Oranges our our ingredient of the season. We have big plans for a winter of zesty recipes and sweet crafts.

Hey Spring Cleaners! Ok, I know it’s a little early for that. Hey, conscious cleaners! (How was that?) Do you buy green cleaning products for your home? Ones that aren’t so harsh and better for your kids, pet, waters and earth? I hope you do! I currently use Green Legacy garbage bags because they’re big, tough and biodegradable and for cleaning I use Legacy of Clean products. Personally, I cannot use Clorox or any other really smelly cleaners. I quickly develop a really big headache that just doesn’t go away. It’s probably because the chemicals are poisoning my brain or because I’m really sensitive to smells, who knows, I’m no doctor.

Anyway, if you don’t use natural cleansers, you can always start now with this easy natural orange cleaner.  You just need a couple of items and a little bit of time to brew a batch. It’s super simple and you might even enjoy the smell of your cleaning products! This concoction uses white vinegar which is high effective at killing mold, bacteria, mildew and other household germs. If you don’t have a big jug of vinegar, go grab one! Vinegar is cheap and you get to leave the harmful fumes and toxic counterparts of other cleaners at the store. Vinegar is also biodegradable so you can wash it down drains and toilets without adding more chemicals to our water system.

 Natural Orange Cleaner Ingredients:

• 1 16-ounce jar (or any glass container with a lid)
• a heap of orange peals (I used about three oranges worth)
• vinegar to cover

 Natural Orange Cleaner Instructions:

• Eat a few oranges. Place the peels inside of your empty glass jar.
• Cover with vinegar. Screw the lid on and place in a dark, cool spot for a couple of weeks.
• After a few weeks (or a few months – if you forgot it like I did) strain the concoction so you’re left with only the vinegar.  I like to add one part orange vinegar + one part water to a spray bottle for general cleaning.

Katie here: if you want to make a cleaner that you can use immediately, a quick and dirty trick is to use orange essential oil rather than soaking the fresh peels. Make a mixture of 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon orange essential oil, then you can further dilute it with water as Sarah does. 

I’ve used this mix on everything in my kitchen, bathroom and living room.  Counters, tables, floors, sinks, molding, walls, etc. and it has always worked like a charm. Like I said, I dilute my mixture by 50% with water to tone it down a bit.  I also always finish cleaning by wiping each surface with water so there’s no vinegar left sitting on my wood floors and other sensitive areas.  I have read that vinegar is capable of deteriorating exposed window seals, dishwasher gaskets, and unsealed grout over time, so these surfaces should be rinsed with water after they are cleaned.  Like any cleaning product warning, I suggest test cleaning on inconspicuous areas first to make sure this product is safe for your purposes.  You could also google the specific materials you’ll be cleaning to see if there’s any information on how vinegar will react to them.  So far I’ve only had positive results and lucky for me, this product keeps me headache free!