill!

If you’re brand new to making DIY cleaning products, you’ll love this easy recipe. It’s a simple way to begin incorporating natural products into your home.

Join My Toxin-Free Home Facebook Group!

Let’s ditch those toxins once and for all! Learn how to DIY your own simple, homemade products and slowly start swapping out toxic items for safe, healthy alternatives.

Plus get my free guide: 7 Easy Swaps for a Toxin-Free Home!

How to Make Essential Oil Cleaning Spray

This simple, all-purpose cleaning spray with essential oils uses just 3 ingredients.

Supplies

Spray bottle (I like glass, as we try to minimize our plastic use. Plus, glass is not reactive with essential oils. However, these high-quality, professional plastic spray bottles work well if you need something lightweight and less breakable – you also won’t need to re-fill it as often).

Funnel – this is not mandatory, but will make all your DIY jobs so much easier. We use ours daily. You’ll want to make sure the bottom of the funnel is small enough to fit into the top of your bottles.

(I found my funnel at a thrift store – you can DIY without breaking the bank or the planet – try to find things 2nd hand whenever possible).

Ingredients

• Water
• White vinegar (I like to get it in a big jug so it lasts a long time – we use vinegar for multiple things!)
• Essential Oils

Optional: Add a couple drops of natural dish soap or Castile soap for an extra boost of cleaning power. Not too much though, as it will leave streaks on your glass.

Benefits of Essential Oils for Cleaning

The beauty of using essential oils for cleaning is that, not only are they a wonderful, non-toxic way to clean your home, but you also get to experience the aromatic benefits of using essential oils!

Different essential oils have different properties. You can select which essential oils you use based on not only their cleaning power, but also on its effect on your physical and emotional health.

Some oils are refreshing & mood uplifting, others are soothing and calming, and some even support your immune system.

I love that I get to experience aromatherapy while cleaning my home.

Best Essential Oils for Cleaning

Most essential oils have antibacterial properties, so you can use anything you like! Whatever you like the smell of will probably be great in your natural cleaners. The best essential oils for cleaning are citrus oils, as they have natural cleansing properties.

Here are some of my favorite essential oils for cleaning:

Lemon Oil – great for removing sticky residues, removing toxins, and cleansing surfaces

Peppermint Oil – invigorating, helps with energy & focus

Eucalyptus Oil – disinfectant, congestion, cough

Spearmint Oil – antiseptic, respiratory support

Wild Orange Oil – cleansing & detoxing, mood uplifting

Lemongrass Oil – encourages letting go (helpful for decluttering), antimicrobial

Tea Tree Oil – natural disinfectant with antimicrobial properties

Lavender Oil – has soothing + healing properties

Essential oil blends are combinations of single essential oils, usually intended for a specific purpose.

Here are some of my favorite essential oil blends for cleaning:

Citrus Bliss – My current favorite. It smells like Creamsicles. This Invigorating Blend of Wild Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit, Bergamot, Red Mandarin, Green Mandarin, Lime, with a touches of Litsea, Tonka Bean, and Vanilla Absolute is joy in a bottle. Citrus Bliss, rich in limonene, has potent cleaning properties and makes a powerful surface cleaner.

OnGuard – A blend of Wild Orange Peel, Clove Bud, Cinnamon Leaf, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Leaf, and Rosemary Leaf/Flower essential oils. Anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, perfect for cleaning surfaces, and the air when diffused.

Abode – contains powerful, surface-cleaning essential oils such as Lime, Litsea, Cassia, Lemon Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Arborvitae, Kochii Eucalyptus, Cilantro, Lavandin, and Lemon Myrtle essential oils. Selected for their powerful cleansing constituents and magnified when combined.

Purify – Purify is a combination of essential oils that purify and eradicate odors in a natural, safe way. It contains Lemon Peel, Siberian Fir Needle, Citronella Grass, Lime Peel, Tea Tree Leaf, Cilantro Herb essential oils. This uplifting blend combines citrus and pine essential oils that leave an airy, fresh scent on surfaces and in the air. Purify neutralizes unpleasant odors.

You’ll want to make sure you’re using high-quality essential oils if you truly want your cleaner to be non-toxic.

Most essential oils on the market are synthetic (in spite of what the label might say) – so do your due diligence and research high quality brands. Like with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

The brand I use and recommend is dōTERRA. If you plan to start making more of your own products, the smartest way to purchase oils is with a starter kit – that way you’ll have everything you need, to start replacing many of the products you’re purchasing at the store, with safe, natural alternatives. (and save money, too!).

Directions for Essential Oil Cleaning Spray

1. Using the funnel, drop 10-20 drops of essential oil into the bottom of the bottle. (Get creative here – play around with your favourite oils and mix them up and see what you like! Making your own cleaners also doubles as aromatherapy – look at the health and emotional benefits of the oils you choose to use). For mine I used 20 drops of lemon oil.
2. Now fill up the bottle 1/4-1/2 way with vinegar
3. Take it to the tap, and fill it up the rest of the way with water.
4. Put the sprayer on, and give the bottle a good shake to mix all the ingredients together.
5. Using a cotton rag (I like to repurpose old towels into cleaning rags – and of course cotton is best, as it’s a natural fibre and won’t shed micro plastics into your home and down your washing machine drain), spray and wipe your surfaces! Enjoy the refreshing smell of actual clean, vs. the industrial smell of toxins.

If you’re ready to begin replacing some other products in your home using simple recipes like these, I’d recommend either the Healthy Start kit, or the Healthy Home Kit. You can see all of the starter kits here.

Want more cleaning recipes? You can find all my DIY cleaning recipes in this post.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe for homemade, all-purpose cleaning spray. If you’ve never made anything like this before, did this make it seem more do-able?

Do you want to get started with using essential oils?

Visit my Getting Started with Essential Oils guide!

Printable Essential Oil Cleaning Spray Recipe Card

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