Cleaning the house is not something I enjoy. I try to avoid it until it becomes unavoidable.

It takes up so much of precious time at weekends that I am left grumpy at the thought that the endless cycle of cleaning has eaten away at the precious time I’d like to spend doing other things with the family.

In an effort to find ways to cut down, simplify and find short cuts, I’ve been looking at a number of blogs.

There are so many hints and tips to help you get through the household chores and I’m beginning to learn by doing.

I came across a number of blogs that recommend using Vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda and adding essential oils for their antiviral and antibacterial properties and also to remove the smell of the vinegar.

We’ve been using this distilled vinegar from a Chinese Supermarket. It was in the local Chinese Supermarket in Mitcham that we sometimes go to stock up on Chinese ingredients.

The place caters for both those in the catering business as well as for people who are looking for Chinese specialist food and ingredients.

I love the smell of the supermarket and walking round, there are so many interesting things to look at, most of which I have no idea what they are or how to cook with them.

Compared to other distilled vinegar you can get, it is a little different and as it was the one white vinegar we had in the cupboard, I decided to use it, rather than go and buy another one, which I think would defeat the purpose of trying to simplify and cut down on the number of cleaning products around the house.

We bought it to remove limescale from our kettle, and it works really well at this job. I am sure that there are Thai recipes, with lovely sauces to try with this Vinegar, so will look them up for another time.

Since reading a the blogs about how to clean and organise a home, I decided to try making the bathroom all-purpose cleaner from Clean Mamas post – you can read it here. It seemed simple enough, water, vinegar and alcohol. I wasn’t sure though whether it would work without some kind of soap in the mix.

Since I had some fragrance free washing up liquid that had been under the sink, I thought this could be a good option to try. I hadn’t liked it for dishes because I like the smell of citrus when washing dishes, It was pretty good at cleaning though, I just prefer ones with a lemony scent.

With the washing up liquid and the distilled vinegar, I made up the following mix:

1/4 cup of distilled vinegar

1/4 cup of vodka

1/4 cup of washing up liquid

3/4 cup of water

Lemon, Tea Tree and Mitcham Peppermint essential oil

(If you want to make more than this just use the same proportions as above in larger quantity, or follow Clean Mama’s recipe)

As the blog post recommended adding essential oils, I chose lemon for its lovely citrus fragrance. It has antibacterial properties and has an uplifting scent.

Tea Tree Oil is sold in most pharmacies for its anti bacterial qualities.

Since I like the smell of Mitcham Peppermint essential oil, known for it’s antiviral properties, I used this as well.

A cleaning detox that means no more harsh chemicals around the house and a simpler way to clean.

I put equal amounts : 10 drops of lemon, 10 drops of Tea Tree and 10 drops of Peppermint oil in with the vinegar, water and alcohol.

As I’ve just finished an Ecover multi purpose cleaner in a spray bottle, I decided to recycle it for this home-made cleaner.

I rinsed it out with some water, put some bicarbonate of soda in and left it over night, rinsed it out to remove as much of the chemicals as possible. With all the ingredients added into the bottle, I put the top on and shook it up to make sure all the essential oils were combined into the other ingredients.

I’ve been using this home-made cleaner for about a month, it’s good on kitchen counters, sinks, baths and the loo.

Because the spray is homemade, I’ve not thought of cleaning so much of a chore now. In fact as I clean, I look and inspect to see whether the spray is cleaning as well as the shop bought cleaners available.

I think it does a better job. The sink and bath are shiny and there isn’t any streaking on the shiny chrome surfaces.

The air doesn’t have the heavy artificial fragrance of commercially bought cleaner and now that all the scents have had a chance to combine, I can smell the sweet uplifting scent of Peppermint and lemons. The bathrooms just seems fresher and the surfaces of the ceramic sinks look just as shiny.

Using the spray with a little Biocarb gets the grime lifted away far better than the commercial cleaners I’ve tried, so that’s reduced the number of cleaner products I use around the house and saved on storage and my wallet – Brilliant!

Do let me know if you have a cleaning tip / idea to try.