Homemade Natural All Purpose Cleaner Recipe Using Borax, Vinegar... (2024)

April 22 by Cassie 28 Comments

Join us for our Spring Cleaning Challenge to Organize and Clean for a Thrifty and Healthy Home!

It is time to share a favorite cleaner in most households…. The All Purpose One! All of us love to have a versatile product that does a bit of everything. That is this product for general all-over household cleaning! Pretty much no restrictions and where you can use it. Where ever you would normally use a multi or all purpose cleaner is where you can use this one too!

The better news is that both Hydrogen Peroxide and Vinegar work exceptionally well together to naturally kill bacteria. See this excerpt from the Dr. Mercola site HERE:

“You can make your kitchen a cleaner, safer place and fight bacteria, without exposing yourself and your family to toxic chemicals that also damage the environment. You can use a simple safe disinfecting spray that is more effective than any of the commercial cleaners in killing bacteria. As a bonus, it is inexpensive!

In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner.

The best results came from using one mist right after the other – it is 10 times more effective than using either spray by itself and more effective than mixing the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in one sprayer.”

UPDATE: while vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide are “10 times more effective than using either by itself,” storing both of them in the same bottle may not be safe. So we advise having a spray bottle with 3% acidic vinegar and then this recipe minus the vinegar, but at the time of cleaning, using them together.

So without further ado…. here’s my personal Homemade Natural All Purpose Cleaner!

Here’s the ingredients needed:

• 1 Tablespoon of Borax
• 1 cup of hot tap water
• 1/2 cup of vinegar (UPDATE: keep a spray bottle of vinegar separate to spray on at the same time as the rest instead. This is much more effective!)
• 1/2 cup of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
• 4 -6 drops of dish soap
• 10 drops Tea Tree (a.k.a. Melaleuca) essential oil
• 7 drops of Oregano essential Oil
• 10 drops of Lavender essential oil

The reason why I use all of these oils and ingredients is that they are just the right combination of cleaning and naturally kill bacteria and many other microorganisms that can grow in any part of your home. Just a WARNING…. the vinegar by itself is a strong smell, the Oregano by itself is a strong smell and the Tea Tree oil is strong by itself too! Put them together and what do you get….a very strong smell! It is not the best smell, but I personally like this combination as I feel it is the most effective at my cleaning goals. Thankfully, the smells will not hurt you in any way shape or form, unlike the smelly chemical counterparts!

Also, you can use any combination of the 7 Best Essential Oils for Cleaning, but this is my personal favorite combination for this mix!

Here’s how to make it:

• First, place the 1 TBSP of Borax in a shallow bowl. Then pour the hot water on top and mix with a fork, spoon or whisk until dissolved.
• Using a funnel for ease, pour this mixture into a bottle.

• Then add the 1/2 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide
• Then add the 4-6 drops of dish soap

• Then add all of your oils!

• Put the lid/spray nozzle on your bottle and shake to blend well.
• Then go out there and get the cleaning bug out of you!
• Use with a separate spray bottle of vinegar for 10 times natural cleaning power!

So here’s my estimated cost breakdown for a 16+ oz. bottle:

• 1 TBSP of Borax…maybe .02 worth
• You would be using 4 oz. of Hydrogen Peroxide which is .88 per 32 oz., so this is approximately .12 worth.
• You would be using 4 oz. of Vinegar which is ..04 – .07 depending on where you get your vinegar
• Water, let’s just say free
• Essential Oils – I estimate them to be around .01 a drop at the MOST, so in total, you are probably maybe using .25 worth

TOTAL per 16 oz. bottle = .46

If you get any of the items on sale, it would be even less!

Here’s a printable recipe that you can put in your home binder:

We also HIGHLY recommend that you put this in your home binder along with many more things we will be sharing! See all of the information on this in our previous post HERE about Put Together Your Home Binder with Free Downloads.

Finally, use this new thrifty and healthy cleaning product as part of our Spring Cleaning Challenge.

If you want even more ideas too, be sure to visit these links!

• Shopping list to be able to make 23 natural homemade cleaning products for a very low price tag of $12.
• And then if you wanted to make them anti-bacterial and anti-viral, we also shared the natural but effective add-ins for much less HERE.