How to Make a Great All-Purpose Cleaner

If you are looking for a homemade cleaner and disinfectant that actually cleans your home, look no further. We all want to have our homes be clean and having this all-purpose cleaner will help you get the job done the first time. Learn how to quickly make a great all-purpose cleaner with ingredients you probably already have on hand.

All purpose cleaner made with just 4 simple ingredients.

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I like this all-purpose cleaner because it works well. I have gone back and forth in my cleaning journey from homemade lemon vinegar and baking soda to store bought cleaners.

The baking soda/vinegar combo didn’t seem to do the trick while most of the store bought cleaners made me frustrated due to their ingredient list and toxic smell.

There are a few cleaners that I buy from companies online that I do really like, but this one is just as good and much cheaper. I also always have the ingredients around to make it.

Use 4 simple ingredients to make a great all-purpose cleaner.

What Does the All-Purpose Cleaner Clean?

You can use this cleaner for many things.

For the most part, I keep a bottle of cleaner in my kitchen and our bathrooms. In the kitchen, I use it for all surfaces – the counters, the sink, the stove, kitchen table, and to spot treat messes on the floor.

This all-purpose cleaner also works great in the bathroom. I use it on all the surfaces just like in the kitchen.

Be careful when using it on wood and maybe test a small section first, but I have been able to use this cleaner on many areas that are wood also.

Cleaner and Disinfectant

The ingredients for this cleaner make it both a cleaner and disinfectant.

Dawn Dish Soap – most are antibacterial.

Lemons are naturally antibacterial

Vinegar is naturally antibacterial and kills most bacteria.

Rubbing alcohol is antimicrobial so it works to kill bacteria and viruses.

Vinegar, rubbing alcohol, Dawn dish soap, and lemon juice make up our all-purpose spray.

Ingredients For All-Purpose Cleaner

1/4 cup Dawn Dish Soap
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
3/4 cup Vinegar
1/2 cup Rubbing Alcohol
1.25 cup Water

Step-By Step How to Make

Use a large measuring cup and add all the ingredients together. Mix up the ingredients so they are well blended. Then pour the mixture into a spray bottle using a funnel.

I use glass spray bottles and the mixture above fills up both bottles. You can also get a larger spray bottle and just fill up one.

Last, make sure you label your all-purpose cleaner so anyone in your home can pick it up and use it for a variety of messes.

This all-purpose cleaner is so easy to whip up when I run out.

How Long Will the Spray Last?

That really depends on how much you use it to clean. I use it for all my kitchen cleaning needs. It also gets used in the bathrooms and on other spills throughout the house. So we do use it up fairly quickly.

You might find yourself making this all-purpose cleaner once a week to once a month.

I use a small funnel to get the cleaner into a glass bottle I can spray it from.

How to Make and Use Infused Vinegar to Scent Your All-Purpose Cleaner

Since vinegar is one of the ingredients on the short list, I like to use one that I have infused.

My favorite infused vinegars are ones that I infuse with lemon or orange rinds.

Anytime that I have a quite a few oranges or lemons I’ve used up, I will use them to infuse vinegar. It is really easy – just take peels from any citrus you have and put them in a jar. Fill the far about half way and then pour regular white vinegar on top to fill.

Place the vinegar under your sink or in a cupboard for a few weeks. After the peels have infused into the vinegar for a couple weeks, take out the jar. Strain the peels out and then store until needed. I usually have a few jars under my kitchen sink waiting to be made into this cleaner.

infusing your vinegar makes the homemade all-purpose cleaner smell extra nice

Another way to infuse vinegar is to use pine or spruce boughs. I usually make this kind of infusion during the holidays when we get in our Christmas tree and have extra branches that I can put in jars and add vinegar to. It is a nice winter time cleaning scent.