Orange Vinegar Homemade Floor Cleaner

It has been a lot of fun trying to create things at home instead of going to the grocery store to buy them. One thing on my list to try was homemade orange vinegar floor cleaner.  Yesterday, I cleaned my floors with this homemade solution, instead of the usual Lysol concoction that I have cleaned my floors for years with.

This recipe is simple, and once you try it, you will never want to go back to buying the store bought version!  In my opinion, my floors have never felt so clean, nor the house smelled so good once I cleaned my floors with this solution.

I began by using some orange vinegar that I had made.  It is very easy to make.  Simply dry out enough orange peels to fill a quart sized jar.  Pack in the orange peels into the jar, and pour vinegar over them. Let the vinegar sit in a sunny place for a couple of weeks (shake the jar every once in a while), and then after two weeks you can strain off the vinegar.  Now you have orange flavored vinegar!  (Discard or compost the orange peels).

This vinegar can be used wherever you would normally use vinegar, except it now has a citrus-y smell. I used my orange vinegar to clean my floors, but you could certainly just use regular white vinegar.  I know that part of the reason the house smelled so amazing after the floor scrubbing was the fact that my orange vinegar really just made that citrus-y smell come alive.

The recipe is so simple and easy.  You don't even need to make it ahead (although you could if you wanted to), but I simply just poured the ingredients into the mop bucket.

Orange Vinegar Floor Cleaner

1/4 cup orange vinegar
1/4 cup alcohol
2-3 drops dish soap (I used Dawn, but castille soap would work as well)
10 drops essential oil (I used lemongrass today)
1 gallon hot water

Add all ingredients to your mop bucket, swish around with your mop, and you're good to go!

This is a picture of the "before" of my floor... lots of dog tracks in and out!   (sigh!)

Here is the floor cleaner all mixed and ready to be used.

And  here is the floor after being mopped with this cleaner.  One thing I can't share with you is how wonderful it smelled!  It smelled better than any cleaner I've ever used, and left no streaks.

(Of course, as with all floor cleaners, it is best to check a small area on your floor to be sure it works okay with your flooring.)

The nice thing about this cleaner is that you can add whatever essential oils you have, and try different ones.  If you didn't want the citrus-y smell, you could use white vinegar and add in whatever essential oil smell you desired.  I liked the versatility of this recipe, and the fact that the vinegar, alcohol and dish soap did an amazing job of getting my floors clean, without streaks or stickiness.

So if you're in the mood for a bit of spring cleaning, this orange vinegar cleaner will get you motivated in no time with the lovely fresh scent through the house when you are done.  :)