Easy Cleaning Recipes (That Won't Pollute Your Air)

Cleaning sauce, de-odorizing spray, orange peel scrub pads 🍊

Hi there! Have you made any swaps for breathing better at home?

Last week’s letter included some expensive ideas (air purifiers, mattresses, CO2 monitor) but the goal for today’s letter is to save you some cash with simple cleaning products you can make in five minutes:

• Silky Cleaning Sauce ✨

• Scrunchy De-odorizing Spray 💦

• Orange Crunch Pads and Cleaning Liquid 🍊

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Silky Crunch may earn some cents if you make a purchase through one of the links below.

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I want to apologize for a mistake in my last letter. I was misled to believe Earth Breeze Sheets and True Earth Eco-strips are free of PVAs.

The sheets contain less PVAs than juicy-gem detergents like Tide Pods or Dropps. It’s a bummer, I wish they were honest and just said “we have some PVAs in here to keep everything stuck together.”

Anyway, Silky Crunch readers came through with alternatives like Meliora and Nellie’s Laundry Soda, both powder detergents. Thanks for your thoughtful comments and suggestions. Y’all are the best!

In NYC, laundry and dishwasher pods may be banned if the Pods are Plastic legislation passes: Blueland teams up with NYC for a first-of-its-kind bill to ban detergent and laundry pods

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Sorry to be depressing in (an already pretty depressing) January, but did you know women are more prone to lung cancer? Sigh. I did not.

While researching for the Breathe Cleaner At Home series, I learned lung cancer kills more women in the US than cervical, ovarian, and breast cancer combined, according to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation.

Though women are less likely to smoke, we’re more likely to be exposed to indoor air pollution, like fumes from cooking and cleaning. We might also breathe in more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from lotions and potions like perfume and hairspray.

If I must inhale 87 synthetic chemicals, I want it to be from a perfume I love, not freakin’ Febreze.

But hey! Here are three synthetic-free, plastic-free recipes for cleaning at home.

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I use this sauce for any hard surface, like mirrors, windows, and countertops. For most surfaces, this is a safe solution. Vinegar is the best for sunglasses and touchscreens too!

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✨ Silky Cleaning Sauce Recipe:

• 1 cup distilled white vinegar

• 1 cup water (I use filtered)

• 3 drops olive oil

• Optional: 3 drops of essential oils of choice (I use rosemary, eucalyptus, and tea tree oil, but the possibilities for customization are endless!)

Add everything to a spray bottle, shake each time before you spray onto a surface.

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I’ve experimented with leaving out the drops of olive oil, but it really helps make the Silky Cleaning Sauce feel like a luxe, store-bought solution. The oil adds glide when you’re wiping down a mirror, and conditions wooden surfaces! I even use it when wiping down my leather couch after a spill.

At first, the vinegar odor might feel strong. But in fifteen minutes, the salad-dressing vibes will dissipate, unlike store-bought sprays that contain synthetic fragrances.

Here are brown glass bottles from the Good Fill ($6.35 for 16 oz., $4 for 8 oz.) or Sally’s Organics (2 for $19 at Amazon).

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We chat about the Silky Crunch Trifecta in a previous letter. Essentially, it’s the sweet things that are cuter for your health, wallet, and the planet.

The Silky Crunch Trifecta 🔱

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Deodorize your cashmere scarf, the inside of your gym sneaks, the car you rented for the weekend that reminds you of the wet dogs you never loved and stale cigs you never smoked.

If your coats needs to be de-odorized, and mine always do (it’s hot pot winter), spritz all over and hang somewhere with good air circulation.

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💦 Scrunchy De-Odorizing Spray Recipe:

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 cup vodka or gin

• If you prefer a scent: two drops essential oils or splash of orange blossom water

Add everything to an 8 oz. spray bottle, shake each time before you spray onto a surface.

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You might think hey, I’ll use more alcohol and less water so it’s even cleaner! That’s exactly what I thought when I worked in a lab, when my biochemist colleague kindly taught me that alcohol at high concentrations will evaporate too quickly to actually kill off the nasties. Alcohol can also be abrasive! So be sure it’s diluted to less than 30% when you spray on delicate scarves or wipe down screens.

I bought Febreze after reading the case study in a book (The Power of Habit) on how businessmen did all this user research to sell a synthetic, de-odorizing spray, but what users actually loved was the manufactured “smell of a clean home.” I wanted the clean home smell too! It’s wild that something available at the grocery store could be harming your family and your pets.

So if you, like most humans, want a fresh “scent,” you could:

• use gin instead of vodka;

• add a splash of orange blossom or rose water (natural, sugar-free, NOT the flavored one); or

• add a few drops of essential oils (vanilla? lavender?)

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This recipe requires the ingredient of time, but is just as easy to make. Eat a bunch of citrus (I ate some cara cara oranges and tangerines) and set the peels in 3 cups of vinegar for one week.

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🍊 Orange Crunch Scrubbers Recipe:

• 5+ orange or tangerine peels

• Enough distilled white vinegar to submerge the above

Set the citrus peels white side down in a glass jar, and pour in white vinegar. Loosely cover the top and set in a cool, dark place.

After one week, the fiber inside the citrus peels become bloated and look like fluffy cleaning pads!! Keep under your sink and fish out a scrubber whenever you need to degrease your sink, etc.

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To clean the sink or bathtub:

Dust the surface with baking soda, then use the fibrous part of the orange to scrub away the grime.

possibly the strangest photo I have emailed anyone

Add more Orange Crunch Cleaning Liquid as necessary. Once all the grime is scrubbed off, rinse with water. Throw out the orange peels.

The remaining liquid can be used as a toilet bowl cleaner, or diluted with equal parts hot water and a few drops of soap for cleaning the floor.

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Cleaning sprays you can buy

If you don’t want your home to smell like orange-rosemary salad dressing, what are some sustainable, low-plastic options?

This Meliora all-purpose home spray from the Zero Waste Store is $9 and comes with a pre-filled glass bottle and 3 tablets for refills! Silky Crunch trifecta right there.

I’m intrigued by the transparency of Blueland’s cleaning sprays ($13). Yes, the pink and blue colors are synthetic, but they’re open about it and it’s pretty. The first order includes a plastic spray bottle: you add water to a tablet, and voilà!

Back in 2020, I tried the Grove Collaborative glass cleaning spray ($15). They come with two little shots that you’ll dilute, so each “bottle” is closer to $8. I wanted the minimalist, silicone-covered glass spray bottle. The multipurpose bottle is just $4 right now, while the two little shot refills are $6.

All three products are low in synthetics, reduce plastic waste, and transparent about their ingredients. Plus, I like their minimalist designs.

Some “natural” brands with folksy typeface and burlap-sack vibes give me the ick. I’m not a trad wife trying to glamorize the Great Depression, I just wanna clean my sink without inflaming my genetically weak ass lungs!

I use bleach once in a while for my kitchen sink or toilet. Remember to never mix vinegar or alcohol (any Silky Crunch cleaning recipe) with bleach.

Which cleaning potions get the job done? How do you decide what to buy when there are so many options?

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Related:

Ways to breathe cleaner air at home

2025 wedding guest looks: natural & plant-based fibers

The Silky Crunch Trifecta 🔱