Simple Toxin Free Cleaning Recipes
The average person is exposed to hundreds of toxins every day.
Hundreds.
Chemicals that are known to be damaging and cause disease.
That scares me and I am NOT ok with it!
I honestly didn’t really think about this stuff until I had kids, and then when I did become aware I was overwhelmed. I felt like everything was going to poison us and there was nothing I could do to avoid it and it was all just too hard.
The truth is, we can’t avoid it all, as much as I want to. But we CAN make a huge difference in our own homes.
We have switched all our cleaners now to homemade nontoxic options and I feel SO much better knowing I am not spraying a chemical mess around the place whenever I clean.
Why homemade? A few reasons…
- Even ‘eco’ options are not great. For a while I switched to ‘green’ or ‘eco’ brands. However, they all still contained at least ‘fragrance’, and often much more. What is ‘fragrance‘? Any number of harmful chemicals that don’t have to be declared or tested for safety. Yeah, no thanks. Homemade options are better for us, and the environment.
- It’s cheaper. You only need a few ingredients and in the long run it works out SO much cheaper to make your own. It saves us a LOT of money.
- Convenience. I have the ingredients I need on hand all the time so whenever I run out I can easily make more!
Making our own cleaners is EASY! You don’t need a lot of ingredients, and they actually work. I hope that by sharing the recipes I use, you might find it less overwhelming too.
Surface Spray
50/50 vinegar and water
5 drops each of Tea Tree, Lemon, On Guard, and Wild Orange
1 drop of Oregano
I use this on the bench tops and sink! Essential oils have powerful antibacterial properties and really give homemade cleaners the extra boost they need. Plus, they smell awesome. ‘On Guard’ in an essential oil blend, you can read more about oils here.
Glass/Mirror Cleaner
50/50 vinegar and water
20 drops lemon
Just spray on and wipe with paper towel
Bathroom Cleaner
5–10 drops lemon oil
Spray
10 drops On Guard
10 drops lemon oil
5 drops wild orange oil
Teaspoon of bicarb soda
50/50 vinegar and water
Mould Cleaner
50/50 vinegar and water
10 drops lemon
10 drops clove
Clove oil is the best option for killing mould (instead of just bleaching it).
Toilet Cleaner
10 drops tea tree
Floor Cleaner
1 cup of vinegar
Carpet Freshener
Add some bicarb soda to a jar with 10 drops of lemon oil. Sprinkle over carpets and leave for a while. Vacuum as normal.
Air Freshener
Please, please, please throw out those store bought air fresheners. Eek! You know what they say? Frangrance is the new second hand smoke. Yuck! Get that chemical mess out of your home STAT. It’s sooooo easy to make your own!
My favourite thing to do is use my diffuser! Not only making the house smell nice, but cleansing the air, and receiving the health benefits of essential oils too.
You can also make an air freshener by adding 1/4 cup of bicarb soda to a jar, 5 drops of your favourite oil, then cover with some fabric and a rubber band. Done! SO easy and SO much cheaper. Just shake it up when the smell fades, or add a few more drops.
For the toilet: Drop some lemon or lime oil on a cotton ball and place it behind the toilet to keep it smelling fresh.
For the rubbish: Same thing! Cotton wool ball in the bottom of the bin.
Fruit and Veg Cleaner
2 drops of lemon oil
1/4 teaspoon liquid castile soap
Large bowl of water
Cutting Board
Fractionated coconut oil
2 drops On Guard
Rub into wooden cutting board to sanitize and preserve.
Dishwashing Liquid
1L water
100mL liquid castile soap
5 drops grapefruit oil
Laundry Liquid
1 cup of castile soap
1 cup bicarb soda
1/3 cup coarse salt
7L hot water
20-40 drops of essential oils (for example On Guard, tea tree, lavender)
Add all ingredients to a bucket, whisk together and put into containers. Shake before use.
For fabric softener I just use some vinegar and a drop of lemon oil.
Stain Remover
1/2 cup vinegar
20 drops lemon oil
Water
Put all ingredients in a spray bottle, spray stains right before putting into the wash.
Hand Soap
2 Tablespoons pure castile soap
1 Tablespoon fractionated coconut oil
10 drops lavender
10 drops tea tree
Water
More helpful info
I only recommend doTERRA essential oils because I am extremely happy with their quality and purity (and for many other reasons). If you’d like to get your own essential oils so you can kick the toxins (and SO much more), then I’d love to be your supporter in that. I LOVE that we can use natures simple gifts for everything we need. You can read more about the oils HERE, go right ahead and order HERE, or learn more about the other ways I use them daily HERE.
I recommend using glass or stainless steel spray bottles for cleaning, as the oils can erode plastic over time.
I got my lovely labels for my bottles from Wilde Essence + Co.
One more thing…
I’m still working on is a dish washer powder. I haven’t quite perfected that one but will add it when I have. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for me I’m all ears!
Comments
Thankyou for this! I am allergic to citric acid abd grapefruit, any other suggestion for a dishwash liquid?!
Lemon or orange would be nice 🙂
Thank you.
We have been aware of the legal sneaky-ness of the term “fragrance” or “perfume” which are protected by law as a proprietary secret. Companies do NOT need to disclose the ingredients. In the old days there could be feces, or some other “secret ingredient” added to a perfume to create it’s complicated aroma….NOW everything is a chemical reproduction of a fragrance. That musky scent in your body wash, or the lemon scent in your dish soap is a chemical that smells like lemons. No real lemons to be found. If you are interested in the destructive, nation wide obsession with fake smells & their side effects watch the movie “STINK”.
It’s so scary hey. How is this allowed! So impprtant to be able to take charge of our own health.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was hoping you would do soon!
No problem!
That’s super interesting!!! I’m excited to try these. I admit I’m a little cautious with essential oils but I’ll just do a little reading to dispel my concerns 🙂 thank you for this great post!
They’re so awesome! ♥
If you have any questions you can contact me here: https://happinessishereblog.com/contact/
Or read about how else we use them here: https://happinessishereblog.com/2018/03/use-mother-nature-every-day/
How much laundry liquid do you use? We have an 8kg HE washer! Thank you for sharing your recipes 🙂
Besides the fact that this blog is brilliant and the tips are awesome, I have to say that this text is so positive, helpful, full of joy. I just love reading blogs like this one. And thank you very much for sharing these tips with us.
There are several cleaning products manufacturers that claim to have products that are nontoxic, having natural ingredients or claim to be environment friendly. However, there is no standard definition for these. Such products could still be toxic and cause irritation to the skin, mouth and eyes if not used properly.
Love the blog and going to try these! How long do they last? Can all the recipes be made in advance and stored for when needed? Thanks so much!