Unleash the cleaning power of rosemary at home, and you can forget about needing commercial detergents

There are literally hundreds of commercial detergent and cleaning products available on the market these days. That said, most of these products are not exactly eco-friendly and can be expensive too. So, when an all-natural alternative is suggested or recommended, it's worth giving it a try, no? And this is the case for DIY detergents prepared using rosemary!

You can spend an afternoon preparing this all-natural detergent/cleaner which will last a long time. And rosemary is easy to grow or find. Keep reading to find out more:

Just two, cheap ingredients are needed

Creativo

To make this old-fashioned, homemade cleaning detergent, you only need two ingredients.

• 5 or 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• A bottle of vinegar

You will also need a saucepan, a glass jar, a spray bottle (to contain the finished product) and a strainer for filtering.

The production process is very simple:

• Place the sprigs of rosemary into the saucepan;
• Pour the vinegar over the sprigs: two fingers will be enough to cover all the rosemary;
• Bring everything to a boil and as soon as it starts to boil, turn off the heat;
• Remove the saucepan and leave the rosemary to steep overnight (in the meantime, it will have perfumed your home!);
• The next day, filter the liquid;
• Decant into the spray bottle.

You are now ready to use your product: it will be effective cleaning glass, sinks, bathroom fixtures and all worktops/surfaces which are "vinegar-friendly".

NOTE: since neat vinegar is used, and boiling it makes it more concentrated, you might consider diluting your final mixture a little. For instance, you could prepare two "versions" of the cleaner - one diluted (for delicate surfaces), one undiluted (for more robust surfaces)!

An alternative version using lemon

Pxhere

If you want to enhance your homemade detergent, you can use lemons to this end in one of two ways:

1) You can add lemon juice and lemon peels to the above recipe, and even leave the peel in the spray bottle;

2) Then, there is another recipe that requires more time: in a 1 liter jar, put in the rosemary sprigs and the zest of two lemons. Add water and vinegar in equal parts until the jar is filled, close it and leave to steep in a dark place for two weeks. Filter everything and the resulting liquid is ready to use as a powerful degreaser!

Whilst these natural detergents take a little time to prepare, if you like the results, you can produce them in larger quantities to cut down on prep time.

And when you need a little extra help to clean something (as long as it is a material that is not at risk of being ruined by vinegar), you can add a drop of dishwashing liquid or Marseille soap to your DIY detergent - which you can then use almost everywhere!