Don't want to spend money on essential oils to add fragrance to your homemade cleaners? Try this frugal method instead that uses discarded orange peels to infuse vinegar that can then be used in a homemade cleaning spray mixture.
Yield: 6oz
Author: Beverly
Equipment:
1 Jar with a lid (I use a pint size canning jar)
Materials:
3/4cupWhite Distilled Vinegar
Peels from one orange (or 3 small clementine oranges)
Instructions:
Peel the orange(s) and place the peels into your jar.
Pour the 3/4 cup of vinegar over the orange peels.
Put the lid on the jar and let the orange peels and vinegar soak together for one week. (It does not have to be refrigerated during this time and can just set out at room temperature).
At the end of the week, the vinegar should have turned a light amber color and should now also be infused with some of the scent from the orange peels. You can now drain off the scented vinegar and throw away the orange peels.
To Make A Homemade Cleaner: To use your 3/4 cup of scented vinegar to make a homemade cleaning spray, simply combine it in a spray bottle with an equal amount of water.Note: A homemade vinegar cleaning spray can be used on almost all hard surfaces in the home, however do not use it on soft stone surfaces such as granite or quartz as the acidic nature of vinegar might eventually cause etching on those type of stone surfaces.
Notes:
Scented vinegar can be made in larger batches too. Just be sure to use enough vinegar to cover any amount of orange peels you may have in your jar.You can also try this method with other citrus peels too such as lemon or lime, and you could also try adding other spices or herbs such as cloves or thyme.