17 Safe Homemade Cleaning Products You Need To Make Today

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Buying various chemical cleaners to clean your house can quickly become cost prohibitive.

You need a cleaner for the kitchen, then another for the bathroom, then yet another for the living room.

And then there are the ingredients.

Half I canā€™t pronounce and almost all of the labels have warnings on them.

If they arenā€™t dangerous, why do we have to lock them up so our kids canā€™t get to them?

Why spend money on countless household cleaning products and risk your health when all you need are 6 basic ingredients?

Mix them up the right way and you have instant low cost homemade cleaning products that are a fraction of the cost.

Too good to be true? I donā€™t think so.

In this post, I am going to show you homemade solutions to clean your entire house!

All of these home cleaning remedies are simple to make and safe to use!

There are no warning labels that need to be added.

Letā€™s get started learning how to make your own cleaning products and save money at the same time!

17 Homemade Cleaning Products You Need To Make

Home Cleaning Remedy Ingredient Checklist

homemade cleaning products

All of the cleaning products that you will make yourself will use some combination of 9 ingredients.

Here are the natural ingredients you will need:

  • White Vinegar: It may smell a little weird, but vinegar can handle everything from dishes to laundry and even weeds.
  • Baking Soda: Eliminates odors and helps with stains. It also works as a natural method for pest control. Ants hate it.
  • Rubbing Alcohol: Works as a disinfectant and is also a great glass cleaner. It also gets grime off plastic and metal surfaces like patio furniture or bathroom fixtures.
  • Lemon Juice: This cuts through dish grease and is an ingredient for homemade furniture polish. But itā€™s not the easiest thing to preserve long-term.
  • Borax: This mineral salt beats bleach as a toilet cleaner and is also useful for scrubbing walls. Works great with laundry, too.
  • Fels-Naptha soap: This oneā€™s actually made by one of those big cleaning companies out to pinch our wallets. They recommend it for pre-treating stains. In other words, ā€œuse this in addition to a bunch of our other expensive productsā€. But you can turn the tables by using it as part of a recipe for your own laundry detergent among other things. As a bonus side note, you can use Fels-Naptha to treat poison ivy. Simply lather it over the poison on your skin and let it dry. It will dry out the poison!
  • Hydrogen Peroxide: This is the grand-daddy of natural cleaning products because it cleans, disinfects, and deodorizes. It also is anti-mildew, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-mold.
  • Lavender Essential Oil: Using this will create a pleasant scent after cleaning.
  • Peppermint Oil: Same idea as with the lavender oil above.

While you can get these products anywhere, Iā€™ve found that Amazon has the best prices.

And as a Prime member, I get free shipping and delivery in 2 days.

You can click here to try Amazon Prime for 30 days.

Alternatively, you can click here to see the best prices Amazon offers on these products.

Itā€™s also a good idea to buy some new spray bottles to keep these DIY cleaners in.

You can also clean out and repurpose old cleaning spray bottles too.

Now that you have the ingredients, letā€™s look at the cleaning products can you make!

#1. Homemade Floor Cleaning Solution

To make your own natural cleaner for floors that will clean your tile, linoleum or wood floors, all you need are 2 ingredients.

Mix them together and start mopping.

  • Ā½ cup of Vinegar
  • 1 gallon of Water

You might be hesitant to use this since because of the vinegar smell can be unpleasant to many.

But by mixing it with water, you reduce the smell greatly.

You can always add in a few drops of essential oil, like peppermint or lavender to provide a fresh scent.

#2. Homemade Window Cleaner

Making a window cleaning solution is just as easy as the homemade floor cleaner above.

You can mix together the same ingredients for your floor above or go with an alternative option.

Mix together:

  • 2 teaspoons of Vinegar
  • 1 quart of Warm Water

or

  • 2 tablespoons of Borax
  • 3 cups of Water

Either way, your eyes and nose wonā€™t burn because there is no ammonia like in commercial window cleaners.

As a bonus tip, rub dry with newspaper to avoid those annoying streaks.

#3. Homemade Disinfectant

Someone sick at home?

You can wipe down door knobs, phones, faucets or anything really with this homemade disinfectant.

Mix together:

  • Ā¼ cup of Borax
  • Ā½ gallon of Hot Water

You can use an old rag or paper towels to soak and then wipe down everything you want.

#4. Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

This is a great recipe for a homemade all purpose cleaner to use to clean up most areas of your house.

It is great for porous or hard surfaces.

You can even use it as a homemade counter cleaner too!

The best part is you can really use this anywhere since there are no harsh chemicals.

I like to mix this one in a spray bottle so I have it on hand at all times.

Simply mix together the following ingredients:

  • Ā¼ cup of Baking Soda
  • Ā½ cup of Borax
  • Ā½ cup of White Vinegar
  • 1 gallon of Water

From there, just spray the areas you want to clean and wipe dry.

Another recipe is the following:

  • Ā½ cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
  • 1 cup of Water

Add this to a spray bottle and clean away!

You can also add your favorite essential oil for fragrance if you like.

The only limit to the hydrogen peroxide version is to not use it on dark marble as it can discolor it.

#5. Homemade Oven Cleaner

Most of us have self cleaning ovens but sadly they donā€™t get the oven as clean as possible.

At least mine doesnā€™t.

So while I still use the self cleaner to get the majority of the over clean, I finish up with this great homemade oven cleaner.

Mix together:

  • Ā¼ cup of Baking Soda
  • 2 tablespoons Salt
  • Hot water, as needed to make a paste

Apply the paste to the oven and let the paste sit for 5 minutes before cleaning it up.

One word of caution here, keep the past off wires and heating elements since these items are fragile to begin with.

#6. Homemade Drain Cleaner

With multiple females in the house, I felt like I was buying drain cleaner on a weekly basis to unclog the drains from hair clogs.

But no longer.

Now I use this homemade drain cleaner and save a ton of money.

Pour together:

  • Ā½ cup of Borax in drain, followed by
  • 2 cups of Boiling Water

or

  • Ā¼ cup of Baking Soda down the drain, followed by
  • Ā½ cup of Vinegar

Cover drain and let sit for 15 minutes, then follow with 2 quarts boiling water.

For really tough clogs, I sometimes have to repeat the boiling water step a couple times.

#7. Homemade Toilet Bowl Cleaner

There are things you just donā€™t want to clean.

Like ever.

A toilet bowl is one of them.

Unfortunately it has to be done.

Here is a simple way to clean toilet stains with the least amount of work.

Pour:

  • Ā¼ cup of Baking Soda into bowl and drizzle with Vinegar

Let sit for Ā½ hour, then scrub and flush.

If you have stains in your bowl, add borax to remove them.

This will work for new and mild stains.

For tougher stains, I recommend you read the post above for some clever tricks to clean the toughest toilet bowl stains.

#8. Homemade Ceramic Tile Cleaner

If you have ceramic tile in your house, you know that you have to be careful with what you use to clean it.

The solution below will clean your ceramic tile fast and is safe to use.

Mix together:

  • Ā¼ cup of Vinegar
  • 1 gallon of Warm Water

Use an old rag to wipe down the tiles and let air dry.

This natural cleaning recipe will remove soap scum and hard water stains with ease.

#9. Homemade Bathroom Cleaner

Cleaning the bath tub takes a lot of scrubbing.

But Iā€™ve found this homemade bathroom cleaner to be very effective in reducing my time spent on my hands and knees scrubbing.

It also does a good job at removing mineral deposits too.

Mix together:

  • Ā½ cup of Baking Soda
  • 2-3 tablespoons of Liquid Soap (Castile, Peppermint)

I like to use a sponge to scrub the tub clean and then I run the water to rinse it out and air dry.

#10. Homemade Garbage Disposal Freshener

Ever stand in the kitchen and wonder were that awful odor is coming from?

You search the trash can and the refrigerator but still canā€™t find it.

Then you realize itā€™s the garbage disposal.

Well I have a solution for you. Itā€™s simple to do and it makes your kitchen smell like great.

  • Grind ice and lemon or orange juice in the disposal

You will instantly have a nice citrus smell throughout your kitchen.

#11. Homemade Mildew Remover

While the homemade bathroom cleaner I mentioned earlier is a great cleaner, it doesnā€™t work great when it comes to mildew.

And like most people, you probably have some mildew in your bathroom.

So how do you clean it safely and effectively?

Iā€™ve spent countless hours trying various products that donā€™t work or require me to clean for a long time.

Luckily I stumbled across this effective solution.

It gets the job done and I donā€™t have to scrub for hours.

Mix equal parts of the following:

  • Ā½ cup of Vinegar
  • Ā½ cup of Borax in Warm Water

Apply with sponge or spray bottle and watch the mildew disappear.

Here is another option to try as well.

Mix the following in a spray bottle:

  • 1 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
  • 2 cups of Water

You could also make this in a bucket and apply with a sponge as well.

#12. Stain Remover

If you have tough stains on your carpet, and who doesnā€™t, here are a few tricks to get the stains out naturally.

If the stain is light, use the following mixture:

  • 2 tablespoons of Salt
  • Ā½ cup of Vinegar

Dissolve the sale in the vinegar and apply to your carpet until dry.

Then vacuum carpet.

If the stain is dark, use this alternative:

  • 2 tablespoons of Salt
  • 2 tablespoons of Borax
  • Ā½ cup of Vinegar

Follow the same instructions as above for treating and cleaning.

If you have really bad, ground in dirt, here is a solution to try:

  • 1 tablespoon of Cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon of Vinegar

Mix until it turns to a paste, apply to carpet and let dry for 2 days before vacuuming.

In each case, the key to removing carpet stains is to blot the stain first.

This will remove some of the stain from the carpet.

Most people rub the carpet and this drives the stain deeper into the fibers of the carpet, making it worse.

Also, if the first attempt doesnā€™t work, donā€™t give up.

In some cases you have to apply the cleaner a few times to remove it fully.

#13. Homemade Bleach Alternative

Instead of using bleach to whiten your clothes, use this recipe.

It cots a lot less and you donā€™t have to worry about any toxic chemicals if you have pets or kids.

Simply mix the following together:

  • 1 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Ā½ cup of Baking Soda
  • Ā¼ cup of Lemon Juice
  • 8 cups of Water

Note that this makes a larger amount of solution, so a spray bottle wonā€™t work here.

To use, add it to your washing machine load that you want to bleach and be sure to use hot water.

You can even add in some essential oils if you want your clean items to have a scent.

#14. Grout Cleaner

Dirty grout is ugly.

And cleaning it is a pain in the you know what.

But using this option is a lot easier.

To use, mix the following:

  • 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide
  • 1 part Baking Soda

Mix the two ingredients until you get a paste and apply to the grout.

Let it sit for around an hour to work its magic.

Then do a little light scrubbing with a toothbrush or a sponge and wash off.

#15. Homemade Furniture Polish For Wood Surfaces

If you want to your furniture to look shiny and new, this natural cleaning product for wood surfaces is here to help.

While it does take a little more work on your end, it does an amazing job.

  • Rub toothpaste on wood furniture to remove water marks
  • Polish wood with 2 teaspoons Lemon Oil and 1 pint Mineral Oil in spray bottle, spray, rub in and wipe clean
  • Mix 2 parts Olive Oil to 1 part Lemon Juice

After rubbing the olive oil and lemon juice mixture in, let stand for several hours and then polish with a soft, dry cloth using the following.

  • Melt 1 tablespoon Carnauba Wax into 2 pints Mineral Oil

The key here is to use the cleaner sparingly and rub hard.

With a little work, you will have sparkling furniture that looks better than new!

#16. DIY Humidifier Cleaner

If you run a humidifier in your house over the winter, you know mold will quickly grow.

You could waste your money on the specialized cleaning solution, or you could make your own and save the money.

Simply fill your tank with the following:

  • Fill Ā¾ with Water
  • 3 cups of Hydrogen Peroxide

Stir the solution around for a few seconds and let it sit for an hour.

Dump out the solution and rinse the tank with cool water.

#17. Dishwasher DIY Rinse Aid

Of all the homemade cleaners on this list, this one is my favorite.

To get your dishes sparkling clean, not only do you need to use a dish washing detergent, but many times a rinse agent as well.

To cut costs, you can make your own rinse agent that works just as well.

And of course, itā€™s a lot less expensive too!

Hereā€™s how to make it.

  • Ā¼ cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
  • 10 drops of Lemon Essential Oil

This is good for one dish washing cycle.

You can either make this each time you run your dishwasher or you can increase the amount you make so you have extra on hand.

Wrapping Up

There you have 17 great low cost homemade products to clean your entire house.

Plus, there arenā€™t any unknown chemicals in these.

Try them out for yourself. Youā€™ll be pleasantly surprised by their effectiveness.

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