All Purpose Cleaner Recipe
1 gallon water
1 cup ammonia
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup baking soda
Combine all ingredients. Put in a spray bottle to clean showers, toilets, sinks and counters. Great for most cleaning needs. Use all-purpose cleaner to clean your floors. Just spray on and wipe off as you would counter-tops.
This is not a disinfectant. To make it a disinfectant too I add about 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol to the bottle.
From: The Dining On A Dime Cookbook. For more homemade cleaner recipes, check out Dining On A Dime here!
Photo By: toofarnorth
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I’ll have to give this a try…
The all purpose cleaner works. Thanks for sharing!
If you have asthma ommit the ammonia as it causes lung problems. The water, vinegar, and baking soda will still work just fine.
I’ve started making my own cleaners in an effort to have less toxic chemicals in my home and save money – I will definitely use this recipe!
do you have any other all purpose without ammonia? just wondering. I like vinegar and baking soda but would like a stronger one for some things, particularly like grease.
Tawra sometimes uses a squirt bottle with 4 Tbsp. vinegar, 4 Tbsp. rubbing alcohol, a squirt of dish detergent and then the rest water. It really depends what you want it for. Hot soapy water to me is the best for most everything.
If it helps to know:
Vinegar is good for cleaning residues, shining and does some (about 85%) disinfecting
Ammonia is for cutting grease.
Baking soda is abrasive
Rubbing alcohol is for cutting grease, disinfectant, and shines
Bec’s all purpose cleaner recipe:
Place in a spray bottle: 2 cups water, 1/4 c. vinegar, 2 tsp dish soap. Shake for one minute.
Good article. I have new Corian counter tops and am not supposed to use ammonia on them. Your alternatives work fine for me.
a woman i used to work with at a restaurant many many many yrs ago .. she told me she cleaned her house and etc with hot sudsy water . but she would take a lemon and squeezed it in the water adn dropped the lemon wedge (she said she used a half a lemon per sink full of water.. and if there was any greasy pots/pans and needed scouring .. she would (after soaking the pans/pots) take some table salt, squeeze a lemon and then add a bit of the soapy hot water and just scrub .. she said this worked for her ..
just thought i would share …
thanks for posting this recipe .. i appreciate it ..
You can also add 2 or 3 drops of your favorite essence oil to the All Purpose Cleaner and your whole house will smell great!!
Found this general purpose cleaning solution in a 100 uses for baking soda book…works awesome on counter tops,cutting grease after frying, and soap scum in the tub:
1 tsp borax
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
1/4 tsp liquid dish soap(we used Sunlight)
2 cups hot water
* Be sure to wear rubber gloves when working with this mixture.mix and store in spray bottle(I used an empty and rinsed out Windex bottle…925mL sized and doubled the recipe).
Jill and Tawra, I made the All Purpose Cleaner today. The home health care provider lady that helps us used it to mop the kitchen and bathroom floors. They look clean and real shiney. We will be using it on other things too.
Thanks for the receipe.
Save your lemon/orange peels and add to vinegar – then when you add your vinegar to the cleaning solution you will have a nice citrus scent.
I like that lemon and orange peel idea.
I have a question: I have a linoleum kitchen floor.The pattern has little indents size of a pin head. These do not come clean with regular mopping,have tried mechanical floor scrubber, and mops and the floor still looks dingey. Can anyone help? TY so much I love this site.
I know just the kind of floor you are talking about Cathy and boy do I feel your pain. I had the same stuff and it was a mess. The only thing I could find to ever do was to slosh water with cleaner (sometimes I used dish detergent and Clorox) on a 2-3 foot area, let it soak then took a scrub brush to it. That helped some but it was a job. I didn’t have to do this though but once in awhile because once I got it cleaned it stayed “ok” for a few weeks. My floor was white and that can make a difference too.
Someone else might have a better idea but one thing I have learned over the years in cleaning whether it is a kitchen floor, a stove or a counter top – what ever- let the water and cleaner do the work and let them soak for a bit.