Cleaning solutions have become very different from what they used to be. There used to be one type of soap. If you were lucky (or rich) you didn’t have to make it yourself. And it was used to clean floors, clothes, people and just about everything else. Folks handed down recipes for how to clean things to their children and those recipes were worth more than gold.
Now, when I visit a grocery store, the products for cleaning our home and our clothing fill two aisles. There are products to help you clean everything from clothing to windows to furniture to dishes to bathroom fixture. Products that brighten, remove static cling, stains or just boost the cleaning power of yet another cleaner. Every product claims it will do the cleaning job you expect (usually without any effort from you) in exchange for your hard earned money.
There’s probably nothing wrong with these products — except many of them don’t list what’s in the bottle and if they do I’ll bet you can’t pronounce them. Yet, we use them in our homes where the most important people in the world live. I think that’s a lot of trust to give to companies that may or may not have our best interests at heart. I feel there’s a better, more natural way to clean my home. And at the same time, a way that will cost me less money.
I don’t know about you but I love oranges. I love to cut them into wedges by the bagful and have them ready in the fridge for when I want a snack. I feel like I’m eating a bright beam of sunshine when I munch down on a juicy orange slice.
That means that I usually have orange peels that I used to throw away. Now I take those orange peels and I make Natural Orange Cleaner Concentrate and Orange Extract with them.
If you want, you can remove the pith or the white part of the orange peel before you get started. Since I was making both Orange Cleaner and Orange Extract, I decided to go ahead and remove pith from what I would add to the cleaner. But you really don’t have to do that.
Cut your orange peels into one inch pieces and fill a pint mason jar about half way up. Then all you have to do is fill the jar(s) with distilled white vinegar. Label the jars with the date you made up the solution. You want to let the jars sit for two (2) weeks in the fridge before you start using them.
When it’s time to use the cleaner, drain out the orange peels and throw them away. What’s left is concentrated orange cleaner.
Mix the cleaner: 1 part solutions with 2 parts water.
- Peel from 1 large orange per pint mason jar
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Pint Mason Jar(s)
- Remove pith from orange peel if desired
- Cut orange peels into one (1) inch pieces
- Add peel from 1 orange to a mason jar and fill to about 3/4 of the way with distilled white vinegar
- Label with date and leave in refrigerator for 2 weeks to cure
- After two weeks, strain liquid into storage jar. (I suggest just using a mason jar)
- Throw away the orange peels
- To use cleaner, mix it 1 part Orange Cleaner Concentrate with 2 parts water
- Two week curing time was added to recipe in hours — it didn’t understand “2 weeks”
What should I use this cleaner on?