• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Hello Nest

The Art of Making a Home

  • Green Cleaning
    • Air Fresheners
    • Bathroom
    • Bedroom
    • Kitchen
    • Laundry
  • Natural Living
    • Homemade Recipes
    • Essential Oils
    • Plants & Flowers
    • Zero Waste
    • Organizing & Simplifying
  • DIY & Decor
    • Candle Projects
    • Holiday Projects
    • Sewing Projects
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

DIY Vinegar + Peroxide All-Purpose Cleaner

79 · Aug 22, 2024 · Stephanie Gerber · 4 Comments

In the past few years, I’ve become become the opposite of a germaphobe. For daily cleaning I wipe counters with just a wet rag and use the world’s easiest homemade foaming soap to wash hands. I’m a cleaner-a-phobe!

But I’ve always wanted a good all-purpose cleaner I could use in the kitchen without worrying about it getting on food or leaving harmful residue. Finally, I found a powerful combo that’s safe around food and kids: hydrogen peroxide and distilled white vinegar.

Hydrogen and Vinegar DIY All Purpose Cleaning Spray

How to use Hydrogen Peroxide and Vinegar together

Simply spray one right after the other onto surfaces you want to clean – counters, cutting boards, even fruits & veggies. It’s 10 times more effective than using either spray by itself! Here’s how it works:

In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner. (source)

Simple All-Purpose Hydrogen Peroxide + Vinegar Cleaner Recipe

This involves making 2 separate spray bottles (and for nice glass spray or pump bottles, I love Rail19).

DIY All Purpose Cleaning Spray In the first spray bottle, combine:

  • 1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
  • 5 drops tea tree oil
  • 5 drops clove oil

Newsflash – vinegar stinks. I chose clove essential oil because it’s naturally antibacterial and antiviral and easily overpowers the smell. Cinnamon or citrus would also work. Fill rest of way with water.

In a second bottle, add hydrogen peroxide. You need a dark-colored bottle as peroxide starts to breaks down when exposed to light (or just put a spray nozzle on the original bottle).

DIY All Purpose Cleaning Spray

Warning: Don’t put vinegar and hydrogen peroxide together in the same bottle

I did this the first time (oops), but apparently combining both in the same bottle creates peracetic acid, which can be harmful. So it’s best to keep them separate!

19 More DIY Vinegar Cleaner Recipes 

Once you have a big jug of vinegar there are about a billion things you can make and clean with it. 

In the kitchen:

  • clean cutting boards
  • clean the dishwasher
  • clean coffee pot
  • clean garbage disposal
  • wash produce
  • clean stainless steel sink 
  • make a fruit fly trap
  • restore burnt pot
  • restore blackened cookie sheet

In the laundry room:

  • make fabric softener
  • clean the washing machine 
  • remove odors
  • make dryer balls 

In the rest of your home:

  • remove stubborn stickers
  • keep ants away
  • clean microfiber couch
  • dust
  • clean wooden surfaces
  • clean laminate floors
79

Kitchen all-purpose, green ingredients, ingredients

More Posts from Kitchen

  • How to Clean an Air Fryer

  • DIY refrigerator tabs

    DIY Refrigerator Deodorizer Tabs Made with Essential Oils

  • How to clean an electric kettle

    How to Clean an Electric Kettle

  • How To Clean a Dishwasher in 5 Easy Steps

  • How to clean a glass stove top naturally

    How to Clean a Glass Stove Top Naturally

  • How to Restore Blackened Cookie Sheets to Their Former Glory

    How to Restore Blackened Cookie Sheets to Their Former Glory


Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. b croix says

    May 11, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    Please check out mother nature network man.com and ewg.com for scientific information on wipes and vinegar usage. They state that they do not kill e-coli or growing bacterias. You are correct about not using antibacterial soap.

    Reply
  2. Naomi Jensen says

    June 6, 2016 at 4:39 am

    Such a useful article and tips. I really loved your ideas. It is great to find new ways to clean the house. Thanks for this share!

    Reply
  3. Mary says

    February 5, 2016 at 2:29 pm

    Which one do you use first do you use dry rag wet rag do you spray the other one right away

    Reply
  4. Emerald Mcdonald says

    March 10, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Nice DIY cleaner recipes. Thanks for the great tips.
    I shared this article on DIY best posts.

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Featured DIY

How to clean Birks

How to Clean Birkenstocks (Because They Deserve Better)

The Best essential oils for dryer balls

The Best Essential Oils for Dryer Balls

DIY Before-You-Go Spray

How to Clean an Air Fryer

DIY refrigerator tabs

DIY Refrigerator Deodorizer Tabs Made with Essential Oils

More

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Hello Glow
  • Hello Veggie

Copyright © 2025 · Hello Nest