If you’ve read any of my posts about green cleaning and making your own cleaning products, you’ll know that I use baking soda or vinegar in pretty much every recipe or cleaning project. If you have vinegar, baking soda, and some rags or sponges, you can clean your entire house. They’re both such powerhouse ingredients.

Well the problem is, you might not like the smell of vinegar. If you don’t like the smell of vinegar, but want to use green, healthy, and inexpensive cleaning products, this is the answer for you!

Enter citrus infused vinegar. If you don’t like the smell of oranges or lemons, well, that seems pretty unusual to me. They’re two of the best smelling fruits and two things that we associate with freshness. Lemon fresh scent? Yep. Learn how to make your vinegar smell better AND increase its cleaning power.

Ok, it really is as easy as it sounds. Oranges seem to be a popular option to use because you get to eat them and keep the peel. Lemons you’ll have to scoop the center out and find a way to use them. I like putting lemon in my bubbly water, or you can use the fresh lemon juice for an awesome homemade hardwood floor cleaner. I suppose you could use limes as well. Or grapefruits. Anything that smells amazing and has a good rind or peel that you can separate from the fruit will work here.

The key to making this awesome smelling vinegar is getting the right supplies:

• Peels of citrus fruits
• White distilled vinegar
• An air tight jar (I like to use mason jars, or you can reuse old sauce jars, or anything else with an airtight lid)

And making it is easy peasy:

• Separate your citrus peel from the fruit flesh
• Fill a jar with citrus peels
• Pour vinegar over peels until it reaches top of jar
• Close tightly
• Let infuse for approximately 2 weeks
• Then use it!

This stuff is so great! It certainly isn’t perfect, and you can still smell a hint of vinegar in there, but it’s mostly orange-ey smelling.

Vinegar is so great for cleaning and I use it all the time. Citrus fruits are naturally anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, so they will make your vinegar an even more effective cleaner. If you add a few drops of essential oils in there in addition, you’ve got a super powerful cleaner on your hands.

I cannot wait to integrate my newly citrus infused vinegar into all kinds of cleaners. I’m actually planning on posting an updated hardwood floor cleaner with the citrus infusion, so keep your eyes open for that!

Are you as excited to try your citrus infused vinegar in green cleaning recipes as I am? Here are some other great cleaners to try:

The post How Do I Make My Vinegar Smell Good? Homemade Citrus Infused Vinegar for Cleaning appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.