Homemade Furniture Dusting Spray
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One of the homemade cleaners that I’ve been making and using the longest is my homemade dusting spray. It was one of the first homemade cleaners I tried because I had never been a fan of the smells of the commercial dusting sprays such as Pledge or Endust and I was hopeful that I could find a more natural replacement. Could I make my own dusting spray and be satisfied with it?
The answer to that question turned out to be a big YES – and I’ve been happily using it ever since. In fact when I first wrote about my homemade dusting spray in 2011, I began the blog post by stating, “I had fun dusting today” and indeed that was the truth because it felt so good to me to be done with those other smelly sprays!
Making A Natural Dusting Spray for Wood and Other Surfaces
This homemade dusting spray recipe is an easy mixture of water, vinegar, and olive oil, with just a little bit of lemon essential oil. The vinegar adds a little cleaning power and the olive oil adds some moisturizing benefit.
You’ll find that the water and oil will separate a bit as the mixture sits. However I’ve always found that it’s no problem at all to give the bottle a little shake as needed while dusting to get those couple of teaspoons of olive oil incorporated into the mixture again.
This spray has been a great option for a homemade dusting spray for wood and I use my spray the most on our wooden tables and wooden bedroom furniture. I also use it on a few painted wood surfaces (such as our fireplace mantle) and my “wood look” laminate desk top. I’ve been using my spray on these types of surfaces for over 10 years now and it’s worked wonderfully with no damage to the furniture either.
However I don’t use this spray on any glass or mirrored surfaces because of the olive oil in the mixture which doesn’t wipe away cleanly from those type of surfaces.
I’ve also had readers tell me this mixture works great on stainless steel too. However because I don’t have any stainless steel appliances in my home, I’ve not tried that personally. If you would like to give it a try on stainless steel, I would suggest you give it try in a small inconspicuous area first to see if you like how it performs.
Will The Olive Oil In The Dusting Spray Go Rancid?
After first writing about this recipe and the use of olive oil in the mixture, I did get some questions wondering if the olive oil would go rancid. I’ve found that this is not a concern at all with this mixture. It takes olive oil several years to go rancid and it’s really more of a taste issue anyway which is not a concern for this recipe.
To see my answers to a few more questions about this recipe you can read this post: Homemade Dusting Spray – Answering Your Questions
Homemade Dusting Spray Saves Money Too!
Another thing I love about this recipe is that it’s a money-saver too. The main ingredient is the 1-3/4 cups of water. The ¼ cup of white vinegar and the 2 tsp of olive oil are also common ingredients that most folks have around their house too.
I do like to add a few drops of lemon essential oil to my mixture which is on my list of favorite affordable essential oils that you can usually buy for a reasonable price. However if you don’t want to spend money on an essential oil, you can leave that ingredient out or substitute another essential oil for fragrance that you may already have on hand.
Homemade Dusting Spray Is One Of My Favorites!
I’ve been making my own cleaners for several years now and when it comes to cleaning sprays, I’ve found that there are six main cleaning sprays that I make all the time. This homemade dusting spray is one of those six! You can read more about my six favorite homemade cleaning sprays here: 6 Easy Homemade Cleaning Sprays.
It’s also one of the cleaning spray recipes that I now keep in my DIY color coded cleaning spray bottles. This has been a very helpful system for me too and I’ve really enjoyed having everything in sturdy glass bottles.
If you’d like to leave behind those smelly commercial dusting sprays too, this is an easy and natural alternative that you can mix together quickly and easily. Like me, once you try it, you’ll probably never go back to the store bought stuff again!
This post was originally published in February, 2011 and was updated September, 2021. Here’s the original photo from back in the good old days.
More Easy Homemade Cleaning Ideas:
- My “No Vinegar” Hardwood Floor Cleaner
- Peppermint Soap Spray Cleaner
- Homemade Daily Shower Cleaning Spray
- How To Sew Your Own Cleaning Cloths
Homemade Furniture Dusting Spray
Equipment:
- Spray bottle of at least a 16 oz size
Materials:
- 1-3/4 cups Water
- 1/4 cup White Vinegar
- 2 tsp Olive Oil
- 10 drops Lemon Essential Oil (optional)
Instructions:
- Combine all the ingredients in a 16 oz spray bottle.
- To use: Spray on furniture and wipe with a soft cloth.
Notes:
Thanks for sharing these amazing cleaning tips. I’m sure it will help me in better preparing for the Christmas.
What if you do not have olive oil? Will it have a different effect?
The olive oil in the recipe is helpful for nourishing wood and for a little helpful polishing, but if you don’t have any you could give the recipe a try without it and see if you are still happy with the results.
I’m just scared of the olive oil and vinegar on the wood and leather couches.
1) Will this recipe attract dust and keep the surface sticky due to olive oil?
2) Will the vinegar over time damage the leather couches and real wood furnitures?
3) Can this recipe be used on BONDED leather couches, and leather headboard?
4) What is the expiry of this product?
Thanks,
Angel
Here’s answers to your questions Angel: 1) There isn’t enough oil in this recipe for there to be stickiness on furniture and also there’s not enough oil to attract extra dust. I’ve never had either of those problems. 2) I’ve been using this recipe for over 3 years on my wood furniture with no damage. I don’t have a leather couch to speak from personal experience on that one. 3) Again, I don’t have a leather couch so I can’t give any personal experience but most of the info I’ve found on “bonded” leather says to just clean with a damp cloth, 4) I always use my homemade dusting spray up within a couple months. However there is really nothing to “expire” in the ingredients so I believe you could keep this for many many months with no problems. I hope that helps!
This can also be sprayed and rubbed in to your pets hair and is a natural repellant to ticks and fleas. They don’t like citrus smells.
Pam, please be careful in using essential oils with dogs and cats–they usually are toxic. Gail D.
Can you substitute canola oil for olive oil?
Thanks
Yes, I think you could probably substitute canola oil for the olive oil. Olive oil always feels like a slightly “lighter” oil to me so I like to use that, but another vegetable oil should work too.
Can you use fresh lemon juice or fragrance oil instead of essential oil?
If you use fresh lemon juice, I would substitute it for the vinegar in the recipe. Because both vinegar and lemon juice are acidic, I would use one or the other in the recipe and I would not double them up together. I think it would be OK to substitute a few drops of fragrance oil in the mixture too.
Can you use apple cider vinegar in place of distiller white vinegar?
I tried to do some research and couldn’t find much to answer this question. I think it could be substituted because both have about the same acidity. Usually apple cider vinegar isn’t used in homemade cleaners but I’m not sure why.
Maybe because it’s more expensive?
On a tight budget and need to dust. I have all of these ingredients on hand. Thank you!!!
I just made and used this spray and it is wonderful! Instead of spraying it directly onto furniture, I sprayed it on a soft dust rag and it worked great. I was wondering how it would work on glass shelves (I thought the olive oil might leave a film) but it works better than glass cleaner. Thanks!
So glad you are liking the spray! I do think the olive oil in this recipe would leave residue on your glass. I love club soda for an easy homemade glass cleaner and you could maybe give that a try.
this sounds great! Can I also use this to clean my leather furniture?
Yes, I think this mixture should work on leather furniture. The small amount of olive oil in the mixture should help to condition the leather and the vinegar will help to clean it.
After my shock today at the price for a can of Pledge ($5.99) at CVS (because that’s where I was stopping for something else) I am glad to have found this recipe and will try it out ASAP!
Yes, this recipe is a great money saver and I think it works better than Pledge too!
I test out popular “pins” on my blog, and I tried yours out and found it to be a great dusting spray. I decided to give it a whirl as a stainless steel cleaner, and it is literally the best stainless steel cleaner I’ve ever tried (diy and store bought)! You should definitely give it a a try, if you haven’t already. Here’s my post if you are interested: http://myso-calledmommylife.blogspot.com/2013/03/pinterest-hits-misses-part-4.html#
Thank you for sharing!
I’m excited to hear this works good on stainless steel too! I don’t have any stainless steel appliances, but maybe I will have to test it out on my stainless steel sink. One of the things I love about homemade cleaners is that they are almost always so multi-purpose and can be used in many different ways. Thanks Bridget for giving this new idea for the dusting spray!
What about for laminate furniture? I have been using a water/vinegar mixture for mine, but don’t want to do that on the real wood we have. Does this leave laminate oily?
I have used this mixture on both laminate and real wood surfaces and it has worked well on both with no ill effects. It does not leave surfaces oily either.
Thanks!!! I’ve been looking for a recipe like this!!! i just discovered some excellent info that gives some healthy reasons to use lemon oil.
http://www.natural-aromatherapy-benefits.com/lemonessentialoil.html
Hope you don’t mind I am going to link to this on my “Living Green” blog. I tried this recently and OMG, I am never going back to Endust or Pledge! This worked so well and I love that my kids can help with dusting without being exposed to who knows what chemicals! Heck, they can even drink this if they wanted to (I replaced the lemon essential oil with a fresh squeezed lemon instead so it really is “edible”.) 🙂
I would be flattered to have you link back to this recipe. 🙂 This is one of my most favorite homemade cleaners and I use it all the time. Bye Bye Pledge!!
I’ll have to give this a try since I’m on a mission to replace our old commercial cleaning supplies with natural ones.
I found a furniture polish recipie once that was only olive oil & lemon juice. Though it really shined up my wood it seemed to attract dust after. I am happy to find the additions.
I have heard other people report the same thing. The oil does shine things up but if it’s not diluted, it seems to attract dust.
Hi there,
I was wondering if you have been using this blend on a weekly basis, biweekly, or about once a month.
And have you seen any wear and tear, build up/stickyness, streaks, peeling, or anything else adverse?
Have you used it on anything other than wood?
Thanks so much!
I’ve been using my furniture dusting blend every week and have not seen any adverse effects. I use it mainly on my bedroom furniture and haven’t noticed any stickiness or any change in the wood, and I have been using it for many months now. I have also used it once in a while on my kitchen counter and on the bathroom sink area simply because that was the cleaner I had in my hands. I worked well on those surfaces too.
I use vinegar mix for my laminate wood floors instead of expensive cleaners.For I must with 3 dogs tracking in mud daily mop daily and I want it also disinfected which the vinegar does.Seeing that I can make a homemade nontoxic dusting spray makes me happy.I don’t mind the vinegar smell.It smells clean and refreshing but maybe I will eventually will try a scent from time to time
Please be careful using Essential Oils with your dogs (pets) ~ Some of them can be lethal. Like Cedar Oil; Here’s a great info link!
http://www.naturalnews.com/022909_pet_health_essential_oils.html
I have Chihuahua’s and they have their noses to the floors constantly and also clean themselves by licking often!
Thank You I will check it out.
Trish – the essential oil is really just for fragrance. Another way you can get some scent is to use infused vinegar. Here's a link to a post I did on that so you can see how it's done.https://www.themakeyourownzone.com/2012/04/making-scented-vinegar-for-homemade.html
My question is do you have to use the Essential oil or is that just for the smell.
Thank you for posting this! I have been looking for a recipe everywhere that would not go rancid. (Called for too much oil.) My daughters will be so happy to be able to dust the furniture now. (I do not let them use store bought cleaners. Too many fumes.) This was the last cleaner on my list of replacing store bought chemicals in our home. Thank you again.
I also make and use the orange vinegar and it is great! My daughters (4 and 6) make orange all-purpose cleaner from it. It does a good job in cleaning the counters tops, stove, bath tubs (w/ our homemade scouring powder), refrigerator, etc..) Between my husband and the three children we go through A LOT of oranges and red grapefruit.
i made this a couple of days ago, but i added grapefruit essential oil (that's what i had around). the spray does a great jobs removing finger stains! i have black furniture and i was really impressed to see that dust takes longer to sit on them! For this alone i love it!
I love this mixture! Gets my wood furniture clean and smelling great. The only problem I have run accross is I have my my grandmother's antique china cabinet which I just found out was cleaned weekly with Old English liquid polish and had years of build up on it (I mean ALOT of buildup – felt sticky!). The spray took off some of the build up off in places and made it look lighter. Just be prepared for that if you have an older piece that has been maintained with OE spray. Everything else looks great!!
I have been using this mixture for over a year now and so far I have not seen any adverse effects on my wood furniture (in fact it looks cleaner than when I used to use Pledge!). You could probably cut back on the vinegar if you were concerned about its effects on the wood.
I'm wondering about the vinegar. It seems like a lot in comparison to the water. Has it or will it over time damaged any woodwork because of the acid content?
Do you have to just remove the peels and not the other items you mentioned. Why do you remove the peels? I have had some sitting for about 2 weeks. Just wondered if I should pitch it for any reason. Thanks for the suggestions to help keep the cost down!
Bev-
I'm making cleaning products to sell locally, as we live in a green stricken place, the infused lemon or orange vinegar works wonders. Just make sure to change the peels at one week. You can also use pine needels, rosemary, lavender, and thyme to infuse vinegar for both smell and bacteria cutting qualities.
Thanks for the information! Can't wait to try. Looking forward to following you!
I'm really intrigued by the idea of citrus peels in the vinegar to infuse it with fragrance. I think I'll try it too!
I made this today… and like anonymous said, I needed to keep costs WAY down. So I was restocking my vinegar and such, and bought the $2 FRAGRANCE OIL from Walmart. But I got it in Pomegranate!! Who says dusting spray has to be lemon scented?!? I love that I can make it what ever scent I want!!
I read the other day that if you take orange (or any citrus) peels and add to the vinegar, and let it set for approximately two weeks, you just strain, then add the mixture as normal for cleaning. The citrus in the peel helps with the vinegar smell. I've started this using a quart jar and adding peeling daily as we eat an orange. Put about 5-6 Orange peels per bottle. I've already started bottle two, and am halfway through the first week. I can't wait to see how this works after the two weeks.
The essential oil is primarily for fragrance so if you are on a tight budget, I would leave it out. It is the olive oil in the recipe that helps to condition the wood.
is the essential oil just for the smell or does it help with the dusting. i need to keep cost way down so to purchase something like this ,even tho it may last a long time, if not necessary i prefer not to do . thanks
an idea for keeping it mixed…
when I was learning how to lanolize my wool diaper covers, I kept having the issue of the liquid lanolin making globs on the wool. then I found this tutorial that said “in a bottle mix soap, lanolin, and HOT water. Shake well” It works so great!. I use a soapnuts liquid as my 'soap'. It seems to saponify, it gets creamy, and stays together.
I have been using this mixture for several months and have not experienced any problem with the oil being rancid. There is a pretty small amount of olive oil in this recipe compared to the water so the oil is not the dominant ingredient. I also believe it takes several years for olive oil to go “bad” and if and when it does, it's more an issue of using it in foods and having the taste be a little off.
Does the olive oil get rancid at all? Just wondering if there might be a risk of that and if so, maybe there's another kind of oil to try?
Yes it can go rancid but it can take up to 1 to 2 to go bad. So if you are worried about it going bad just make up a small amount and replace it every couple of months.
It is supposed to be 1 to 2 years before it goes bad.
Good point – I would add that if you use this mixture regularly (making the size batch as given in the recipe above) as part of your weekly cleaning routine, you will probably use it up in a few months. That’s what I have found now that I been using it for over a year.
I made tHis up and sorry to say it clogged up my furniture really badly.
Sorry to hear you had that experience. I’ve used this for several years and have not had any problems.
I feel like so lucky to be the 1st twitter follower! Don't ya worry I will be following back! Thanks!