Let’s talk about something we’ve never talked about before here on Frosty Garden! Naturally infused cleaners!
Many of you likely know that you can substitute vinegars as a cleaning product. It makes for an excellent, relatively inexpensive and much less “chemically” cleaning agent compared to most commercial cleaners. The typical recommendation is to use a 1 to 1 ratio of vinegar and water to make up your cleaning solution. This makes for a great “all purpose surface cleaner” that is frequently used in bathroom and kitchen cleaning.
Well, for us gardeners with some excess produce, we can turn that same cleaner into a “super bougie” home infused cleaner! We happened to grow a whole lot of lime basil this year and one of the things that is really cool about basil is that it has strong anti-bacterial properties. So, infusing basil and other acids (a previously used lemon in our case) can further this cleaning agent’s abilities. Plus, it makes your home made cleaner smell really good!
Truly, you can infuse practically anything, but our general goals are for aromatics and increasing antiseptic properties. You can certainly consider other infusions with this method. Citrus are always good, but you can consider various spices like clove, all spice and other “warm” spices. If you want to go the herb route, many herbs are also going to do well in this space, such as thyme, oregano, lemon balm, mint and so forth. You can even do things like using pine or spruce tips for a forested scent. All of these ingredients can bring additional antibacterial, antifungal and antivirus capabilities to your vinegar base.
If you want to consider doing this, the typical infusion time is about a week or two. There’s a lot of flexibility in timing, but we want a good, deep extraction to pull as much aromatics and oils as is possible. We generally think it’s better to do the extraction with full strength vinegar, then dilute the mix later if you so desire. Once you’re finished, you can add the mix into a high quality spray bottle for daily use. Again, 1 to 1 with water is a good starting point, but you can also go with higher or lower concentrations of vinegar, if desired. (1 to 3 and 2 to 1 are semi-common concentrations of vinegar to water.)
In the event that you’re suffering from various health or skin sensitivity issues, moving to a vinegar based cleaning solution can have a big impact on general toxicity on your body. We often don’t give much thought to how various chemicals might impact us, but they certainly can and do. Small, easy steps like this one are a way to reduce that impact.
One note of caution. Vinegar based cleaners do have their limitations. They’re generally not good for stainless steel, cast iron, natural stone countertops and wood finishes. Acids tend to interact with these materials, and since vinegar is basically acetic acid, it’s a good idea to take a bit of care with certain materials.
Lastly, you can also use this vinegar in home made laundry detergents, cleaning your washing machine, as a stain remover and several other formulations. There’s lots of functional ways to use vinegar as a basis for cleaning things!
