Natural & Affordable Orange Peel Vinegar Cleaner

This is an easy tutorial on how to make a natural all-purpose cleaner using vinegar and left over orange (or any citrus fruit) peels. This is resourceful, natural, and will save you lots of money on your cleaning supply budget.

Why this Cleaner is the Best

After you make this cleaner, you will not want to buy any other store-bought multi-purpose cleaner again for a number of reasons:

• It’s stupid easy to make, which let’s face it, I need as a mama. It has only 2 necessary ingredients and does not require any sort of baking, mixing, or cooking effort.

• It’s crazy cheap. You can make a over a year supply for just a couple of dollars, depending where you live and shop. If you are pinching pennies, this alternative is a lot cheaper than buying much more expensive store-bought cleaning products.

• It’s natural, chemical-free, and zero-waste. This cleaner is made with only natural, safe ingredients and uses citrus peels that you would otherwise just throw away.

A Little Info about the Ingredients

Vinegar

Vinegar is a great non-toxic, affordable cleaner because of its acidic properties, which allow it to cut through tough grease, grime, and mineral deposits. It works great as a cleaner on most surfaces, but there are some surfaces you need to NOT use this cleaner on:

• Granite, Marble, and Soapstone: Acids don’t mix well with natural stones like granite, marble and soapstone, as it can cause pitting and make them lose their shine.

• Solid Wood: Do not clean wood with pure, undiluted vinegar as it can leave water marks and ruin certain kinds of finishes. We do dilute the vinegar in this recipe so a little bit may be safe, but I would still be cautious and do more research before using it to clean wood.

With that being said, this cleaner works perfectly on most other surfaces. I use this cleaner to wipe down my bathroom, kitchen, kitchen appliances, windows, and for dusting. I also use it as a natural fabric softener and it works amazing.

Orange Peels

The oils from the orange peels act as an antiseptic, with demonstrated anti-fungal and antibacterial properties. Our family makes this recipe throughout the winter, when orange and other citrus fruits are in season and on sale. Eating oranges is a healthy and affordable way to get your Vitamin C in during cold/flu season. As you eat the oranges, simply save all the peels in the refrigerator or freezer and then pull them out when you have enough to make a fair amount of this cleaner.

Another little tip:

When you are completely done using the orange peels to make this cleaner, you can throw them down your garbage disposal. The vinegar will clean the disposal and the orange peel will naturally deodorize it. Love doing this!

Detailed Steps

1. Save the Orange Peels: When you are finished eating your oranges, put your orange peels in an air-tight ziploc bag and store in the fridge or freezer until you have collected enough to make this cleaner. I usually try to just save as much peels as we will eat through the winter and use all of them to make a gallon of vinegar. There isn’t a calculated amount of orange peels you need, just save what you have. Do not store on the counter, as they will get moldy.

2. Combine the Orange Peels and Vinegar: Once you have collected enough orange peels, put the orange peels in an air-tight, preferably glass container (container size depends on how much you are making, use your discretion). Fill the container with as much vinegar as it will hold.

3. Forget About Them for Awhile: Let the orange peels soak in the vinegar at room temperature for at least two weeks. This allows the orange peels to really ferment in the vinegar and all the natural oils from the peels to infuse in the vinegar. I personally soak the orange peels for a month or more. You don’t have to worry about the orange peels getting moldy because he vinegar naturally preserves them.

4. Strain the Peels from the Vinegar: When the peels are finished soaking, strain the vinegar into a container you want to store your cleaner in. I personally pour it back into the gallon container I bought the vinegar in. You can disregard the orange peels or, if you have one, pour them into your garbage disposal as a natural cleaner and deodorizer.

5. Add a Couple Drops of Lemon Essential Oil (Optional): This step is completely optional, so if you don’t have lemon essential oil on hand, please feel free to skip it. I pour about 15 drops of lemon essential oil into a gallon of this cleaner. Lemon essential oil is commonly used for cleaning surfaces because of its disinfectant properties and its ability to cut greasy and sticky residues. Again, this is not a necessary ingredient, but just gives your cleaner a little boost.

6. Mix Equal Parts Water & Vinegar in a Spray Bottle: Pour equal parts of water and the cleaner in a spray bottle. It’s necessary to dilute this cleaner because vinegar is very acidic. Then, feel free to use on all surfaces except marble/granite and solid wood.

Recipe

What you need:

• White Distilled Vinegar

• Lots of Orange Peels

• 10-15 drops of Lemon Essential Oil (optional)

• Glass Storage Container

• Spray Bottle

Steps:

1. Store orange peels in an air-tight ziploc bag and in the fridge or freezer until you have collected enough to make this cleaner.

2. Place the orange peels in an air-tight glass container. Fill the container with as much vinegar as it will hold.

3. Let the peels soak in the vinegar at room temperature for at least two weeks.

4. Strain the vinegar into a storage container and discard the peels.

5. If you are using, add 10-15 drops of lemon essential oil into your cleaner.

6. Mix equal parts of water and the cleaning solution in a spray bottle.