The Viral Homemade All Purpose Cleaner That Will Leave Your House Sparkling
Just throw these 2 items in your sink and you're good to go!
When you’re deep into cleaning mode, the last thing you want to do is shuffle through a crowded cabinet in search of the right product for each and every surface you’re working on. That’s why it’s safest to use an all purpose cleaner. But what if you don’t have one on hand? You can easily mixup a homemade all purpose cleaner: it costs less and is easy to make in a pinch. Plus, it works on all surfaces.
Below, cleaning-expert-approved homemade all purpose cleaner recipes, including a special sink-made solution that will do way more than make your counters shine.
Easy homemade all purpose cleaner recipes:
Vinegar +water
The most tried-and-true, basic all-purpose cleaner you can make at home is a vinegar solution — in a spray bottle, simply combine equal parts water and white vinegar (and add citrus essential oil, if you’d like, for scent) and you’re good to spray down essentially everything in your kitchen with it, aside from cast iron pans, grout or natural stone, as the acidity in vinegar can wear down those finishes over time.
Special sink brew combination
Cleaner and influencer Danielle Tays has a different take on a homemade all purpose cleaner. She sees it as an opportunity to mix together some of her favorite products (which should be done with caution, as not all cleaners get along and some concoctions can be dangerous) in a clean and disinfected kitchen sink. Like a cauldron of elixir, the sink serves as her returning place to dip in a cloth, wring it out and wipe down any surface imaginable. She calls these recipes her “sink brews.”
As shown on her Instagram, Tays makes all different kinds of sink brews, but her most used and most versatile is one she calls the “Quick and Easy” recipe. She says it’s her favorite “by far.” “It’s made of Cascade and Mr. Clean Summer Citrus Antibacterial Cleaner,” she says. “I use it on every surface. If it’s a food prep surface, I rinse it after.”
To make her “Quick and Easy” recipe, she simply plops a Cascade dishwasher pod into a clean sink, combined with a half-cup of the Mr. Clean and adds hot water. (You can boil some on the stove or in a kettle for extra disinfecting power.) Then, it’s ready to clean the kitchen top to bottom.
Homemade all purpose cleaner benefits
Aside from being an all-purpose cleaner, Tays’ “Quick and Easy” sink brew has a laundry list of other perks, including:
It makes cleaning go faster
When you make a sink brew, there’s no no need to break out a bucket and worry about lugging one around. You also don’t need to chase a cleaner bottle and waste time spraying product every few seconds. (And if struggle with carpal tunnel or arthritis, you can avoid the stiff wrists that using spray bottles tends to cause.) You’d be surprised to discover how much time cutting out those filler tasks saves. “The entire kitchen is cleaned in just minutes,” says Tays. “It just makes life so much easier, which is what we all want when cleaning. I think that’s why so many people love it.”
It cuts through grease, no scrubbing needed
Areas like cabinets, oven hoods and stovetops are hotbeds for cooking grease, especially if you don’t clean them regularly. That means, when you do, the gunk stubbornness is real. Cleaning layers of oil would typically require some scrubbing, but not with Tays’ sink brew. “It cuts through grease so well,” she says. Simply wipe and you’re done.
It makes stainless steel shine
Stainless steel is a notoriously tricky surface to clean without leaving streaks behind. After cleaning your counters and stove top with this sink brew, you can take it straight to the silver surfaces. “It works amazingly well on stainless steel appliances,” Tays says.
You can mop with it
In Tays’ many reels that demonstrate her sink brews at work, she shares how versatile they are. After cleaning your counters and appliances, you can use the same solution to mop your floors. She even uses a flat mop dipped in the sink brews to scrub down her cabinets, which makes what would typically be a back-breaking chore super easy. (Click through for more DIY cleaning solutions for floors.)
It can also tackle the bathroom
Tays uses a different recipe to tackle the bathroom that features powdered Tide detergent and bleach for disinfecting power. However, the simplicity of the sink brew concept remains. She does also mix up this solution in a bucket while cleaning the bathroom, but if you have a deep enough bathroom sink, you could make a sink brew there as well.
Related: 4 All-Natural DIY Cleaners That Leave Your Toilet Sparkling — For Less
It takes up no space
The less frequently you lean on several different plastic spray bottles to clean, the less packaging you’ll go through and the more sustainable your cleaning habits become. Of course, the products Tays uses are packaged in plastic, however, because they’re purchased in bulk, it takes a lot longer to go through them.
It doubles as an air freshener
This might be the best perk of all: Not only does cleaning with Tays’ “Quick and Easy” recipe smell good, her hack for even longer-lasting freshness is to leave the sink brew in the sink for the remainder of the day, after cleaning. It’s like a built-in air-freshener for your kitchen that you’ll enjoy every time you walk in.
For more on DIY cleaning, click through the links below!
The 7 Best DIY Cleaning Solutions for Floors That Sparkle
4 All-Natural DIY Cleaners That Leave Your Toilet Sparkling — For Less
