Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner (Citrus or Pine)

This is my favorite homemade all-purpose cleaner, and by all-purpose, I mean all-purpose. You can use this on your countertops, sinks, windows, wood floors, vinyl floors, mirrors, pretty much anywhere in the house.

Homemade natural vinegar cleaner recipes, especially easy homemade DIY ones, are my favorite. Who doesn’t want a cleaner that can be made from items you eat, can grow on your own land, and that actually works? Your hand better be raised high, my friend.

Is there anything cooler than using what you’d normally throw out to create something you’d normally be buying in the store? On my homesteading list that’s pretty awesome.

Homemade options are truly my favorite. They help me save money and live frugally as a homesteader.

Check out these homemade cleaners for every room in the house, these four ways to clean with vinegar, my one-ingredient oven cleaner hack, or these five other homemade cleaning recipes.

Why You’ll Love This Homemade Cleaner

• Safe – After having chemical burns on my skin as a teenager using store-bought cleaners, it’s super important to me to only use natural cleaners in my home. I don’t want my kids or myself exposed to any more chemicals than necessary. I mean, have you read the warnings on those bottles? Yikes.
• Natural – I want a clean home, but I want to use natural ingredients when possible. Enter this natural vinegar cleaner that leaves our homes sparkling clean, without the chemicals or the fumes that you and your family will breathe in with other cleaners.
• Effective – You may be wondering, as I was if vinegar really is the cleaning powerhouse some people talk it up to be. I mean, don’t we need to sanitize our surfaces with bleach for them to be truly clean? Not according to this study on the effectiveness of acetic acid!
• Scent – With two variations (and countless other options if you opt for essential oils) you can enjoy a nice pine scent or a citrus scent! Let’s be honest, no one wants their home to smell like a pickle, and I’m happy to report that I’ve been using this homemade cleaner for over a decade now and will never go back (and no, my house does not smell like vinegar!).
• Grease Fighter – With the added benefit of either the citrus or pine oils, this homemade all-purpose cleaner cuts through grease and works incredibly well.
• Less Waste – By using a reusable glass spray bottle and either the peels of citrus or pine/fir needles from the yard, you’re drastically reducing the amount of one-time plastic use bottles you’d have to purchase from the store for how many bottles of cleaner this homemade all-purpose cleaner concentrate gives you.

Made From Scratch Life

This recipe is featured in my book, The Made-From-Scratch Life. If you’re concerned about where your food comes from, the rising costs of feeding your family, or what’s in the cleaning products you use every day, this book is for you.

The Made-From-Scratch Life includes helpful charts, checklists, recipes, and strategies to help you incorporate time-tested homesteading practices into your everyday life.

How to Make Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Supplies Needed

• Mason Jar & Lid – Initially, you only need a Mason jar with a two-piece canning lid (you want to make sure you have a good seal because you’ll be shaking the jar occasionally). Then, you’ll want another Mason jar to store the finished vinegar concentrate. This recipe makes about 3 cups of vinegar, and you’ll only use a small portion of that at a time.
• 16 oz. Glass Spray Bottle – I love these reusable glass spray bottles. They’re just the right size and come in a three pack, so you can tuck this cleaner all over your house. One for the bathroom, one for the kitchen and one for a whole-house cleaner (which I store in the laundry room)! Plastic can break down over time, and I, for one, don’t want its chemicals leaching into the natural cleaner I made to spray down our home and countertops with. (Source)
• Fine Mesh Strainer – You’ll want to strain out the citrus peels or pine needles, so having a mesh strainer is a big help.
• Large Bowl – When straining the vinegar concentrate, I find using a large measuring bowl with a pour spout makes transferring the finished vinegar to a jar much easier.

Ingredients Needed

The recipe in this post demonstrates the pine-scented all-purpose cleaner. If you want to make a citrus version, just use citrus peels anywhere that pine or fir needles are mentioned.

• Citrus Version – If you’d like a citrusy-scented all-purpose cleaner, then fill a quart-sized Mason jar with citrus peels. Lemon, orange and lime all work great. You could even opt for grapefruit, if you enjoy that scent. Try one, or a combination of them all!
• Pine Version – If you’d like a pine-scented all-purpose cleaner (think PineSol, without the chemicals), then fill a quart-sized Mason jar with fir or pine needles.
• Vinegar – You can use white distilled or apple cider vinegar in this homemade cleaner. I buy my white vinegar from Azure Standard, which is non-GMO and has an 11% acidity (use coupon code “Melissa15” for 15% off your first order of $100 or more – new Azure Standard customers only). I then dilute it to 5% to stretch it even further. If you want a completely homemade version, check out my tutorial on how to make homemade raw apple cider vinegar. Pro Tip: Using apple cider vinegar that has the mother can sometimes clog spray bottles! This is another reason I stick with the white vinegar. Check out these 39 ways to use apple cider vinegar in your home!

Step-By-Step Directions

1. Gather your ingredients. Whether you’re using citrus peels or pine needles, you’ll want to really pack the jar with the peels/needles. Packing them in also helps release some of the natural oils, which will help the vinegar to pull out all those properties.
2. Add vinegar to completely cover the citrus peels or pine needles.
3. Slap a lid on that bad boy and put it in a dark, cool cupboard. If you remember to shake it every few days, that’s great, but if you forget, no big deal.
4. Let it sit so the essential oils can infuse the vinegar for 2-3 weeks (minimum), 4-6 weeks (ideal) and up to 6 months (if you forget about it like me!). As I said, you can strain it in as little as 2 weeks, but I once left a jar of citrus vinegar in the back of the pantry by accident and discovered it 6 months later; it was the best batch I ever had. You literally couldn’t smell any of the vinegar; just the luscious citrus scent remained.
5. Strain your vinegar out into a clean Mason jar. This is now your citrus or pine vinegar concentrate.
6. Dilute your vinegar concentrate with water (distilled water works best and will have the longest shelf life). For my homemade cleaning spray I like to dilute with a 4:1 water to vinegar ratio. I use a 16 oz. glass spray bottle, so I add 3.2 ounces of vinegar to 12.8 ounces of water. If you want a stronger cleaning solution, you can use a 3:1, 2:1 or even 1:1 ratio of water to vinegar. Just do a test section on whatever surface you’re cleaning to make sure it’s not too harsh.

Plastic can break down over time, and I, for one, don’t want its chemicals leaching into the natural cleaner I made to spray down our home and countertops with. (Source)

Fill up your glass spray bottle with our Natural Vinegar Cleaner Recipe above and never purchase cleaner from the store again!

Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a star⭐rating and your comments📝in the recipe card below! Then, snap a photo of your cleaner and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see!

Quick All-Purpose Cleaner Recipe

For an instant DIY all-purpose cleaner, you can skip the step of steeping citrus peels or pine needles in vinegar and opt for adding your favorite essential oils instead. There will still be no harsh chemicals and it will clean and disinfect like a dream!

Though this isn’t my favorite option because it will cost more and isn’t as sustainable of an option as using peels from fruit or needles from the trees, it is great to have an immediate solution if you used up the last of your vinegar concentrate and forgot to start a new batch!

1. Simply add 4:1 parts water to vinegar (5%) to a glass spray bottle and add 10-20 drops of essential oil (tea tree, lemon, orange, lavender, etc.). 
2. Shake well before each use to make sure essential oils are well distributed as they’ll float to the surface. 

More Posts You May Enjoy

• 17 Spring Common Household Cleaning Hacks with Homemade Cleaners (For every room in the house!)
• How to Declutter Your Home & Keep It That Way
• 4 Ways to Clean with Vinegar
• How to Wash a Cast Iron Skillet to Maintain Seasoning
• 1 Ingredient 5 Minute Natural Oven Cleaner
• 5 Homemade Natural Cleaner Recipes – DIY Cleaners that Work