3 eco-friendly homemade cleaning product recipes

We’ve been using plant-based cleaning products for a few years now in an effort to create a non-toxic living environment in our home. Natural living with limited use of chemicals is really important to me.

Recently we have taken it one step further by choosing zero-waste cleaning products, but I’d now like to make my own DIY natural cleaning products to save money and change to a totally green cleaning regime.

The importance of creating a non-toxic living environment

We eat as much organic food as possible and I only use natural beauty products whenever possible. We use natural shoap bars each day that act as soap and shampoo. I also use an organic, vegan cleanser every 2-3 days to stop my skin drying out. I actually don’t wear makeup anymore, but I do have natural vegan mascara on standby in my makeup bag if I do need to dress up, which really is never!

We scent our home naturally and use natural cleaning products for the majority of our cleaning. Our aim for a non-toxic lifestyle stretches beyond what we eat and put in and on our bodies. It also goes as far as the products we use in and around our house every single day.

I hate to use chemical products and if they are needed then we use them sparingly. I’d much rather use a natural alternative if it’s available.

It’s to protect our health and the environment. After all, everything we use we breathe in and so it does really enter our body, even if we don’t mean it to.

Everything we use also ends up in the environment affecting our air, water, soil quality and harming wildlife.

It’s worth thinking about next time you are spraying a chemical filled aerosol all over yourself or around the house.

Just how much damage are all those chemicals doing? Where do you think they go once they’re not on you anymore?

The same goes with food that is sprayed with chemical pesticides. They are all washed off and into our water supply or polluting our soils.

Choose a non-toxic environment

Beauty products are the same too.

It was just over seven years ago that I overhauled my beauty regime and changed to natural beauty products only. Back then I wore a lot of makeup most days and I’d never questioned the damage those chemicals were doing to me or the environment.

It’s important to realise that everything we use in beauty ends up in the environment.

The dye you use on your hair, the shampoo in the shower, the makeup you wipe off before bed. Where do you think it all goes?

That’s why it’s so important to choose non-toxic products whenever possible.

Once I’d converted to natural beauty, it wasn’t long before I changed to organic food too. The switch inside me had clicked and I realised there were natural alternatives to everything, including our household cleaning products.

If I didn’t want to put chemicals on my body or in my body, then I didn’t want to fill my house with them either.

It now became obvious to me that these toxic products would come into contact with our skin and we’d breathe them in on an ongoing basis as they clung to surfaces and textiles in our home.

How to make your own eco-friendly homemade cleaning products

The cleaning aisles in the supermarkets are lined with hundreds of chemical cleaning products to suit your every need. There are sprays and cleaners for every possible surface or reason you can think of.

Firstly, we don’t need this many cleaning products. Most of it’s just marketing to make you think you need all these different products for every inch of your house, but in reality just a few products are needed to keep your house clean.

Secondly, a lot of these cleaning products are loaded with chemicals that are really toxic to our health! It’s not healthy to be using these sorts of products on a regular basis as part of your cleaning routine.

I know in my closest supermarket there are two full aisles dedicated to cleaning products, yet only a tiny fraction of the shelves contain plant-based cleaners. There are definitely more brands popping up, but they’re highly outnumbered and undercut by the more well-known brands that most people buy.

If you’re going to buy readymade then make a conscious choice to support plant-based cleaning products. Make the choice for your health, the environment and to support the brands that are trying to make a difference.

If they’re too pricey for you, or you’re ready to fully embrace green cleaning then the best choice is to make your own homemade natural cleaning products. Making your own may sound daunting, but it’s actually really straightforward and you only need a few ingredients.

Your home will be sparkling clean, non-toxic and you’ll save a small fortune too.

DIY natural cleaning ingredients

To get started you’ll need just a few simple ingredients such as the below:

Distilled water
White vinegar
Essential oils (optional for scent)
Castile soap
Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide
Lemon juice

Whilst hydrogen peroxide sounds like it might be toxic at first, it’s actually a non-toxic disinfectant that breaks down into oxygen and water in the environment. Its chemical composition is H2O2, so it’s basically like water with an extra oxygen molecule. When mixed with the right ingredients it becomes a powerful green cleaner!

The best thing is a lot of the ingredients needed for green cleaning products are available in bulk or large bottles, so you can always have some to hand and never run out! Simply mix together some more when your spray bottles run out. Just be sure to keep tabs on when it’s time to replenish your bulk supply.

You only need to use small amounts, usually mixed with water, so they are cost-effective in the long run. It always pains me that when I buy readymade products I am paying several pounds for a bottle filled with 99% water!

You’ll also need a couple of spray bottles, so save your old cleaning bottles and rinse them thoroughly ready for your DIY cleaning products, or buy some eco-friendly glass bottle sprayers from your nearest natural grocery store or online.

Here are DIY recipes for three green cleaning products that will get you started in your quest to create your own. These recipes will help you to remove stains, degrease and spray clean the surfaces in most of your home.