Natural Cleaning Products You Can Make at Home

Why spring is the season for a gentler kind of clean

The first bright mornings of spring have a way of showing you every smudge on the windows and every speck of dust along the skirting. Windows get thrown open, the house takes a deep breath, and the cleaning cupboard suddenly looks far less appealing than the garden. The good news is that you do not need a shelf of brightly labelled bottles to do a proper job. Three things you probably already own — white vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and lemons — will handle most of what a British home needs in spring, from the kettle to the greenhouse glass. They cost pennies, they smell fresh rather than chemical, and they mean fewer plastic bottles coming through the door.

The three cupboard heroes, and what each one does

Understand what each ingredient is good at, and you can improvise all season without following a recipe to the letter.

• White vinegar — a mild acetic acid, brilliant on limescale, water marks, soap scum and light grease. Keep the cheap distilled sort for cleaning and save the malt vinegar for your chips.
• Bicarbonate of soda — a gentle abrasive that also neutralises smells. It lifts burnt-on food, freshens drains and deodorises bins, carpets and the fridge.
• Lemon juice — citric acid, useful for brightening chopping boards, descaling kettles and cutting through grease. Bottled lemon juice works just as well as fresh for cleaning.

Mixing vinegar and bicarb gives a satisfying fizz, but they largely cancel each other out — the bubbles are carbon dioxide, not extra cleaning power. Use them separately, or together only when you actually want that fizz to shift a slow drain.

Sprays and scrubs you can mix in minutes

• All-purpose spray: 1 part white vinegar to 1 part water in a spray bottle, with a few drops of tea tree or lavender oil if you like. Good for worktops, tiles, sinks and splashbacks.
• Glass and mirror spray: 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, plus a drop of washing-up liquid. Buff with a dry microfibre cloth or crumpled newspaper.
• Bicarb scrub: 3 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda, 1 tablespoon of water and a squeeze of washing-up liquid mixed into a paste. Apply to the hob, oven door, sink or stained mugs, leave for ten minutes, then scrub and rinse.
• Kettle descaler: half vinegar, half water, brought to the boil and left to stand for 20 minutes. Rinse, then boil twice with clean water before your next brew.
• Drain freshener: half a mug of bicarb down the plug hole, followed by a mug of warm vinegar. Leave for 15 minutes, then flush through with hot water.
• Microwave steam clean: a bowl of water with a sliced lemon, heated for five minutes. Wipe everything down while it is still steamy.

Bottles, labels and a sensible first test

Decant your mixes into glass spray bottles or clean, well-rinsed plastic ones — vinegar will slowly pit metal fittings and lids. Label every bottle with what is inside and the date you made it, and keep them out of direct sunlight; a batch stays effective for a couple of months. Never mix vinegar or lemon juice with bleach, and never decant a homemade mix into an old bottle that still carries a shop label. Before you use anything on a new surface, test it somewhere hidden — behind the tap, under the lip of a worktop, a spare tile in the corner. Leave it for a minute or two, wipe, and check for dulling. If a manufacturer has given you care instructions, follow those first.

Take it outside: spring jobs in the garden

The same three ingredients earn their keep outdoors, which is handy when you are already in wellies.

• Terracotta pots: soak away white salt and algae marks in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water for an hour, then scrub with a stiff brush and rinse well before planting.
• Hand tools and secateurs: rub rust and sticky sap with a bicarb paste or a vinegar-soaked cloth, dry thoroughly, then wipe the metal over with a little oil.
• Greenhouse glass and cold frames: spray with the glass mix and buff, so more of that spring light reaches your seedlings.
• Bird baths and feeders: wash with hot water and a little bicarb, rinse generously, and dry before refilling.

Where to hold back

Vinegar and lemon juice are acids, and acids are not welcome everywhere. Keep them away from natural stone such as marble, limestone and travertine, which etches and dulls on contact, and from aluminium pans and unsealed cast iron. Skip bicarb on aluminium too, and avoid abrasive pastes on brushed stainless steel, non-stick coatings and anything with a printed finish. Screens, lenses and electrical contacts are best left to products made for them. And for genuine hygiene jobs — raw meat spills, or a sickness bug working its way through the household — reach for an appropriate disinfectant rather than a homemade spray. Everything else in the spring clean is fair game, so open the windows, put the kettle on, and enjoy a home that smells of lemon and fresh air rather than a chemistry set.