Homemade Cleaners - All Purpose Spray

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I ran out of my homemade spray cleaner tonight so quickly whipped up a bottle before I retired to the computer with a green juice (apple, kiwifruit, spinach and ginger - yum yum!) to catch up on the day's blogs. I have been making most of my own cleaners for at least a year now and I still can't believe how cheap and easy it is. Please, DON'T listen to the ads - we DON'T need to kill every single germ in our entire house with toxic chemicals. Some germs are good, and help us build up natural immunity. Since I have started using homemade, natural cleaners my chronic allergies, asthma and eczema have improved incredibly. So much so, that I almost never have an issue with them any more. While this is probably in part to my dietary choices, I am certain changing my cleaners to all natural alternatives have helped. Trust me, once you smell the delicious scent of a natural cleaner on your bench, you will never want to go back to those awful chemical health hazards in-a-bottle.

Homemade All Purpose Spray (for 500mls)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tblsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence (or 5 or so drops of an essential oil of your choice)
Warm water to fill the bottle

Pour baking soda and vanilla or essential oil into a spray bottle using a funnel. Add around 1 cup of water, shake to combine with the baking soda and then slowly pour in the white vinegar. It will fizz (think Science Fair volcano experiment), so it is best to do this in the sink. Once it has settled down add the rest of the water, put the top on and you're done! Easy peasy. I use this spray on all my benches, oven top, cupboards, doors, sink, toilet seat and to clean up any puppy puddles.

Vinegar is a natural antibacterial (sometimes I just use it neat, if I don't have any spray made up), and baking soda is fantastic for cleaning almost anything. If you are really worried about germs, try adding tea tree oil to the mix, for extra antibacterial protection.