Around last spring I had the idea that I wasn’t crazy about ammonia and bleach around my food because we prep a lot of food right on my Corian counters: sandwiches, baking, etc. So I hunted around to find a natural type cleaner and found I could make it myself for pennies of the cost of a commercial cleanser
I use vinegar, cheap vodka, and lemons to make a concentrate.
- 1/4 c lemon juice, fresh squeezed and strained
- 1 C vinegar
- 1/2 C vodka
I used to use the peel, etc from the lemon, but I had to strain and strain the concentrate so now I just squeeze lemon juice through a little tea strainer to remove the seeds and add to the mixture. I pour all three in a Ball jar, shake, and let it sit under my sink until I need it. (By the way I have plastic lids for my mason jars, which is a game changer.) This mixture, as I mentioned, is a concentrate. When I put it in my spray bottle I use 1/2 concentrate, 1/2 water.
It generally cleans up a lot of everything in the kitchen really well, though it sucks for stainless steel (what doesn’t but Weimans?) But I don’t care about spraying it all over if there is food out nearby because, well, the concentrate is all food. I mean, I wouldn’t drink it obviously, but it won’t make you sick if some spray gets on something sitting out.
I use it on my counters, sometimes on the inside of my oven, on my stovetop. I spray it on my knives to sanitize them, and I spray it on my cutting boards (and rinse them). I sometimes saturate my sponges in the sink to clean them. I’ve even used a bit to clean my phone. It sanitizes and smells mild (not like vinegar at all, and not too lemony). I still use bleach in my sink and on any nasty stains on the counters, but day-to-day, this is my kitchen cleaner.