Sunday, April 29, 2012

Green Cleaning Series : Lemon Infused Vinegar

One of the most common and powerful all natural cleaning agent
you can use is vinegar. Most of us know this.
But did you know you can booster it's cleaning power?
With one simple ingredient that is affordable, incredibly powerful
and readily available to everyone. 
Lemons.
Yes, that is right! 
Lemons!
Lemon juice is so powerful it has even killed the 
There is theories of it in the use of curing cancer too.
But I digress. We are talking about cleaning your home.
The interwebs is all the rage right now with the notion you can
great homemade cleaner.I decided to take it one step further. 
While I do make the orange vinegar as well because we eat a lot of oranges here in 
South Florida, I wanted a cleaner that had a bit more power to it. 
Something that when I used it I knew things were REALLY clean. 
And since I use lemons to clean my cutting board and scrub water stains off my faucets, it 
seemed natural to use the leftover ones instead of throwing them in the compost.

So here is what your going to need :


2 Organic Lemons (yes, it needs to be organic. I will explain)
2 Pint Jars
Some White Distilled Vinegar

This recipe will make 2 pint jars. If you want to make less, then just
half it & use one jar and one lemon.  


Directions:
1. Cut up one lemon for each jar.
Please only use organic lemons. Because you are using the 
entire rind if you use conventional lemons you will introduce pesticides
to your cleaner. If you can not find organic lemons I suggest you use a 
good produce wash and thoroughly scrub your lemon. The last thing
you want to add to your home after going through this whole process 
is more unwanted chemicals and pesticides. 





2. Fill jar completely with vinegar. Put the lid on and let stand for one to two weeks.
The longer you let it stand, the more potent it will be. Do not worry if after 2 or 3
week it seems to have a layer of "scum" on top. That is a vinegar "mother"
and it can be used to make more vinegar down the road. But that is another
post for another time!

Use this vinegar in place of regular white distilled vinegar in my all purpose
cleaner recipe for more boosted cleaning powder. Feel confident when your
cleaning your home that you have are safely getting your families home clean!


5 comments:

Stephanie said...

I am going to try this... This week! I just have to find the organic lemons but I'm sure either win dixie our wal mart should have some.

Stephanie said...

Question... After this sets... Do you just add water to it to use for cleaning?

Chele said...

I leave mine undiluted. I have several jars going and then add them to an empty gallon jug I keep under the sink. One is lemon and another is orange (made the same way but with the orange rinds from the kids snacking!). I use either of these vinegars in my all purpose cleaning recipe I posted in the first part of the series. In that recipe I do dilute it but you don't have to. You can use vinegar straight if you like. :)

Anonymous said...

lol I was going to do a post on this! My only word of warning is that lemons have a bleaching effect, so I wouldn't use on clothes or fabric. The orange vinegar would be a good alternative. I tend to use vinegar not only for cleaning, but as a fabric softner.

Chele said...

Excellent point! I only use this as my bathroom & kitchen all purpose cleaner. :)