Homemade glass cleaner is easy to make and inexpensive, without any of the nasty chemicals in the store-bought kind.
If you can’t find your 5-year-old and it’s really quiet, you can guess that there’s mischief happening. When this happened, I wasn’t surprised to find that Jackjack made a HUGE mess on the bathroom mirror.
I don’t mind messes, but I also expect him to help me clean them up. Not a problem, right? Except that once I looked at the ingredients on the Windex bottle, I didn’t want any of us breathing this stuff:
2-Hexoxyethanol
Isopropanolamine
Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate
Lauramine Oxide
Ammonium Hydroxide
Liquitint Sky Blue Dye
Gross, huh? These ingredients are so nasty that Environmental Working Group has given Windex a grade of “D” because these ingredients have the potential for acute aquatic toxicity; respiratory effects; and nervous system effects.
You don’t need any of those mystery ingredients to make homemade window cleaner. It’s easy, and I bet you already have all of the ingredients you need!
There are lots of homemade glass cleaner recipes out there–I’ve tried many of them and this one is the best. One batch costs pennies to make…compare that to store brand glass cleaner at $2.39 and you’ll see why this is my favorite.
Homemade Glass Cleaner
Ingredients
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
Instructions
Pour into a clean 24oz spray bottle (I like these because they’re sturdy and don’t leak) and fill with tap water.
More natural cleaning recipes you’ll love:
Hand the bottle to your assistant and send him to the nearest dirty mirror.
If you’re lucky, he might get motivated enough to wash more stuff. Watch as your bathroom becomes sparkly clean! Or less of a biohazard, at least.
Now if I could just get him to mop the kitchen, I’d be in business…
- 1 cup rubbing alcohol
- 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 24oz spray bottle
Pour into a clean 24oz spray bottle and fill with tap water.
What other cleaners would you like to have natural versions of? Leave me a note in the comments!
Maya says
I’m not comfortable with the toxic fumes from ammonia, so I use vinegar instead of the ammonia and rubbing alcohol in your recipe. Works better than the store bought cleaner, for sure!
Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy says
Ugh toothpaste on the mirror. BTDT! Thanks for sharing at Healthy 2Day Wednesday!
Anonymous says
Is ammonia not very bad for the environment?
Leslie A says
You may want to check out a great recipe I found a few months ago that uses Prell shampoo, instead of ammonia. It’s found here, if you are interested: http://www.theprudentlife.net/2012/05/glass-cleaner.html
Jenny @ The NY Melrose Family says
I love your helper. Do you think 2 is too soon for this? Lol! Thanks so much for sharing at Whimsy Wednesdays.
Annnightflyer says
Vinegar and wipe with newspaper works excellent too.
Antoinette Nozzero says
Yes, I started doing the same, white vinegar and water in a squirt bottle
Dolly Trebilcock says
To Annnightfllyer: This method left visible scratches all over my windows.
Anonymous says
A better recipe is 1 cup water, 1 cup rubbing alcohol and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. NO ammonia needed. I’ve been using this recipe for years.
Practical Parsimony says
Ammonia is very hard on the lungs. Everytime my mother used ammonia to clean, she ended up with such lung congestion that it took weeks to get over it and many trips to the doctor. I would not let a young child near it.
Anonymous says
I use water and a dry J-cloth.
Anonymous says
I use your recipe plus old newspaper flyers and it works great! No streaks and doesn’t leave your house smelling like french fries after:D
Robyn L. Coburn says
I use very dilute hot soapy water and squeegee instead of any kind of cloth or paper. So much faster!
clarego says
peroxide!
galacticwalker says
Everyone in the UK knows there is only one way to clean windows…… Vinegar water and a dot of washing up liquid, then rub it on with newspaper and dry it off with more dry newspaper.
Hilde Tipton says
Glad someone mentioned using newspaper. This is the way we cleaned all the glass in the house back in the 60s – vinegar, water, and newspaper.