Believe it or not, you don’t need an expensive bottle of all-purpose spray with a million ingredients to clean something. A good homemade all purpose cleaner (that actually works) can be achieved with just TWO ingredients.

A while ago, I heard the wonders of cleaning with Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap and bought a bottle to attempt to make my house cleaning regimen a little greener. As I was researching homemade cleaner recipes, I started to see conflicting advice over whether or not you can mix Castile soap with vinegar.

Thankfully, I came across Lisa Bronner’s blog where she explains that mixing vinegar and Castile soap – while not dangerous – can actually cancel each other out.

While mixing Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds suds and vinegar is perfectly fine according to Lisa, Sal Suds is a powerful enough cleaner on its own.

With Lisa’s recipe, I set out to whip up a batch of my own homemade all purpose cleaner. With the shortage on cleaning supplies during the pandemic, a bottle of Sal Suds lasted me a LONG time. I use this all purpose cleaner for everything – you can even use this homemade spray on painted or sealed wood (not waxed).

Why Sal Suds?

While Sal Suds is a detergent, it has an EWG rating of A. This gentle cleaner is a great alternative to Castille Soap if you’ve ever noticed the soap scum film it can leave behind. According to Lisa Bronner, this is due to the fact that Castille soap is a true soap. The Bronner family developed Sal Suds as a biodegradable household cleaner making it great for cleaning bathtubs and doing laundry.

How to make a gentle homemade all purpose cleaner:

In a spray bottle, combine the following:

16 oz of Water
1.5 tsp. of Sal Suds

Word of Caution: Lisa recommends adding your water to the spray bottle before the Sal Suds, otherwise you’ll have a bubbly, sudsy mess.

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner Recipe

Yield: 16 fl oz

Homemade All-Purpose Spray from lisabronner.com

Ingredients

16 fl oz. water
1 ½ tsp. Sal Suds

Instructions

Fill a spray bottle almost to the top with aprox. 16 fl oz of water.
Carefully pour in 1 ½ tsp of Sal Suds.
Put the nozzle back on the bottle and give it a swirl.

Notes

Caution: Please note that tea tree oil is TOXIC when swallowed and can be dangerous to children and pets. For a truly non-toxic formula, it is best to keep this solution to water and sal suds. However, tea tree oil can add a small antimicrobial punch.