Whether you’re cutting down on plastic, or saving pennies, these simple ingredients can clean just as well as commercial products. Here’s how the experts do it

Go into any supermarket, and it will be full of them: the aisles and aisles of cleaning products in their brilliantly coloured plastic bottles, promising dazzle and shine; a life free of grease and grime. But do we really need any of it? As many of us look to the zero-wasters trying to eschew packaging to reduce our own impact on the planet, the internet is awash with recipes for making your own all-purpose cleaners – from bathtub sprays and floor washes, to oven scrubs and window spritzers.

But can you really clean your home with them? Yes, says Ingrid Caldironi, one of the founders of Bulk Market, a zero-waste supermarket in Hackney, east London: “It’s so easy to make your own products. I do all my own cleaning with vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and castile soap – you can clean your whole house with those three ingredients.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The key ingredients. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

It’s not as if this is a new idea. Bicarbonate of soda has been valued for its antibacterial properties since the 1920s. Barbara Allred, who was head housekeeper at Sandringham for 10 years, and now lectures at the English Manner household consultancy, has been espousing the virtues of lemon juice – from sprucing up a microwave to stopping mildew – for years.

Caldironi says the biggest difference between supermarket cleaning products and homemade ones is that “conventional cleaning products are labelled for one specific task”. When making your own, you use the same basic ingredients: vinegar, lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda, plant-based liquid soap and essential oils and vary the ratios, depending on the job. I put it to the test to see if I can DIY-clean my own home:

Toilet

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The porcelain gleams.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

I put ½ cup bicarb, 10 drops of essential grapefruit oil and ¼ cup white vinegar into my toilet bowl and scrub as it fizzes. The smell makes me happy. The porcelain gleams.

Bath

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bath … ‘takes some elbow grease.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

I use blogger Amanda Watters’ bathtub mix (¼ cup of liquid castile soap, 10 drops of thieves or tea tree oil and one cup of baking soda). It does leave my bath clean, but takes a good amount of elbow grease and some water to leave my bath shining.

Worktop

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Worktops … ‘degrease smoothly.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

For an all-purpose spray, I make up a solution of equal parts vinegar and water, and add some lemon juice. It’s a bit more watery than my usual kitchen spray, but it smells fresh and degreases smoothly.

Oven

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The oven … ‘totally works.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Always the cleaning job I dread the most, and a job for which conventional cleaners charge a small fortune. I coat the inside of my oven with a paste of bicarb and water. Left for at least an hour, preferably overnight, it totally works (with a good amount of vigorous scrubbing).

Floors

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Floors … ‘perfectly clean.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

I wipe down my wooden floorboards with a solution of 1 tsp castile soap and 10 drops of tea tree oil in 4.5 litres of warm water. It’s great – the floor is perfectly clean. My whole house, in fact, is dandy; mixing up the ingredients isn’t very taxing – all I needed was a fork and a glass. Once they are rinsed, I’d happily make an omelette with them.