Easy Homemade Cleaners to Make

Homemade cleaners that are easy and non-toxic are something I have been making and using for the last 20 years or more. There are many reasons I have transpired to clean my home with homemade cleaners that are non-toxic. I always use an E-cloth instead of paper towels too. This saves the landfills and can be reused for years to come!

Combining homemade cleaners with the E-cloth saves the environment and money as well. Many cleaners have fragrances that may harm you and your fur babies. If you choose to have a scent in your homemade cleaners, using natural essential oils is always an option!

First, eliminating plastic and paper towels in my home starts with something I can control. Second, making homemade cleaners allows me to kick the plastic to the curb! Finally, we remove toxic fumes for our family and fur babies living in our home.

Keeping the plastic out of landfills and oceans is important to me. I will do my part in protecting the environment which we have borrowed from Mother Earth as best as I can.

Easy Homemade Cleaners

Now comes my favorite part! Making non-toxic homemade cleaners. First of all, lemon cleaners are very easy to make. I love cooking and baking with lemons. As a result, I always have lots of lemons on hand. Furthermore, I buy them all year long, more in the summer as they are more abundant.

Directions for Making Homemade Cleaners

1. Wash the lemons with warm to hot water and use Farmhouse Basic Collection veggie soap
2. Dry the lemons well with a cotton or linen towel
3. Remove the zest and dry for baking (optional)
4. Squeeze the juice from the lemons
5. Remove all the white flesh and pith (if left, it will mold)
6. Slice very thin or use a chopper to cube into small pieces
7. Place in a UV canning jar (optional, but best)
8. Add vinegar to the near top (or moonshine-see below)
9. Place a glass weight on the top (eliminate any floaters)
10. A drip-free lid or plastic lid on the jar is needed (metal is not recommended)
11. Wait for several weeks or a month or more
12. Each week, check that mold is not growing and the lemons are completely submerged in liquid
13. Once the color looks like a lemon cleaner, remove the lemons and place them in a glass sprayer (dilute with 50% filtered water if preferred)
14. Optional-add a few drops of pure lemon, orange, and tea tree essential oil

Moonshine Homemade Cleaners

Similarly, here is another variation of a lemon cleaner and my favorite of all. Here comes the “cringe” part (for some people), instead of vinegar replace it with moonshine! Yup, I know, what a waste of $100 a gallon of shine to clean with. But moonshine has can be used where acid vinegar can not.

But, we know “people”, ha-ha, that give us a few quarts during the year and I use it for making a lemon cleaner and second-best of all, pure vanilla extract from my post-Super Easy Moonshine Extracts.

Today, I will be discussing how I use homemade cleaners that are non-toxic in my home. Before we discuss the cleaners, first, let’s talk about tools for cleaning.

How Does the E-Cloth Work?

Years ago, I stumbled upon the E-Cloth. Once I learned of their existence, I researched intensely before spending the money on a variety of cloths.

The E-cloth works by allowing water to “charge” the cloth with microscopic voids. These voids (water molecules) actually grab the dirt, grease, grime, and 99% of bacteria and suck (trap) them into the cloth itself. You can release the bacteria by washing with hot water and wringing out the E-cloth.

Lab tests have proven only 1.01% of bacteria remained in the cloth once rinsed with warm water. I have an instant hot water tap on my sink and use that to rinse the cloth in-between cleaning the counters if they have obviously bacteria on them. This is usually from raw meat or dairy products.

It is optional if you choose to use a commercial cleaner with the E-cloth but that would defeat the purpose of going “green? I make a homemade cleaner, that is non-toxic and if I feel like it needs a “scent”, I will add a few drops of pure lemon essential oil to the filtered water before pouring it into a glass spray bottle.

What Does the E-Cloth Eliminate?

Here are a few cleaning tools and supplies that the E-Cloth eliminated in my home:

• Commerical wipes with “bleach” and other toxic cleaners come in a plastic container
• Paper towels-does not eliminate the bacteria-just pushes it around-comes in plastic wrap
• Semi-disposable cloths-does not eliminate the bacteria-just pushes it around-comes in plastic wrap
• Norwex-does work great but a lot more money for the same product
• Rag mop-does not eliminate the bacteria-just pushes it around
• Sponges- don’t eliminate the bacteria-just push it around-does not compost down-comes wrapped in plastic
• Cheap microfiber-does does not eliminate the bacteria-just pushes it around

Glass Cleaning Using the E-Cloth and Homemade Cleaners

To achieve a streak-free window use an E-cloth and plain water! The E-Cloth company has two E-Cloths designed to wash and dry windows. The first one is for wetting the glass and the other one is for drying the glass. Optional, use a glass spray bottle with filtered water to spray the windows that are extra dirty first. Then follow up with the wash and dry window cloth.

E-cloth sells a variety of window cleaning, glass polishing, and mirror cleaning cloths. I will link them in the “Shop” section at the end of the post.

How to Wash Glass that is Streak-Free

The steps to washing a streak-free window without harsh chemicals, plastic-free, and best of all, 100% streak-free!

1. Fill a basin, I use a porcelain basin (best not to use plastic as plastic tends to hold on to grease in its pores)
2. Using the hottest water, you can stand (I use an instant tap hot water)
3. Use the E-Cloth for washing windows and slightly wring the water out (or spray with water)
4. Using the E-Cloth designed for drying windows, work in a horizontal directional for catching the dripping water
5. Recycle the water for plants or use it to add the DIY natural lemon cleaner to clean the rest of the house (save that precious water)
6. Enjoy the toxic-free, plastic-free, streak-free windows!

Optional: When cleaning large glass doors or a lot of windows-I use a squeegee to catch most of the water before drying the glass with an E-cloth meant for drying glass.

E-Cloth Dusting Cloth

You can use the dusting cloths to dust wood, glass, ceramic, tile, or anything in your home. I use the high-performance dusting cloth for the final swipe after using the dusting regular cloth. Granted, you do not need both, buying a dusting 2-pack will definitely suffice.

If the wood furniture does need a shine, I use my homemade lemon furniture polish and a regular microfiber cloth. Finished up with a cotton cloth to buff the oils in the wood.

Non-Toxic Homemade Lemon Furniture Polish

• Grated beeswax-1 ounce
• Olive oil-2 ounces (cheap stuff will work)
• Castor oil-1 ounce
• 5-10 drops pure lemon essential oil, adding orange essential oil smells wonderful too if you have it on hand
• Melt all except the essential oil
• Stir in the essential oil
• Put in a glass or metal tin and label
• Never use the E-Cloth to rub this oil in the wood

Use the Range and Stovetop E-Cloth for cleaning stainless-steel appliances such as a dishwasher, stove, and microwave. If one is in the laundry, I will happily use the other. I love using my homemade cleaners with natural lemon vinegar or lemon-moonshine with stainless steel cloths.

Even bleach will break down their ability to clean the proper way. I spray the non-toxic homemade cleaners on the appliance, wipe with the stainless steel or range and stovetop cloth, and follow up with a polishing E-Cloth.

If just starting out buying the cloths, the stainless-steel cleaning 2-pack will work well since one is a scrubber and one is for polishing like the window cloth.

How to Clean and Maintain the E-Cloths

• Once a week wash E-Cloths together with no other laundry using hot water
• Give a good swish using our veggie wash
• Let soak in the water until the water is cool
• Rinsing it again with hot tap water
• Hang to dry will prevent it from contaminating the other E-cloths

With extra bacteria like chicken blood, immediately fill a basin of hot water from the hot water on demand, soak, rinse, and hang to dry. Add a splash of moonshine lemon cleaner if available. Then proceed to launder the other cloths.

Once a month or so, I boil a pan of water on the stove, add slivers of our veggie wash soap, add all the E-cloths and let them simmer for 5 minutes. The E-cloths stay in the water until cool then they get rinsed and hung out to dry in the sun.

I never, ever, use fabric softener on the E-Cloths. A splash of vinegar in the rinse basin will basically do the same.

Storing E-Cloths

Storing E-Cloths is a matter of preference. I understand it may seem like a lot more work to sort them each time and place them in the pouches. It just makes sense to file them in their pouches. When looking for a dusting E-Cloth, it is much easier to find it in the “dusting” pouch. Then try to remember what color the E-Cloth is (yellow).

In Conclusion for Non-Toxic Cleaners

I enjoy making and using non-toxic homemade cleaners I made myself. Using E-Cloths is amazing too to use when cleaning my home. Learn more about greener cleaning benefits in EPA’s post Identifying Greener Cleaning Products.

Lemons are a favorite in my home as well. Lemons are so versatile and if you want to read more click Lemon Health Benefits to read the lemon blog post.

If you’re interested in all things moonshine, check out Moonshine How To where they post all kinds of recipes to enjoy for your drinks over the summer and even tutorials on how to use everything in the moonshine journey!

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