Who says you need expensive cleaners to keep your home looking and smelling great? This homemade disinfecting lemon oil cleaner concentrate makes 6 gallons of cleaner for less than $3.00 and only 2 ingredients! Plus it disinfects while it cleans keeping your home clean and germ free!
I love using natural cleaners in my home, but I hate the cost of commercially made ones. After all, who really, who wants to pay $4.00 or more for a tiny bottle of cleaner?
Not me and I highly suspect you don’t either.
That’s why I adore this homemade lemon oil cleaner concentrate. I can make a huge batch of concentrate for nothing more than the cost of clearance lemons and a gallon of vinegar.
For reference, that’s around $3.00 in my neck of the woods give or take.
Tip: If you don’t want to make your own cleaners, Grove is a great place to purchase green cleaners, beauty products, household items and baby products from. There are no monthly commitments required and when you sign up for a Grove account HERE, you’ll get a FREE Mrs. Meyers Plastic Free set with your first order of $25 or more.
Why Make a Lemon Oil Cleaner?
When you’re cleaning your home, you want something that will not only clean but will also disinfect and make your home smell amazing at the same time. Lemon oil has been shown many times over to have antifungal and antibacterial properties. This concentrated cleaner also uses white vinegar. In addition to being antiviral and antibacterial, white vinegar is also antifungal.
Combine the two and what you get is a powerful cleaner that is safe enough to use in your entire home and around your kids and pets.
But Doesn’t Vinegar Smell Bad?
Very and honestly it’s not a smell I would want floating around my own home. Luckily though, the lemon that is used in this concentrated cleaner is more than powerful enough to cover the smell of the vinegar.
This leaves the mixture smelling like nothing more than clean lemons.
However, if by chance you can still smell the vinegar or are super sensitive to the smell, you can always add a few drops of lemon essential oil in addition to the lemons themselves. This will ensure that you only smell the lemons.
Tip: My favorite lemon essential oil is produced by Simply Earth. All Simply Earth oils are triple verified for purity and are priced amazingly! Plus every purchase goes to fight human trafficking.
Check them out HERE and be sure to use coupon code 6DOLLARFREE to get a free $40 bonus box, free $40 gift card and more if you give the monthly recipe box a try.
How to Make Homemade Concentrated Lemon Oil Cleaner
Because I try to find as many ways to reuse things as possible, I wait to make my own homemade lemon cleaner until I am also ready to make homemade lemon juice and to make dehydrated lemon zest. Since the juice uses the flesh of the lemon and the zest uses the outer portion of the peel, waiting allows me to use as much of the lemon as possible so I can waste as little as possible.
For this homemade cleaner recipe, you will use what is left of the peel after you zest it. You’re after the oil that is trapped in the peel. Zesting the lemon first actually helps to release that oil making your cleaner ready to use much faster.
How to Use Homemade Lemon Cleaner Concentrate
Since this is a concentrate, it will be incredibly strong when it has finished stewing. You could use it this way, folks with sensitive skin may find the citrus oils from the lemon too strong.
This is me. I am folks with sensitive skin.
You also will not get as much cleaner from a batch if you use it as is. Its also a good idea to filter your cleaner through a piece of damp cheesecloth or a damp coffee filter before using it so you do not end up with small lemon pieces as you’re trying to clean.
Instead, you will want to mix it in a glass spray bottle . IT is best to bottle several bottles at once. To mix it, you will use 2 2/3 c. (approx. 22 oz.) cleaner mixture for every 5 1/3 c. ( approx. 44 oz.) purified water.
Disinfecting Lemon Oil Cleaner Concentrate
Equipment
- Glass spray bottles, amber or blue colored
Ingredients
- Lemon Peels
- 1 gallon White Vinegar
- Distilled or Purified Water
- Lemon Essential Oil Optional
Instructions
- Cut lemon peels into large pieces. Add to your container. Fill container with white vinegar. Make sure the lemon peels are covered. They will float to the top. This is okay.Lemon Peels, 1 gallon White Vinegar
- Allow to sit undisturbed 2 weeks in a cool place. Strain mixture through a piece of damp cheesecloth to remove any small pieces of lemon that may have come from the peel. Add lemon essential oil if you want a stronger lemon smell.Lemon Essential Oil
- Combine the lemon/vinegar mixture with distilled or purified water use 2 2/3 c. (22 oz.) cleaner mixture for every 5 1/3 c. (44 oz.) purified or distilled water. Stir well to mix. Use in a glass amber or blue colored spray bottle.Distilled or Purified Water
