DIY All-Purpose Cleaner: Three Recipes We Tested for a Month
Vinegar-based, castile soap-based, and a bicarbonate paste — tested on the same kitchen surfaces for a month.
8 June 2026 · 6 min read
Chetanya Goel · Founder & Editor
Chetanya started Annam Naturals after two years of keeping a household waste diary. Chetanya writes about the boring, repeatable habits that hold up in a real week.
Homemade cleaner recipes online rarely say how well they actually clean, so we ran three side by side on the same countertops, hob and bathroom tiles for a month.
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Responsive display unit — placed after the introduction
The three recipes
White vinegar diluted with water was fine for glass and general wiping but struggled with grease on the hob. A castile soap and water mix cut through grease noticeably better and left surfaces without residue. A bicarbonate of soda paste was the only one that shifted the baked-on marks around the hob rings.
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In-article unit — placed mid-content
Our working combination
We ended up keeping two bottles rather than one: a castile soap spray for daily wiping, and the bicarbonate paste kept in a jar for weekly deeper cleans. Vinegar we now only use on glass and mirrors.
One caution: vinegar-based cleaners shouldn't be used on natural stone surfaces, and castile soap can leave streaks if diluted too strong — start weaker than the bottle suggests and adjust up.
For more of this kind of testing, the zero-waste home hub collects everything we've tried in that area.
Frequently asked
Do I need to buy anything to get started?
No. Every method here begins with what is already in your cupboards. We only recommend a purchase when something has genuinely worn out, and we say what it should cost.
How do you test the things you write about?
Minimum four weeks of ordinary household use, with notes. For anything involving energy or money we use a plug-in meter and record the readings before and after.
Are your recommendations paid for?
Never. Brands cannot buy placement. Some outbound links are affiliate links, which we mark, and they do not change what makes the list.
What if a method doesn't work in my home?
Write to us. A surprising amount of our best material comes from readers explaining why something failed in a flat, a shared house or a very cold winter.
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