Homemade Orange Disinfectant Spray

I wish I could say that I’ve simply been “bitten by the spring cleaning bug,” but to be perfectly candid, I love cleaning! I have an entire Pinterest board (with nearly 200 pins) dedicated to cleaning.

Call it my current stage of life or my hardwired personality, there’s just something so serene to me about a clean surface to work, play and eat on!

I’ve been doing extensive research browsing a couple of fun articles online about making your own “green” cleaning solution. I finally buckled down and made this one!

My personal goal was to eliminate all usage of store-bought disinfectant wipes (how do I end up using SO MANY?!) and make an attempt at cutting costs and waste. Whether you’re aiming to go green with your cleaning solutions, trim your household budget a bit, or just try something new, this DIY All-Natural Orange Disinfectant could be a great way to get started!

*Disclaimer…this cleaning solution is, as my blog’s tagline accurately describes, a kitchen experiment. 🙂 The solution was extremely effective (yay!!) in cutting grease — mostly on my glass-topped oven — and left far less streaks on my farmhouse style dining table and laminate counter tops. However, it does have that slight vinegar-y smell after you spray it. Room to improve? Most definitely. Effective cleaning job? Yep!

What you’ll need:

1 large glass mason jar with lid
3 large orange
White distilled vinegar (enough to fill the jar you have)
Cutting board and knife
—–
Lots of patience
Large, all-purpose strainer
Funnel
Empty spray bottle

 

First, quarter all the oranges and remove the peel from each quarter. Save the fruit for snacking.

Place all the orange peels in a large, glass mason jar. Fill to the top with white distilled vinegar.

Put on the lid and set it in a cool place for TWO WEEKS.

Yes, super long, and for an impatient person like me, nearly impossible to endure. But I promise, the wait is worthwhile. Plus, the jar looks so pretty sitting around.

When the ridiculous wait is over, use a strainer or a large collander to strain the liquid from the orange peels. Discard the peels, or if you want to freshen up your garbage disposal, send them down the sink with some baking soda! 🙂

Each time you strain, you will want to rinse out your container with water, so that none of the “yucky stuff” stays in the solution. Strain the remaining liquid mixture twice more, using a smaller and finer strainer if you like. I used a tea ball and it worked great.

Finally, funnel the solution into that spray bottle, pop the lid on and give it a try! I added a couple of drops of orange essential oil to amp up the orange scent, but even on its own, the oranges are pretty pungent.

Here is my kitchen table with the left side dirty and the right side just wiped down.

And now the surface of the table all clean and air-dried.

I think the most amazing – and most effortless –  work it did was on my glass-topped oven. It’s always a mess, even after I wipe it down. I’ve tried sanitizer wipes, regular soap and water, plain vinegar, even a special glass-topped oven cleaning solution, but none of them have cleaned as well or as easily! So pumped.

I can see the reflection of my teapot!

So fun!! I would totally do this again.

 

Happy spring cleaning!

❤

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