This DIY natural lemon vinegar cleaner, using every day ingredients, is INCREDIBLY easy to make. Your home will be squeaky clean in no time!
Table of Contents
Natural Lemon Vinegar Cleaner
In the mood to deep clean your house? Get to work with this vinegar and lemon cleaner. It’s the perfect all-purpose cleaner that’s natural, cost effective and smells great.
I am SO excited to share this homemade lemon vinegar cleaner recipe with you all. After making a big batch of homemade lemonade with my littles the other day, I couldn’t help but stare at all of the left over lemon peels, gathered on my kitchen counter.
I’m one of those, “How can I use this?” kind of gals…who tries to think of every way to use something before tossing it out. I had thought about freezing the peels and then talked myself out of that because I’d just be in the same position, months later, when I looked at them buried in the deep freeze.
Then I thought about creating a recipe where I could zest the peels…but every recipe I could think of, didn’t require the zest of a gazillion (totally exaggerating) lemons. Then I began to remember that I had heard lemons were good for cleaning.
In our home, we try to use as many “natural” cleaners as possible. We are also on the “money saving” plan these days, so making DIY cleaners are right up there on my “to do” list. So, I decided to combine the peels with vinegar (another FABULOUS natural cleaning ingredient) to create my own lemon-vinegar cleaner!
I’m honestly blown away at how much I LOVE this cleaner. After letting the lemons soak in the vinegar for a couple of weeks (recipe below), it was ready to use and I began experimenting. I was cleaning EVERYTHING with it. Bathroom vanities, floors, windows, and the list goes on. It works so well!
Why Does it Work?
The key ingredient here is the vinegar. It makes a wonderful non-toxic cleaning agent and helps get rid of dirt, mold and bacteria. It’s also super acidic, which is great for dissolving any stubborn gunk.
The lemons are added to help offset that strong vinegar smell, leaving your house with a fresh and bright scent.
What to Use it For
This lemon vinegar is an amazing all-purpose cleaner and is so versatile! Use it to clean:
- Bathroom vanities
- Showers and tubs
- Floors
- Windows
- Mirrors
- Kitchen
- Stains
Please note: I would pay very close attention to what you can and cannot use this cleaner on, as the lemons and vinegar are acidic. I refrained from using it on our granite countertops, because I’ve heard it can scratch the surface. This applies to marble countertops as well.
How to Make Homemade Lemon Vinegar Cleaner
I hope you all LOVE using this homemade lemon vinegar cleaner too! I’d love to hear what you think!
Supplies:
- Lemon Peels
- White Vinegar
- Glass Container
Instructions:
Quantities depend on size of your container. I simply just choose a container large enough to hold the amount of lemon peels that I have to work with.
- Place lemon peels in container and completely cover peels with vinegar. Cover and let mixture sit for around 2 weeks.
- Remove peels from vinegar and discard peels. Add water to the vinegar. (I usually do equal parts of vinegar to water.)
Final Note:
The lemon vinegar cleaner isn’t the horrible “smell,” that you would expect. The lemons seem to help balance out the smell of the vinegar, providing a fresh, CLEAN smell (compared to those harsh chemicals of others) that makes me feel good while cleaning.
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Lemon Vinegar Cleaner Recipe
Equipment
- Glass container
Ingredients
- Glass container
- 2 cups White vinegar
- 1 Lemon peels
Instructions
- Place lemon peels in container and completely cover with vinegar. Cover and let mixture sit for around 2 weeks.
- Remove peels from vinegar and discard peels. Add water to the vinegar. (I usually do equal parts of vinegar to water).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Photography and recipe contributed by Jessica from Fantabulosity for I Heart Naptime.
Categorized as: Kitchen Tips, Miscellaneous
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
I did make the recipe. I’m just about done with my two weeks of soaking. So my question is how long can I store the vinegar? Does it go bad?
Thanks, Linda
Hi Linda! The vinegar lemon cleaner can last for a month or until it starts to lose the potency of the cleaner.
Lemon vinegar is a natural solution that’s safe around pets & kids!
I am dying to try some homemade cleaner. This looks awesome. I am going to try this later this week. We are doing some professional carpet cleaning tomorrow. This is on my to-do list for after that. Thanks so much for sharing!!!
How long does this keep? And how do I store it properly?
I like to store it in a glass jar of spray bottle. It will stay good for a couple months.
When I let the lemon peels soak for about 3 week and then I drained it, put in some lemon essential oil. I let it sit under the kitchen sink for about 3 week and I noticed that it had a slimy film on top. Is that just a growth from the vinegar?
I’ve made this recipe and one similar to it a number of times. If you add some dawn liquid soap to this mixture it is perfect for cleaning mold off of things. I thought I would never need to clean mold off of things and then we had an unfortunate storage unit experience. And then I learned what I could and could not save. Using this cleaner was essential in keeping more of our stuff.
This is such a great tutorial! So easy to make! Thank you!
Love homemade cleaners, especially lemon scented ones! I’m excited to use lemons from my lemon tree!
I do essentially the same thing, but only soak for 24 hours. I really like it, and it’s hard to imagine that soaking so long would improve it, but I guess I’ll try it and see. Also, I’ve used both white and apple cider (just the cheap kind) vinegar successfully. It smells so good that I’m also thinking about trying to make vinegar and oil dressing with it sometime.
Could you use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar? Currently the way I make my own all purpose cleaner is mixing ACV and lemon juice along with a few other ingredients, I feel though I would prefer this rind method.
That should be fine!
I stopped using fabric softener and now use vinegar, works great and freshens those towels, so they feel like new and no your laundry will not smell like vinegar, also use vinegar in the toilet bowl, pour into the bowl before bed, leave it overnight and scrub as usual in the morning.
I love this idea. We have a huge lemon tree so I’m always in stock. I’m just wondering if it has to be a glass jar. I have a big can, like a coffee can. Do you think it would make a difference? I’m wondering if anyone has tried it in something else.
Hmmm, I haven’t tried a metal can, but I would be afraid of the acid/metal reaction. I know a plastic bottle will not work, and everything I’ve read has said only glass will work. Could you maybe reuse a tomato sauce jar, or some other glass jar?
I added sprigs of fresh lemon thyme and rosemary to mine then filtered them out and use the liquid in a reusable brown glass spray bottle.
I bet that smells wonderful!
Love this recipe! Thank you!
Hi: The only thing I do differently is add some lemon essential oil (about 40 drops). Makes for an incredible smelling cleaner.
I do basically the same thing with orange peels. Just dump them into a mason jar every morning and adding vinegar to the jar. I mix, as you do, 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar and then add about a tsp of Dawn liquid soap in a spray bottle and if it doesn’t move it gets cleaned with this. I don’t remember the last time I bought a household cleaner. I do not however wipe the buttons on my Keurig any more. They stuck a little for some reason.
Don’t throw the lemon peels away after distilling them…use them in your laundry…especially good for whites!
You can also use them in your foot bath (scrub the dead skin away) or soak your hands in warm water with the peels. You can scrub your garden dirty fingernails with the lemon peels and this will bleach out all the stains from the soil and plants.
Thanks for the tips, Jan!
I love lemon/vinegar cleaners for me ceramic tile floors and counters, but I have heard that you should never use acidic cleaners on natural stone like marble or granite.
Yes! That’s what I’ve heard, too.