Making your own cleaner is extremely simple! It smells great, and works wonders! A plus to this is that you can by all of the ingredients on Food Stamps! I run a group called, “Couponing with Food Stamps” and I have been trying to come up with different ways to help all of the group members stretch their food budget.

The ingredients in this cleaner are orange peels, white vinegar and water. I buy my vinegar by the gallon, because it costs far less that way; $2.49 for a gallon instead of $1.99 for a small glass bottle. The oranges are something we always keep on hand, because we enjoy fresh squeezed orange juice. One day, I saw all of the peels that I was just throwing away, and decided to figure out a way to reuse them. That’s where miracles happened!

I found that after I used the oranges to juice them, they were just a hallow shell, so I decided to cut one up and try something new. I cut the peel into small strips, placed them in a jar and filled it halfway with vinegar, and then filled the rest of the jar with water. I had already been using the vinegar and water as my cleaner, but my kids said they didn’t like the smell. The orange peels gives the cleaner a citrus scent and overpowers the vinegar, while keeping the cleaning powers intact.

I let the peels sit in the closed jar for 5-7 days, to let the orange oils really soak into the mixture. Once the time has passed, I strain the liquid through a coffee filter or paper towel, so there are no chunks in it. If needed, I strain a second time. Any pulp or peels left in the liquid can clog the spray bottles, so that’s a very important step. Once straining is done, I pur it into my spray bottle and clean away!

I always have a batch going now, that way I never run out. My kids like the smell of the orange much better than the vinegar that I used to use.