How to Make Your Own Natural Kitchen Cleaners With 3 Ingredients

I counted eight different cleaning products under my sink before I finally got fed up and simplified. Eight plastic bottles, most of them barely used, most of them with ingredient lists I couldn’t even attempt to read out loud. Now I have three: white vinegar, baking soda, and castile soap. Genuinely, that’s it. Every single kitchen cleaning task, handled.

All-Purpose Cleaner

This one’s my daily workhorse. Mix one cup white vinegar with one cup water and ten drops of tea tree or lemon essential oil in a spray bottle — I grabbed a 16 oz glass one for about $8 and it’s been going strong for two years. The mix cuts through grease, handles most bacteria, and leaves your counters actually clean. And yeah, the vinegar smell is real, but it disappears within half an hour. I use this on countertops, appliances, sinks, the stovetop — basically everything. Just skip it on marble or granite since the acid can etch the surface over time.

Baking Soda Scrub

Baking soda is one of those things that sounds too simple to actually work, and then it completely works. It’s a mild abrasive and a natural odor neutralizer, so you just sprinkle it directly on whatever’s stained and scrub with a damp cloth or brush. My cast iron sink went from looking kind of grungy to looking almost new. It’s great on cutting boards, pots with baked-on residue, and inside the oven too. Tough stain that won’t budge? Mix in a few drops of dish soap to make a paste and let it sit for ten minutes before you scrub.

Drain Cleaner

Okay, this one surprised me when I first tried it. Pour half a cup of baking soda down a slow drain, then chase it with half a cup of white vinegar. It fizzes up dramatically — kind of satisfying, honestly — and you let it sit for five minutes before flushing with boiling water. Clears minor blockages, kills the smell, and doesn’t slowly destroy your pipes the way chemical drain cleaners can. I’ve been doing this once a month as maintenance and my kitchen drain has been clear all winter.

Microwave Cleaner

Two tablespoons of white vinegar in a cup of water, microwaved on high for five minutes. That’s the whole thing. The steam loosens everything that’s been splattered in there, the vinegar knocks out any lingering food smells, and you just wipe it all down with a cloth. No scrubbing required. My husband was convinced this couldn’t possibly work as well as the chemical spray he’d been using — he’s a convert now.

Castile Soap for Everything Else

Liquid castile soap is a concentrated, plant-based soap that does a lot of heavy lifting. Dish soap, floor cleaner, general surface cleaner — a few drops in water covers most of it. A big bottle runs about $10 to $15 and honestly lasts for months because you use so little at a time. I’ve been buying the unscented version and adding a few drops of whatever essential oil I’m into that week.

Final Thoughts

Three ingredients. That’s genuinely all this takes. The easiest way to make the switch is to just stop replacing things as they run out — when a bottle of commercial cleaner empties, mix up a batch instead of buying another one. Within a couple of months, that chaotic under-sink cabinet starts to look a lot calmer. Mine now has real actual space in it, which still kind of delights me every time I open it.