Natural Cleaning Recipes

Most people have been convinced that detergents are necessary for proper cleaning. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Nature gives us everything we need, and below, I am sharing the recipes I created and used over the past 3 decades to clean my home and businesses.

Not only are these recipes all natural and very effective, but they're also easy to make and smell fantastic!

Plus, there are benefits...

  • Simple Ingredients: You can exercise increased control over the ingredients that go into your products, ensuring they are truly natural.
  • Save money: Homemade cleansers are often more cost-effective than store-bought options, saving you money in the long run.
  • Better for your health: Avoiding harsh chemicals commonly found in store-bought cleaners can be better for your well-being and long-term health.
  • Better for the environment: Creating and using your own cleaners means you can reduce the amount of plastic bottle waste that ends up in landfills or harsh chemicals polluting our waterways.
 

This is pretty much all you'll need... 

  • Vinegar
  • Witch hazel
  • Baking soda
  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Natural soap
  • Essential Oils
  • Fortify Plant Serum 
  • Other supplies - Spray bottles, mop, gloves, scrubbers, and cleaning cloths.

The Basic Cleaners

Using the recipes below, you can eliminate the need to bring harsh chemical cleaners into your home by making natural products from simple ingredients. Not only can you be 100% natural, but you'll be surprised at how well they work!

Natural Spray Cleaner:

This recipe will clean almost anything - kitchen counters, toilets, floors, etc... The ingredients will separate quickly, so make sure to shake your bottle every time before using it.

This same recipe can be used on ceramic tile floors and most other floors. Just not on non-absorbent floors, as they may become slippery. 

Also, wood floors need a little moisturizer to help protect them from drying out. So add a tablespoon of jojoba or fractionated coconut oil to the recipe below. These oils are rancid-resistant, have almost no odor, and are very light. 

Natural Scrubber Cleaner

There's no reason to buy any other scrubbing agent. Baking soda is the best way to clean showers, sinks, toilets, and tubs! Just don't use too much water, or you'll weaken its scrubbing potential.

Think like this: baking soda is for scrubbing & water is for rinsing. It's gentle enough not to damage surfaces, but strong enough to remove many greasy, stubborn stains and dirt.

I save empty Parmesan cheese bottles, fill them up with peppermint-flavored baking soda, and stash them under every sink so they are ultra-easy to access.

How to use:

  • Toilet bowls - sprinkle baking soda, scrub, and rinse.
  • Sinks - sprinkle baking soda but do not add water. Instead, use a moist washcloth or scrubber to rub away the scum, then rinse.
  • Heavily soiled areas? Mix baking soda with water and let it soak into the soiled area for a few minutes. Then scrub and rinse.
  • Need a Disinfecting scrub? Just add Fortify to baking soda.
  • Need lifting abilities? Apply baking soda, then pour vinegar over it. The chemical reaction is great at lifting stains. (It also makes a great volcano for first-grade science projects.)

Stinky Shoes:

What causes this horrible odor? Germs! These germs can go everywhere, but they thrive mostly in the moist areas of your body. This is why your armpits, shoes, and other moist skin creases can accumulate odors. We have an entire page devoted to naturally eliminating Body Odors. Check it out!

Dishes:

By using less detergent and more pure formulations, we're each making a better world.

Laundry Cleaner - for clothes & linens

This recipe probably more gentle on your clothes than anything you've ever used, and adding an essential oil gives you a fresh scent, without the dangers of synthetic fragrances (which are known to be hormone disruptors, among other things). I've been using this recipe to wash clothes for over 3 decades. I hope you enjoy it.

    Fungal issues

    Do you have heat rash, itchy skin issues related to fungi or dermatitis, or do you sweat a lot, go to the gym, or work in the garden? Warm, moist environments like those are a perfect breeding ground for fungal infections. Active fungal infections are usually highly contagious. It's important to avoid skin contact with someone who has an active fungal issue, or you may become infected too.

    Fungi can also hide in fabrics and surfaces, so it's important to treat everything that comes into contact with an active fungal infection. (If you have fungal or dermatitis issues on your skin, check out all the ways Alywillow products can give you relief. We are skin experts and have spent years helping people find lasting relief.) This formula should be used as long as a skin fungal issue exists and then for 6 months afterward to help prevent reinfection from your clothes.

    • Add 10 drops FORTIFY Plant Serum to 1/4 cup Baking Soda
    • Pour this mixture onto your clothes in the washing machine.
    • Then, add 1/4 cup Distilled White Vinegar, close the door, and start the wash.
    • Your clothes will be clean and smell great! Plus, they won't keep reinfecting you with an active fungus.
    • If you're unable to wash your infected clothes, you can stop the fungus in the fabric by spraying them with DisinfectNOW.

    Pulling Blood out of Fabric

    *Ingredients & Tools

    I hope you'll enjoy the peace of mind that comes from making your own cleaning supplies. When used together, these few items can give you years and years of cleaning power with no waste and no harm to the environment.

    Since many people often ask me where I get these items, I've listed sources for many of these things below, but most can be found in your local grocery store or drug store, too. Also, I recommend setting up a cleaning station at home where you can store everything in one place. It's actually quite fun to do the mixing.

    • Baking Soda: I normally buy sodium bicarbonate in 50 lb bags (paid link) and then add a bottle peppermint essential oil to the entire bag. Not only does peppermint keep the clothes and bathrooms smelling fresh, but every time I walk past this bag, I smile. It's amazing how certain scents can have such a positive impact on our mood.  If you don't like peppermint, choose an Essential Oil you prefer. Here are some of the best options for cleaning... try Lavender, Lemongrass, Clove, Sage, Eucalyptus, or Wintergreen instead.
    • Bleach: I'm often asked if it's necessary to use bleach against mold or for disinfecting, and no, it normally isn't. I've listed a recipe above for fighting most molds and mildew, and it usually makes bleach obsolete. However, if you choose to use bleach, don't mix it with anything except water. Usually, one capful per one gallon of water is enough.
    • Spray Bottles: Why amber bottles? Time, heat, sunlight, and air can all cause formulas to degrade more quickly. To help your cleaners stay fresh, keep the lid tight, keep the bottle out of sunlight, and use amber-colored bottles. Why so many? Well, have you ever looked for a cleaner and couldn't find it? It's great to keep a bottle under each sink, in the laundry, in the garage,... so you can always find it. Plus, there's a discount when purchasing in volume. This set of glass spray bottles (paid link) includes a funnel and labels. Just add some silicone sleeves (paid link) for protection, and you'll be ready to start mixing.
    • Hydrogen Peroxide - Is this natural? Yes, it is. Hydrogen peroxide is made through the catalysis of the reaction of hydrogen (H2) with atmospheric oxygen (O2) to produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). We don't use it in our Alywillow products, as they are created from pure plants, but it's great for cleaning products. Especially for pulling blood out of fabric. It can be found at any pharmacy and usually at grocery store too.
    • Witch Hazel - Witch hazel is sourced from the witch hazel tree and usually contains alcohol; however, this brand of witch hazel (paid link) is alcohol free and contains no acetates, polysorbates, gluten, dyes, or sulfates! Plus, it helps your cleaning solution dry up really quickly.
    • Mops: After being a stubborn mop-and-bucket user for most of my life, I must say I really enjoy the simplicity of using the Bona mops (paid link) on the hardwood and tile floors in my home. Each one has an attached bottle that will spray the cleaning solution onto the floor when you press the trigger. You won't need to buy their cleaning solutions because you can fill the bottles time and time again from the recipes I've shared above. What about shaking the bottle? Well, simply moving the mop across the floor keeps the solution mixed. Even when I had a large bed-and-breakfast manor house, these mops made it easy to clean the floor quickly. 
    • Cleaning Vinegar: I always keep white vinegar, from the grocery store, in the kitchen - so it's easier for me to use it. But many people prefer cleaning with Used on its own, you don't even need to rinse it off as it leaves no residue. It's great on multiple surfaces, including food surfaces, plastic, grout, porcelain, metal, stainless, painted or sealed wood, sealed stone, baseboards, ceramic... This option is made by a small business - and you know we like that!
    • What is BORAX: I remember my mother helping a family savage their clothes after a house fire back in the 80's. They washed and washed those clothes, but the smell of smoke wouldn't come out, and that's when I learned about Borax. It's a combination of boron, sodium, and oxygen, and it's often found in dry lake beds in places like California's Death Valley, where the water evaporated and left behind deposits of minerals. If you have smoke or minerals on your clothing (like coal dust, cigarette smoke, etc...), adding borax to your wash will clear out even the toughest odor. Many of our grandmothers used it, but it can be hard to find nowadays. This option is a small business brand.
    • Essential Oils: Any grade of essential oil will work for cleaning. At Alywillow, we only use and sell organic and therapeutic-grade essential oils. Some of them are so strong they'll leave a chemical burn. If your skin does start burning, add an oil to your skin - NOT WATER - which will only spread the essential oil further. 
    • Fortify:  Almost every Alywillow product is designed to nurture your body, but not Alywillow's FORTIFY. It's a complex formulation of natural chemicals that attack many forms of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. These "killer plants" are great at getting rid of things. It’s one of our most versatile products and so helpful that many of our customers won't leave home without it. DisinfectNOW is just a diluted form of Fortify and the bottle can be refilled easily with the latter. Both of these are part of our Medicinal Safety Graded product line, and they have many useful disinfecting abilities - sanitizing clothes and shoes, foot fungus, disinfecting the air, earaches, infections inside and outside the body, lung congestion, disinfecting floors, dishes, and surfaces, ticks, warts, and more...
    • Natural Soaps: We make our foaming soaps from pure plants. Even the scents, colors, and preservatives are sourced from plants. There is no lye, no sulfates, and no artificial ingredients. Due to the pure nature of our UDC foaming cleansers, they should be flipped upside down to blend the plants before using. This is why we call them Upside Down Cleansers, or UDC's.
    UDC

    I hope you enjoy my recipes. Please contact us if you have helpful suggestions or would like something more specific.

    Thank you for taking care of yourself and our environment by choosing a natural lifestyle. We might not have it all together, but together we have it all.

    Thank you,

    Aliya Trinity

    Founder of Alywillow Organics