Homemade Citrus Cleaner

Well, hello! It's been awhile... but I've got something good for you today... We made some awesome new All Purpose Citrus Cleaner! I can't wait to tell you all about it!

For most general cleaning purposes, I use my basic window/glass/all purpose cleaner, and it works great. But, I was looking for something that has a little more "oomph" for tougher cleaning jobs, such as greasy stove tops. Many years ago, I used to buy a commercial citrus cleaner which worked great, and I realized that when I stopped buying cleaning products and started making my own, this is one item which I never really replaced. And so that brings us to our current experiment! Here's what we did:

First, we saved up some citrus peels! You can use any citrus peels for this... lemon, orange, clementine, grapefruit, whatever... as long as it's citrus, it will work! Ours were mostly clementines, with a lemon peel or two. Next, we stuffed those peels into a jar, poured in white vinegar to cover the peels, capped it, and wrote the date on the top. Next, we let it sit for two weeks. This was the hardest part! I am not the most patient person. At the end of the two weeks, we strained the now-citrus-infused vinegar into an empty spray bottle and diluted it 50/50 with purified water. That's it! (BONUS: If you have a garbage disposal, don't just throw the spent peels away... you can toss those peels into the disposal to freshen it up... makes your whole kitchen smell great!)

I am sold on this recipe. It works GREAT. I was most surprised that it really doesn't smell too vinegary, but really smells VERY citrus-y!

I have more stuff to share with you soon... Remember our Indoor Potato Experiment? (see also: Indoor Potato Update)They look like they are ready to dig up! Stay tuned....