Our Magic Solution...Cleaning Is About To Become A Lot Easier!

Hillela G.
by Hillela G.
$1
Easy
Growing up, my contribution was generally in the kitchen and so, I found myself pretty blissfully unaware of all the elbow grease that goes into cleaning those tough spots that I would never even think to approach.
But there I was, I had moved halfway across the world, newly married, and for the first time ever responsible for my very own apartment.
Thankfully my husband is very tuned in to what needs to be done to keep our home shipshape. But nonetheless, I wanted to contribute.
My 2 goals were these:1. to be as frugal as possible and 2. to be as chemical free as we could manage.
And so, we discovered (from the wonderful Hometalk community) what we now refer to fondly as "the magic solution". It not only fulfils all of our requirements but it literally cleans everything!! Everything. I am not exaggerating.
And the best part is it is easy to make and seriously impresses all of our guests.
Hows that for never-being-a-cleaner???
For the "Magic Solution" you need:


citrus peels ( these can be orange, lemon, grapefruit, ect- at work, we have a basket of fruit in the main lobby and I spent a few days awkwardly collecting my co-workers' garbage. You know what they say- one person's trash...)


A jar- any works, I used a discarded instant coffee jar that I once again rescued from the trash at work ( I might begin to get a reputation...)


vinegar


water


a few drops of dish detergent


Spritz bottle (you can gen get these from a Dollar Store easily)
All you need to do is place the peels in the jar and cover them with vinegar.


Refrigerate the vinegar solution for about 2 weeks. (no more effort nec.)


After 2 weeks, pour the vinegar into the spritz bottle ( you can go ahead and finally dispose of those peels), add almost the same amount of water and the few drops of dish detergent. And....viola!!! Go ahead, try it on your toughest surfaces!


We use it to clean the walls ( we have white walls and they are forever getting stained), as an stovetop cleaner, counter tops, you name it.
Fun fact: in a fix, you can leave out the 2 week wait period with the citrus peels and the solution will be just as effective, only it will leave a distinct vinegar smell behind. The citrus step not only eliminates odor, but it makes it smell kind of great.
Here is a prime example: some crafting left behind a trace of paint on our white walls!!! So much for subtle...
Voila!! Thanks to the magic solution we do not need to reshuffle our furniture to hide the stain!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 11 questions
  • Okie51c Okie51c on Mar 03, 2016
    Does it work on smoke on the walls/ceilings? We have a wood burning stove that leaves smoke stains every winter. Thanks for any help.
  • Lisa House Lisa House on Mar 23, 2016
    Which vinegar, white or apple cider?
  • Yofrendonna Yofrendonna on Apr 12, 2017

    I don't know what I did wrong. I followed the instructions. Now I am inundated with gnats. Seems they love this stuff. as an experiment I set a bowl of this out and found 20-30 gnats in the mixture.

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 63 comments
  • Sarah Shafni Sarah Shafni on Aug 25, 2016
    Great! a non-toxic way to clean!
  • Teresa Teresa on Dec 07, 2016
    I have been trying to be as chemical free as possible for many, many years - There are times it is not really possible ( some furniture stripping) I have used a variation of this and another one is baking soda on oily residue, did you know it removes crayon, even from flat paint and leaves no mark?
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