Homemade Natural Cleaning Spray Recipes (UK)

Most of what you clean day to day does not need a shelf of branded sprays. A bottle of white vinegar, a tub of bicarbonate of soda (known as baking soda in the US), a squeeze of washing-up liquid and maybe a bottle of liquid castile soap will handle the great majority of everyday jobs for pennies, in reusable bottles, with none of the long ingredient lists you cannot pronounce. This page gives you a set of clear, metric recipes for the sprays people actually reach for, plus the honest bit that most recipe posts leave out: what these mixes do well, and the handful of things they should never touch.

A quick word before the recipes. Homemade sprays are excellent cleaners, meaning they lift dirt, grease and grime off a surface. They are not disinfectants, meaning they are not tested and registered to kill a set percentage of germs. That distinction matters, and we come back to it below. If you want the background on why vinegar and bicarb work the way they do, see our fuller guides to cleaning with white vinegar and cleaning with bicarbonate of soda, and our roundup of simple non-toxic cleaning swaps.

Before you start: bottles, water and a note on castile soap

You do not need anything special. A clean 500ml trigger spray bottle, reused from a shop-bought cleaner (rinsed well) or bought new, is the standard size these recipes assume. Ordinary tap water is fine. Distilled or cooled boiled water lasts a little longer before it turns, and is worth it in a hard-water area, but it is not essential for a batch you will use up in a few weeks.

Two ingredients cause most of the confusion, so here they are plainly. Washing-up liquid is a mild detergent that cuts grease; a couple of drops in a spray is plenty, and more just makes everything foam and smear. Liquid castile soap is a plant-oil soap (Dr Bronner's is the best-known brand) that some people prefer for a gentler, soap-based clean. The one thing to remember is that castile soap and vinegar cancel each other out. Mix them and the acid curdles the soap into a white, greasy film that leaves surfaces worse than before. So use vinegar OR castile soap in a given recipe, never both in the same bottle.

Recipe 1: All-purpose spray (the vinegar one)

This is the workhorse for sealed worktops, tiles, painted surfaces, the hob, the sink and the outside of appliances.

All-purpose vinegar spray (500ml)

1. 1

   Measure the vinegar

   Pour 250ml of white vinegar (the ordinary distilled white vinegar sold for cleaning, or plain white malt-free vinegar) into a clean 500ml spray bottle.

2. 2

   Add the water

   Top up with 250ml of tap water, for a simple 1:1 mix. For a stronger degreasing spray you can use more vinegar and less water.

3. 3

   Add a drop of detergent

   Add 2 to 3 drops of washing-up liquid to help cut grease. Do not add castile soap here, as it will curdle with the vinegar.

4. 4

   Scent it if you like

   Optional: add 10 to 15 drops of essential oil for fragrance. Skip this if you have cats, or keep it out of any spray used where pets go.

5. 5

   Shake and use

   Screw on the trigger, shake gently, and label the bottle. Spray onto the surface or onto a cloth, wipe, and buff dry. Shake before each use.

Keep this one away from natural stone, waxed or oiled wood, and screens (see below). The vinegar smell fades as it dries, and a few drops of essential oil or a strip of citrus peel left in the bottle for a day or two softens it if you find it strong.

Recipe 2: Vinegar-free all-purpose spray (for stone, wood and screens)

Vinegar is a mild acid, and there are a few surfaces it should never meet. Natural stone (marble, granite, limestone, slate) etches and dulls where acid touches it. Waxed, oiled or untreated wood loses its finish. And the fingerprint-resistant coating on phone, tablet and TV screens can be worn away by acids. For all of these, and any time you are not sure, use this gentle spray instead.

Vinegar-free gentle spray (500ml)

1. 1

   Warm water

   Fill a clean 500ml spray bottle with warm tap water, leaving a little room at the top.

2. 2

   Add a mild cleaner

   Add about half a teaspoon of washing-up liquid, OR 1 teaspoon of liquid castile soap. Either works; do not add both, and do not add vinegar.

3. 3

   Mix gently

   Swirl rather than shake hard, to avoid a bottle full of foam. Label it.

4. 4

   Use lightly, especially on screens

   For stone and wood, mist a cloth (not the surface) and wipe. For screens, spray a soft microfibre cloth very lightly, never the device itself, and wipe with the screen off.

This is the spray to reach for on a marble worktop, a sealed stone floor, an oiled oak table or a TV screen. It cleans by loosening grease and dirt, which is all most surfaces need day to day.

Recipe 3: Cream cleaner (soft scrub)

A homemade cream cleaner is one of the most useful things you can make, and one of the least written about. It is a mildly abrasive paste for the jobs a spray cannot shift: a dull stainless sink, a grimy bath, baked-on splashes around the hob, tea stains in a mug, grubby grout.

Bicarbonate-of-soda cream cleaner

1. 1

   Start with bicarb

   Put about 3 tablespoons (roughly 45g) of bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl or a screw-top jar.

2. 2

   Add a soap

   Stir in around 1 tablespoon of washing-up liquid or liquid castile soap, a little at a time, until you have a thick, spreadable paste like soft icing.

3. 3

   Adjust the texture

   If it is too stiff, add a few drops of water. If too runny, add more bicarbonate of soda. A few drops of essential oil can be added for scent.

4. 4

   Scoop, scrub, rinse

   Scoop a little onto a damp cloth or sponge, work it over the surface with light pressure, then rinse thoroughly with clean water and buff dry.

5. 5

   Store small, use soon

   Keep in a lidded jar and use within a couple of weeks. Make small batches; it is quick to mix fresh.

The gentle grit does the work, so let it, and go easy. Keep the cream cleaner off polished natural stone and delicate glass, where even mild abrasion can leave fine scratches, and rinse well so no white residue dries on.

Recipe 4: Glass and window cleaner (streak-free)

Vinegar and water is hard to beat on glass and mirrors, and it costs almost nothing. The trick to a streak-free finish is less about the mix and more about the cloth and the technique.

Glass and window spray (500ml)

1. 1

   Mix a light solution

   Into a clean 500ml spray bottle put 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and top up with tap water. A weaker mix than the all-purpose spray leaves fewer streaks on glass.

2. 2

   Optional grease-cutter

   For greasy kitchen windows only, add a single drop of washing-up liquid. Too much causes smears, so keep it to one drop.

3. 3

   Spray and spread

   Mist the glass lightly, or mist the cloth for mirrors near electrics. Spread it across the whole pane first.

4. 4

   Buff dry

   Wipe with a clean, dry microfibre cloth, or with crumpled newspaper, working in one direction and finishing with a dry buff. Two cloths, one damp and one dry, gives the best finish.

Recipe 5: Daily shower spray

The point of a daily shower spray is prevention. A quick mist after each shower keeps limescale and soap scum from building up, so you deep-clean far less often. It only works if you actually use it every day, but it takes ten seconds.

Daily shower spray (500ml)

1. 1

   Mostly water

   Into a clean 500ml spray bottle put around 400ml of warm tap water.

2. 2

   A splash of vinegar

   Add about 100ml of white vinegar to help hold back limescale and soap scum.

3. 3

   A drop of detergent

   Add 2 to 3 drops of washing-up liquid. Optional: a few drops of essential oil, but skip this if you have pets in the home.

4. 4

   Spray and leave

   After your shower, while the surfaces are warm and damp, mist the glass, tiles and enamel. There is no need to rinse or wipe; just let it dry.

Important caveat: this vinegar-based spray is for ceramic tiles, glass and enamel only. Do not use it on a natural-stone shower (marble, travertine, slate), where the acid will etch the stone. For a stone shower, use the vinegar-free gentle spray and a squeegee instead. Whatever your shower is made of, a quick pull with a squeegee after showering does more than any spray to keep it clean.

Essential oils: scent and a little more, but mind the pets

A few drops of essential oil make a homemade spray smell lovely, and some oils do have mild antibacterial properties. But keep the claims modest: a few drops in a diluted spray are for fragrance and freshening, not for disinfecting. If a job needs germs killed, an essential oil will not do it.

The honest bit: cleaning is not the same as disinfecting

This is where homemade sprays are often oversold, so here is the straight version. A cleaner lifts dirt, grease and a lot of germs off a surface; it makes things physically clean. A disinfectant is a regulated product proven to kill a defined percentage of specific germs. The two are not the same job.

White vinegar is a cleaner. Research on acetic acid, the active part of vinegar, shows it works against some bacteria but not others, and only at fairly high strength with a decent contact time, neither of which a diluted spray delivers. Bicarbonate of soda cleans and deodorises but is not a disinfectant either. So for the vast majority of household jobs, wiping worktops, cleaning glass, freshening the bathroom, these homemade sprays are genuinely all you need, and they do it cheaply and pleasantly. But for anything germ-critical, raw-meat areas, a chopping board that has touched raw chicken, surfaces when someone in the house is ill, reach for a proper disinfectant that meets the relevant BS EN standard, or use hot soapy water followed by heat. Knowing the difference is what keeps a natural-cleaning routine both effective and safe.

Quick reference: which spray for what