DIY: Angel's Recipes for All-Natural Spring Cleaning Products

Spring is here! Which means it's time to get lazy a*sses up and do a deep clean to clear that winter funk out of the house. My usual routine consists of deep cleaning the carpets, sliding the windows off and cleaning the front of them, and just generally getting down and dirty double time with the house. In an effort to go organic in recent years, I've tirelessly researched all-natural cleaning products, got recipes passed down from grand-folks, and researched on the net. Now, I bring my curated list of all-natural, DIY home cleaning products to you. Don't be scurred. These are tried and true solutions that have been working since antiquity. You pretty much just need lemons, white vinegar, lavender essential oil and baking soda to get started. For the ENTIRE house. You're welcome. Happy spring cleaning!

All-Purpose Lemon Vinegar Cleaner:
This is a concoction that cleans the kitchen, the bathroom, windows, and a myriad of other surfaces. Is it safe? Hell yeah! White vinegar kills salmonella and e. colli, and lemon has classically been used as an all-purpose cleaner because of it's bacteria killing properties. Here's what you'll need:

1 mason jar
Peels from 3 to 4 lemons
1 cup of white vinegar

Fill your mason jar with the cut up lemon peels, then add the vinegar, it should completely cover the lemon peels, if not, add a little more. Seal the lid tightly and put it away for two weeks. After the time is up, strain the lemon peel/ vinegar mixture using cheese cloth. Add equal parts distilled water to the mixture in a spray bottle, then use this to clean everything from walls to counters, brass and nickel fixtures to toilets.

Vinegar Glass Cleaner:
Ammonia can often be secretly harmful to our senses, not to mention it can mess up a perfectly good manicure for no reason. Go the natural root and mix equal parts white vinegar with equal parts distilled or purified water in an empty spray bottle. Shake, and use on glass surfaces for a great, non-streaking cleaner. Not a fan of the smell of vinegar? Add a few drops of lemon juice to sweeten the smell. 

Olive Oil Lemon Lavender Furniture Polish:
That's a mouth-full hunh? I have a lot of reclaimed wood in my house - meaning a lot of my furniture is refashioned from wood found on beaches, in other furniture, or disregarded trees because yeah, I'm a eco-lover. In order to keep my furniture looking good and my lungs clear, I mix:

1/2 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon 
3 drops lavender essential oil
1 teaspoon distilled water

Mix it up in a wide mouth, short mason jar, then dip a soft cloth in the mixture. This concoction shines and cleans my furniture. The vinegar lifts the dirt, the olive oil and lemon add shine, and the lavender oil cleans, and adds a pleasant smell throughout my house. 

Lavender Linen Spray: 
Forget Febreeze, it's loaded with so many chemicals that you'll choke before your favorite lazy cleaner gets that bun funk out of your sheets. Try this all natural substitute (or, better-stute, whatever): Take a 1/2 teaspoon of lavender essential oil, 1/4 cup unflavored vodka ( I KNOW y'all have some of this laying around,) 3 1/2 cups distilled water (or bottled water for you bougies) and pour all ingredients into a glass bottle. Shake well. When you're ready to use this mixture, pour it into a small spray bottle and go to town on your sheets. 

Baking Soda Carpet Cleaner:
If you have carpet on your floor, it's necessary that you get that winter funk out of there come spring. Even if you're clean and fastidious, odors are bound to get trapped in the carpet. Sprinkle baking soda over the carpet generously, let it sit, then vacuum that sucker up. 

Garbage Disposal DeFunkifier (Yes, yes, made up word):
Chicken bones, broccoli, cheese, garlic, onions, all organic crap that goes down the garbage disposal - and also a funk little recipe for a stinky a*s hole in your sink. Lol. Ready to get that smell out of there? Drop a 1/2 cup baking soda and an orange's worth of peels down the drain, follow with a 1/4 cup vinegar a voilá! Stinky smell gone. 

All-Natural Drano Baking Soda Vinegar Drano:
Been combing your hair over the sink or carelessly putting nasty sh*t down your drains? To clear clogs in sink and tub drains, use a funnel to pour in 1/2 cup baking soda followed by 1 cup vinegar. When the foaming subsides, flush with hot tap water.

Let me knw how these work out if you try them!

- Angel