Windex, Vinegar, Or What To Keep My Glasses Clean?

Did you know that y'all can brand your own glass and mirror cleaner with ingredients you can find effectually your home? You lot tin can make a great cleaner for glass surfaces, for a fraction of the cost, with 3 simple ingredients. Get tips for making an easy, homemade glass cleaner recipe here.

Growing upwardly, my mom cleaned the mirrors and windows in our dwelling house with a famous blue liquid. This liquid, and the smell that came with information technology, represented "clean" in our home. I'g and so glad glass cleaner was one of the first cleaning products to be questioned when we began to make the switch to using more than natural products in our home.

Why Make Homemade Glass and Window Cleaner?

Let'due south take a expect at the ingredients listed on the Windex website (just one of many window and glass cleaner brands on the market place): Water, two-Hexoxyethanol, Isopropanolamine, Sodium Dodecylbenzene, Sulfonate Cleaning, Lauramine Oxide, Ammonium Hydroxide, Fragrance, Liquitint® Sky Bluish Dye.

Mutual household ingredients, right?! Nothing like an ingredient list that makes yous wish y'all paid more attention during high school chemistry grade.

If you'd like to know more virtually the risks and dangers that may be associated with whatever ingredient you don't recognize on an ingredient list (because they probably weren't covered in loftier school chemistry course), check out the Environmental Working Group's Database. The EWG grades almost all ingredients constitute in common cleaning products in the United States.

Just reading the word fragrance on the ingredient list, above, raises a large red flag. Lots of undisclosed ingredients can be hiding nether this vague ingredient name, including phthalates (which are believed to disrupt hormones and exist carcinogenic).

Learning how to make your own cleaning products is ane of the best means to avoid toxic chemicals and accept confidence in what you're using to clean your habitation. At that place's no need to memorize a long list of ingredients to avoid or spend hours researching safe cleaning products. And the all-time part is…with merely a scattering of natural and non-toxic ingredients you make clean your entire home and make your own speciality cleaning products.

Why learn how to brand your own cleaning products? This DIY drinking glass cleaner is a great place to start!

Salvage Money. You probably already take well-nigh of the ingredients needed to make this bootleg glass and mirror cleaner, and many other DIY cleaners, already in your dwelling! And the all-time part, y'all can employ the same ingredients to make other homemade cleaners, like an all-purpose cleaner.
Reduce Exposure to harsh chemicals that are of known concern (similar fragrance ingredients and ammonia), nonetheless continue to exist used in popular cleaners.
Be Self-Sufficient. Learning how to melt and make your own natural cleaners is a keen style to do this! That'due south what Alive Simply is all nigh.

Now I get it, the rational reply is not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater." I understand that we don't live in a bubble. I even so utilize some plastic products in our home (just to proper noun one example) and probably come up in contact with phthalates, and other ingredients, just past continuing with daily routines outside our dwelling house. But when an alternative solution exists for something that'southward sprayed in our home environment regularly, like glass cleaner, and that solution but takes sixty seconds to pour into a bottle and spray on my windows and mirrors, why not give information technology a shot?

Today, my goal is not to scare y'all, but rather to bear witness you just how easy it is to make homemade glass cleaner at home.

How to Make Glass Cleaner

Ingredients to make homemade DIY glass cleaner…

1/ii loving cup Rubbing Alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol): This ingredient is very low on the toxicity scale (run across how it rates). Rubbing booze dries quickly and helps create that streak-complimentary cleaning experience we all desire from a drinking glass, mirror, and window cleaner. If yous prefer, I retrieve vodka would also work every bit a substitute.
one/iii cup White Vinegar: The superstar of natural cleaning ingredients! This antibacterial ingredient is acidic and removes film, grime, and dirt on glass surfaces, naturally and without toxic chemicals.
Water: From a safety and bacterial perspective, it'southward best to use distilled water when making homemade DIY cleaners. For streak-free surfaces, like glass surfaces, using distilled water will keep surfaces streak-free (tap water can leave water spots on surfaces).
Essential Oils: This is optional. If you lot want to odor your products, add together a few drops of essential oil for a natural olfactory property. I love a germ fighter blend (like this)–the combo of clove and other warm spices is amazing!
sixteen-ounce Spray Bottle (my favorite): You'll demand a bottle to shake and combine the mixture of ingredients.

Add the rubbing alcohol and vinegar to the spray canteen, and essential oil if using (about 10-15 drops), then top the bottle off with water until total. So easy, right?!

How to Use DIY Glass Cleaner

With your homemade glass cleaner ready to go, here'due south how to put this spray cleaner to use…

Spray on surfaces. Employ this cleaner on glass, window, or stainless steel (always spot exam first) surfaces. This glass cleaner as well works as a homemade window cleaner and mirror cleaner. You don't need iii unlike products for cleaning windows, drinking glass surfaces, and mirrors–just this 1!
Wipe with a fabric. I recommend a microfiber cloth for streak-free cleaning. Microfiber cloths don't leave behind the lint like many other cleaning cloths.

More DIY Cleaner Recipes and Tips

After making this recipe, give these natural cleaning tips and recipes a try…

5 Secrets to Using Natural Cleaners
Piece of cake Homemade Sink and Tub Cleaner
All Purpose Cleaner

Homemade Drinking glass and Mirror Cleaner

How to brand a DIY homemade glass and mirror cleaner. This streak-free formula is upkeep-friendly, non-toxic, and takes less than 5 minutes to make!

Prep Time five mins

Total Fourth dimension 5 mins

Course Homemade

Cuisine Cleaning

i/2 cup rubbing/isopropyl alcohol (if you'd prefer to non apply this ingredient, skip information technology and add together i/2 vinegar OR vodka)
i/3 cup white distilled vinegar
distilled water distilled water is best if storing for a few weeks, filtered h2o is fine if using within a few days

Add together the alcohol and vinegar to a 16 ounce spray bottle.

1/two cup rubbing/isopropyl alcohol, 1/3 cup white distilled vinegar
Add water until the bottle is full (use a funnel, if needed). If you don't care for a vinegar odor (although it goes away one time the surface dries), add a few drops of your favorite cleaning essential oil. I personally like lemon, grapefruit, or a germ fighter blend. This glass cleaner may be stored at room temperature.

distilled water
To Utilise: Spray a drinking glass, mirror, or window surface with the cleaner, then wipe the surface with a textile (microfiber is best for streak-free drinking glass cleaning).

Permit me know how it was!

Kristin Marr

Kristin is the creator and editor-in-chief of Live Simply. Kristin is married to her loftier school sweetheart, Dustin, and is the mom to two kids and two free-roam (litterbox-trained) bunnies, Leo and Estela. Kristin started Live Simply in 2022 to share her passion for real food and natural living.