DIY All-Purpose Cleaner (Plus How To Make A Glass Spray Bottle)

Heather Dessinger

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how to make glass spray bottles

Yesterday, My Son Ate Some Laundry Detergent

Being the kind, thoughtful mother than I am, I handed him a glass of water to wash it down. That, folks, is the beauty of making your own non-toxic cleaning supplies.

The best part? They WORK. As in, move over Clorox – oregano essential oil can kill spores from anthrax, e. coli and a broad spectrum of bacteria – work. ¹ Certain essential oils have also been found to kill MRSA on contact in under two minutes, while others neutralize salmonella, e. coli and pneumonia. (source)

Yep, you can clear out 90% of your toxic cleaning supplies with some baking soda, vinegar, castile soap and a few essential oils. Dish and laundry detergent need a few extra ingredients, but that’s for another day . . .

Unfortunately, Essential Oils Tend To . . .

Increase the likelihood that plastic bottles will leach the kind of nasties you’re trying to avoid by making your own cleaners in the first place. No worries, though! It’s super easy to make your own glass spray bottle.

Simply take an old screw top bottle (I use an apple cider vinegar bottle) and fit the nozzle from your old spray bottle on top. Voila! 

Need something to put inside your little container of absolute genius? Here’s a recipe to get you started!

How To Make Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner and Spray Bottles That Won't Leach - PLUS a recipe for homemade all-purpose cleaner

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water
  • 2 teaspoons castile soap
  • 20 drops essential oil (see below for options)

Instructions

  1. Pour ingredients into a spray bottle, preferably made of glass
  2. Shake well before use
  3. Store in a cool, dark place. (Essential oils oxidize in sunlight)

Choosing your essential oils:

In various studies, these oils have demonstrated potent antimicrobial properties. Some are more effective in killing e. coli, while others are more effective with salmonella, etc., so it’s best to use them blended together.

If there’s a particular strain you’re trying to target check out this study, but in general find that they all work well for run-of-the-mill house cooties.

Note: Though I do try to make cleaners and beauty products that are safe enough to eat, I don’t recommend ingestion of essential oils in general. Some can be used as flavorings and there are times in which I might use them internally, but it is not a practice I take lightly. Also, some oils can cause respiratory problems in susceptible children, so I’ve marked the ones that are generally considered safe for use around kiddos. All essential oil solutions should be kept out of children’s reach.

  • lavender – kid friendly
  • lemon – kid friendly, and especially helpful in the kitchen as a degreaser
  • grapefruit– kid friendly
  • pine– kid friendly
  • cinnamon
  • tea tree– kid friendly
  • clove*
  • eucalyptus
  • peppermint– fine for kids over six
  • rosemary
  • oregano
  • spruce– kid friendly

Want non-toxic cleaning recipes that WORK?

I’ve created a free ebook for you as a gift for signing up for my newsletter. 7 Non-Toxic Cleaning Recipes That Really Work covers seven recipes that you can make in just a few minutes each for squeaky clean windows, sparkling dinnerware, lemon-fresh countertops, and more. Subscribe to my newsletter below and you’ll be redirected to a download page for immediate access to this PDF ebook.

Sources:
¹ Archives Microbiology, Volume 174, October 2000; Quarterly Review Biology, Volume 73, March 1998

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world. 

Leave a Comment

131 thoughts on “DIY All-Purpose Cleaner (Plus How To Make A Glass Spray Bottle)”

      • Heather, I use hydrogen peroxide with distilled water and an essential oil for cleaning. You do need to be careful of how much you use so not to dis-color anything, but I have found when you use it with the distilled water it works great as a fabric refresher, (like Febreeze), but again do a patch test to make sure you don’t take the color out of your furniture or other material. The finer the mist the better for the air and furniture. Hydrogen peroxide is also a natural disinfectant. You can replace your bleach with it too. Hope this is helpful. thanks

        Reply
      • When I try to sray essential oil mixtures through the sprayers, they clog up! Do you know if there is a special kind of sprayer that can pump oil based products? (I do like to use a lot of the oils)

        Reply
      • hey heather i have a question!!

        if we were to use distilled water for the formula and lets say I boil the water , afterwards do I wait until it cools down to room temperature?

        thank you!!! 🙂

        Reply
    • Thieves oil works great to add for the cleaner. But even better yet, Use the Thieves cleaner. It is great as a degreaser, tub, shower, floors…very concentrated, and you can add 1 capful per spray bottle of water.

      Reply
  1. First, I love your new bio picture, you look great! Second, I’ve been trying to remember where I saw a liquid hand soap recipe without glycerine? I love your DIY Beauty book (on day two of my own sandalwood& vanilla skin care line!) and I’m excited to try the all purpose cleaner. Thanks for the bottle tip too I know over enough time tea tree oil can “eat” away at the plastic so I like the option and our ACV bottle is almost empty! 😉

    Reply
    • I have always assumed Kiss My Face brand soap is totally natural- if you know its not ignore this reply. A few weeks ago I took one bar of Kiss My Face Olive Oil soap and grated it then boiled it with four cups of water until dissolved and it got kind of slimy and gross. But I let it sit in a bowl overnight then put it in my hand pumps. It comes out a pretty good consistency for hand soap.

      Reply
      • I haven’t purchased their products so I’m not sure, Amanda! The olive oil looks pretty good, but I’m not sure why they put refined salt in it. Refined salt is not healthy, but I’m not sure it would have much of an impact in small amounts. The “fragrance” in their other soaps could be just about anything, so I personally would steer clear of those.

        Reply
  2. Do you/anyone have any combination recommendations for the above oils? I’m so new to all this I don’t feel comfortable jumping right in combining my own (:

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  3. This is great! I just bought oregano oil for a mouthwash recipe from Diane Kidman’s Beauty Gone WIld book. Now I have something else to use it for. Thanks!

    Reply
  4. I just read an article the other day about not mixing castile soap with vinegar – have you ever heard this? It was news to me because I always make my cleaner very similar to the recipe you posted but now I’m rethinking it!

    Reply
    • Yikes, I actually knew that from when I formulated shampoos, but somehow forgot! It’s never been an issue for me with this recipe – maybe because it’s such a small amount of castile soap?? Whatever the reason, I’m correcting it now. Thanks, Kelli!

      Reply
    • Vinegar has a low pH, soap has a high pH, therefore when you put vinegar together with soap, they will try ‘solve’ each other. This however makes vinegar the best thing to use to get rid of soap residue!

      Reply
  5. I made a recipe similar to this a few years ago, was really excited about it—but when the spritzer hopelessly clogged I read (the same article commenter Kelli B. posted above actually) that some say it’s best not to combine vinegar and soap. Thoughts?

    Love your vinegar bottle tip! Was just thinking how I’d like to switch to glass!

    Reply
    • Yikes! I actually knew that from when I formulated shampoos, but somehow forgot it! It’s never been an issue for me with this recipe (maybe because it’s such a small amount of castile soap) but I’m correcting it now. Thank you!

      Reply
    • Whole Foods says theirs is non-GMO, but some of their other “non-GMO” stuff was recently busted for being falsely labeled 🙁

      Reply
    • Here is a little Science for today.
      While it is good to insist on not using Franken-Foods, distilled products simply cannot contain the ‘bad things’ that are suspected to be in GMO foods.
      The distillation process boils a substance, and the vapors from the boiling are cooled to become liquid again.
      The proteins, sugars, starches and other food products used to ferment the raw vinegar simply stay in the boiler.
      Water vapor (steam) and vinegar (acetic acid) are the only bits that boil out of the kettle.
      What chemicals would GMO sourced distilled vinegar have that natural sourced does not?

      I resent that Big-Agra is trying to redefine what food is, but I have yet to see any solid data on the contamination the GMOs’ are supposed to carry.
      If eating a GMO apple is bad, please let me know WHY it is bad.
      I am an engineer/technician, so break it down in chemical/biological terms.

      I am not trying to ‘bust’ anyone here, but at the same time I can’t find a lot of evidence of harm (other than messing with functional ecological systems, toxic ‘ancillary chemicals’, destroying genetic diversity, attempts at food-monopolies and reduced choices/quality in the marketplace) that GMO foods themselves have caused.
      Any links would be greatly appreciated.

      Reply
      • Thanks for the information put out there to everyone about distillation. I was hoping for an answer from someone on the rest of your comment. I am very interested in the eating and cleaning and living healthier but some of the things seem a little far fetched and i do like to have done sort of empirical evidence to certain claims before just jumping into an idea or new way.

        Reply
  6. thank you for this heather! i used plain vinegar this week to sanitize our *sick* house but now that i have a handful of oils on hand i will try this out!
    i LOVE the glass bottle idea…i agree…its brilliant! and so good to know that using EO can cause leaching w plastic!

    Reply
  7. My husband and I have made cleanser like this for the past six months, but I love your recipe better than the other! And it’s great to know what each essential oil you can use in cleaners. I am going to give this a try 🙂

    Reply
  8. Interesting post. I will try doing the glass bottle. It hadn’t even popped into my head that my plastic bottle was leaching.

    Reply
  9. Great site. Thanks. I already shared my new find 😉
    On the bottle, may I suggest. A brown glass bottle, say from ACV maybe? It may help the cleaner las longer should you forget to return it to the cupboard.

    Looking forward to trying many of your recipes.

    Reply
  10. I love using essential oils to clean! I’m using OnGuard right now and it smells so good. Thanks for the bottle trick! I will definitely be saving my acv bottle now!

    Reply
  11. I was going to look into purchasing glass spray bottles, so the used ACV bottle trick will save me some money. 🙂 Regarding which oils are safe for children in case of ingestion, like a poster above, I would appreciate some guidance about which oils to combine to get an effective cleanser, particularly which ones are safe for babies. I do have a new bottle of OnGuard oil; would it be safe if accidentally ingested? Also, this gives me an opportunity to ask something I’ve been wondering about the homemade hand sanitizer (with lavender and rosemary oils). Is that safe to spray on baby’s hands? I see that lavender isn’t marked above as one that is safe for internal use. But of course my baby puts his hands directly into the mouth – all the time! So if the hand sanitizer is on the hands, it will be ingested. 😉 Any suggestions which combination of oils would be best for the cleaner AND what would be best for the hand sanitizer? (for the sanitizer, I just combined the oils with water, but am questioning which oils)

    Reply
    • Lavender is a great oil to use for hand sanitizer. Lavender is actually edible and often used in allot of baby products to sooth a baby or an adult to sleep. My son-in-law is a Licensed Massage Therapist and uses all sorts of essential oils for different things. He uses rose water for air freshner and he puts lavender oil on cotton balls to chill evryone out when they all come home. It makes for a very happy home.

      Reply
  12. Please share your recipe for laundry detergent! I found one I like but it is involved enough that I know I will not make it very often.

    Reply
  13. Dish soap! I have tried and the recipes I’ve used can never quite cut the grease (all those delicious healthy fats we eat).

    Reply
  14. Hi! Thank you for this great blog and recipe! I will definitely try this! I would also love to learn how to make laundry detergent(I am about to try soapnuts) and dishwasher detergent( I have tried vinegar and it seems to work : ) Thank you again!

    Reply
  15. such a good idea with the glass bottle! I’ve been slowly but surely getting rid of plastics. I usually just mix water and vinegar but need to add essential oils and get rid of the plastic spray bottle. Ugh, plastics are everywhere!!! Please post the laundry detergent recipe 🙂

    Reply
  16. You can use vinegar and peroxide to disinfect also. For my kitchen sink, I keep seperate spray bottles under the sink. Keep your peroxide in it’s brown bottle, as light will degrade it. Also it’s not ok to mix the two in the same spray bottle and use…once again it will degrade. Spray your sink with vinegar and then spray with peroxide and just let sit a while–I actually just do it right before bed when I start our dishwasher, no rinse needed.

    Reply
  17. Thanks for the tips about using an old ACV bottle! Great tip. You also want to make sure your vinegar is made from non-gmo grains and not petroleum!

    Reply
  18. I’ve been using a homemade cleaner recipe for about 2 years now, and I’ve loved it. The recipe does have both vinegar and Castile soap in it, but I’ve never had the separating described in the article two people left in the comments. The recipe I use is:

    2 cups water
    1/2 cup vinegar
    3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
    1 tsp. peppermint Castile soap
    20 drops tea tree oil
    20 drops lavender oil

    I would love to know if I’ve been doing something wrong! LOVE the ACV bottle repurpose idea. I had’nt given a moments thought to something being wrong with my dollar store spray bottles :). Also, is it wrong to use white vinegar that may have GMO origin if it’s only for cleaning?

    Reply
  19. Is there any rule of thumb on using lemon juice as opposed to lemon essential oil? I haven’t discovered the answer in my google searches. In trying to be frugal and use what I had on hand, I thought I could just use juice, but I’m not sure if it acts the same in the recipe as the EO. Also, I found a recipe recently where you packed lemon or orange rinds into a mason jar and covered them with vinegar and stored for two weeks, then strain the liquid off and use that as a cleaner. I’m just looking for a quick fix I can make today and not have to wait two weeks or until I can get some EO at the store!

    Reply
      • I’ve been told that vinegar (and other acidic things, I think?) can damage granite countertops. So I totally like the lemon/vinegar infusion you linked to, and all the all-purpose cleaners with vinegar, but I’m wondering if there is another option for granite that is still safe and effective and smells good. 🙂

        Reply
        • Hmmm, I’m not really sure Tara! If it were me I’d probably a recipe like this one with organic alcohol (due to GMO contamination) and castile soap instead of Dawn (I’d probably use a few more drops).

          Reply
    • I made some of that citrus rind/vinegar cleaner and used it on a shiny floor where the people have me use vinegar and water on it. It leaves a film….

      Reply
    • Yes, you can use lemon juice and vinegar at the same time as they’re both acidic. I’d use 1 to 3 ratio (1/2 cup vinegar and lemon juice each -to make that 1 cup- to 3 cups of water). It’s powerful enough to clean but should be safe for porous surfaces. Essential oils should not be used as acid will destroy them.

      Reply
  20. I know this might be a dumb question, but will this all purpose cleaner work for carpets? I used to spray some smelly stuff before I vacuumed and it made the house smell soo good!!
    And could I used wild orange or any citrus eo for the receipe?

    Reply
  21. Heather, I would absolutely LOVE a hand washing dish detergent recipe! I’ve tried quite a few and haven’t liked any of them. Your recipes always work. Thanks!

    Reply
  22. Wow, why didn’t I think of that. I’ve been converting all of my containers to glass for the past couple years and just hadn’t thought of how to do that one yet!

    Reply
  23. Great post! I have been thinking about making my own household cleaner, but had no idea that the plastic bottle would leach chemicals into the cleanser! Thanks for the glass bottle idea, I’ll definitely be doing that instead.

    Reply
  24. Okay, I have been making my own cleaning supplies for years now and am just now doing research and trying to find ways to make things better and more natural. Can you explain what leaching is a little better? I had never heard of this. In my recipes I was typically using water, essential oils and vinegar. And I just put it into an old plastic spray bottle. Are you saying I should stop using plastic bottles? I defiantly will, I just want to understand why that is. THanks so much!!!

    Reply
    • Some essential oils can actually dissolve the chemicals in plastic, which could then be sprayed on the surfaces you’re cleaning. 🙂

      Reply
  25. this is so great! thank you! i am wondering if you can suggest the best bug deterring essential oil. we have house centipedes :::shudder::: and i am wondering if i clean with this in the areas they like to say hi, maybe i can scare them away with some oils. any suggestions? truthfully, i just want to move. but bugs are everywhere…unfortunately 🙂

    Reply
  26. I have always heard that lemongrass deters bugs- not sure if that would work for centipedes also, but always worth a try.

    Reply
  27. Thanks Heather! Some how I never knew that could happen when you use plastic bottles. Are there certain essential oils that do this more than others?

    Reply
    • I read on another site that you can sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth anywhere you have bug issues, including near or around pet beds (because it’s safe). I just bought a bag at, “Healthy Alternative” and it was around $3 or so. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  28. I just wanted to add that fermented cod liver oil darkened bottles also work as reusable bottles!! They fit the sprayers at walmart in the travel stuff section…and they are amber so it’ll would work for light sensitive products!!

    Reply
  29. I have looked and don’t see that the question about which oils was answered. I am new to this and need more specific instruction. Sorry.

    Reply
  30. I just made some cleaner and was looking all around the kitchen for a glass bottle that would work. My husband got a bottle of Jack Daniels Honey Whiskey for xmas from work- and it worked perfectly!!! I used a spray top from another bottle. So glad I didn’t throw out that bottle when it was empty!

    Reply
  31. I love the idea of re-using an ACV bottle, but I didn’t have any tops to go with it. 🙁 If anyone is interested, I ordered some cheap trigger-spray tops from Midwest Bottles. They were cheap (at only 65 cents a top, and some others were cheaper!), and came quickly. I didn’t want to go to the dollar store (the only place I’ve found plastic spray bottles) and be left with a bunch of plastic bottles with no top. So for me, this was the next best thing.

    In my experience, the 28-400 size fits my Braggs ACV bottle as well as my Eden Organics ACV bottle. I’m pretty sure that’s a “standard” size. There are other kinds/colors on the site as well.

    Anyway, it’s not recycling. But if you’re like me, and don’t have any trigger-spray tops to reuse, this is a cheap alternative. (Also, in my opinion, because of shipping, it would be easiest to order a lot with a few people, just a thought!).

    Reply
    • Kristen – Do you still have tops to sell? I know you posted over a month ago but I’m just now reading this and would love to buy some from you if you still have them. 🙂

      Reply
      • Oh! Sorry Alyssa! I wrote with the intent to pass along information, not try to sell anything. Sorry for the misunderstanding. But, I would still recommend Midwest Bottles. If I remember right, they will let you buy any amount from 1 to… well, a lot ( I can’t remember the number 100? 1000?). I hope you are still able to get what you need. Sorry again if I didn’t articulate well!

        Reply
    • It’s less-than-ideal for the nozzle and hose to be made of plastic, but I consider it the best option given what’s commonly available.

      Reply
  32. But what about the plastic spray nozzle? All the cleaner has to pass through the little plastic tube. Won’t that leach with the exposure to the essential oil too?

    Reply
  33. Would the all purpose cleaner be ok to clean bath toys? I like to soak my boys bath toys ever so often to make sure no mold is growing.

    Reply
  34. I use straight up food grade hydrogen peroxide mixed to a 3% solution to clean everything. It does a great job and leaves the smell of Oxygen. It is the best stuff ever. Cuts grease, kills bacteria, and cleans counter tops without residue. Forget all of that other stuff about essential oils unless you want your house to smell like a head shop!

    Reply
    • Hi

      I’m thinking along the same lines but tell me do we really need brown bottles for this mixture so light doesn’t destroy it?

      Reply
    • You obviously have not been shown the many choices of essential oils! You’re probably thinking of Patchouli, but there are many other scents like wild orange, lemon and grapefruit.
      Hydrogen Peroxide is a great choice for cleaning, as well as baking soda, (in fact, I saw a natural cleaner at the store for $12. The 2 ingredients were water and Hydrogen peroxide)
      I prefer a nice smell sometimes, the ‘oxygen’smell is kind of plain

      Reply
  35. Try soaking orange peels in vinegar for a couple of weeks, then removing them. It makes the vinegar smell better, and I bet some of the oils come out into the vinegar. Lemon peel would also work this way.

    Reply
      • Hi Heather,

        How long do your spray nozzles last? I bought what I thought were “industrial” ones because someone (I forget which blogger) said they are worth the extra money. They were over $4 each and only lasted 4 months…

        Reply
  36. I read the article in support of using essential oils to kill gram + and gram – bacteria. This article only studied the use of the oils in a vaporous state and a closed system.

    Reply
  37. I love this recipe, love essential oils, and love the whole idea of DIY cleaning products, but the references to ingesting essential oils concern me. Given that many readers won’t know much about essential oils — how highly concentrated they are and that they’re categorically different from other types of oils — I think it’s important to include safety information when referencing ingesting any essential oil. While the asterisked essential oils may indeed be safe when ingested in small amounts, some essential oils can be highly toxic or fatal if ingested in large amounts, as you know (and “large amounts” are actually fairly small amounts). A child who tastes a few drops of peppermint oil from an essential oil bottle may see the same type of bottle — but this time it’s pennyroyal oil. Of course, the child’s parents are responsible for the child — which is why I think it’s really important to give those parents (your readers) the basic safety lowdown…and maybe also toning down the edible aspect of the recipe. Thanks for considering.

    Reply
  38. I never would have thought to re-use glass bottles like that, great idea. I typically just use vinegar/water for most cleaning, lemon oil or orange oil for some yummy smell is all I’ve tried adding so far.

    Reply
      • I’ve been using the glass vinegar bottles for sprayers for a while now, and have been wondering about the plastic nozzle and tube too. I wish they made something like metal nozzles, with glass tubes! Please let us know if you ever find anything like that! : )

        Reply
  39. Hi everyone – just a question about spray bottles to use for this recipe. Could you use an aluminium spray bottle? I have little ones and would be worried about myself accidentally dropping it lol 🙂

    Reply
  40. Thanks for the post! Do you have any trouble with the plastic straw that is attached to the spray nozzle? I’m wondering how that will hold up since it is plastic and will be sitting in the cleaning solution.

    Reply
  41. So I have been using the castile soap version of your recipe (using lavender Dr. Bronner) and love it for cleaning up potty training “accidents” and such…but I have a terrible time with it streaking my granite counters. 🙁 Any ideas or thoughts? Thank you!

    Reply
  42. Any suggestions on combinations of the essential oils you listed? Since I don’t know what each is more effective at treating I wasn’t sure where to start with combining them, or to just put like 3 drops of every one! LOL Thanks!

    Reply
  43. I can’t seem to find in your book where it explains why my homemade detergent leaves a filmy residue. Could you tell me what page that is on? Also, I have granite and natural stone throughout my house, so many of your recipes are out because of the vinegar. I’m wondering what I could use in place of the vinegar to get the same germ killing benefits. Would grain alcohol be a good substitution? Thank you for any help!

    Reply
    • Hi Heather, I think what you’re looking for is on page 37. Rubbing or grain alcohol are typically what’s used for granite . . . I’m not sure about natural stone.

      Reply
  44. To clean my windows I use a mixture of white vinegar and water and it works so well. You should try it! Thanks for this article! Barkingside Carpet Cleaners Ltd.

    Reply
  45. I’m looking for a disinfectant cleaner to spray on my granite countertop after I have cut up raw chicken. Vinegar isn’t good for granite. Do you have a recipe?

    Reply
  46. I just discovered you on the Internet and would love to purchase your book in print. Do you plan to make it available in print any time soon?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  47. Here’s a thought… Save the bottle lid so when you’re done cleaning you can take out the sprayer nozzle and rinse and store it, but keep a lid on the cleaning solution. Just put the sprayer in when you’re going to use it.

    Reply
  48. HI, can i spray this solution on my carpet and couches as well before vaccuum. AND can i clean my kitcjen counter and wooden tables with this as well.

    Reply
  49. We have that has been setting for a long time. There is a very bad smell from mold. What essential oil can we use to clean the leather seats ? The carpet ? Thank you

    Reply
  50. If there is a chance of the plastic bottle leaking into the cleaning solution, what about the sprayer then? That is also made of plastic! Does anyone know a solution for that?

    Reply