Homemade, Natural Scouring Powder

This natural scouring powder or scrubbing powder is simple to make, with a bright lemony scent. It's great for cleaning sinks, tubs, pots and pans, and more!

Does your family replace the standard name of a product with the brand name? When I was growing up, we referred to every brand of scouring powder as "Comet."

It didn't matter if we were using the store brand scrubbing powder, Bon Ami, or Ajax--we called them all Comet.

What I didn't realize then is that Comet is full of unhealthy (and unnecessary) chemical ingredients--so many of them that Environmental Working Group gave it a health grade of "D."

Comet and other scouring powder contain ingredients with potential for human respiratory damage, as well as immediate and long-term danger to aquatic creatures. We don't need that junk around our kids, our pets, or us.

Homemade scouring powder was one of the easiest changes to make when I switched to natural cleaners and air fresheners. Natural cleaners are safe for everyone in the family to use, and don't make your eyes and throat burn like conventional cleaners do.

You probably have these ingredients in your pantry right now, and it only takes a minute to mix everything up. Let's do this!

Natural Scouring Powder Ingredients

Here's what all the ingredients do in this homemade scouring powder.

Baking soda: baking soda is a mild abrasive that's great for lots of things besides baking. You can even make homemade toothpaste with baking soda.

Table salt: table salt is a crystalline compound, and it's the stronger abrasive in this recipe.

Lemon essential oil: citrus essential oils have grease-cutting properties, and lemon always smells like "clean" to me. Lemon essential oil also has disinfectant properties, which is important for cleaning. 

Powdered lemon peel: if you have homemade powdered lemon peel, add a tablespoon for color and extra scrubbing power. You can buy powdered lemon peel, but store-bought is far too expensive to use for cleaning.

Natural Scouring Powder

Yield: 1 ¼ cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $1

This natural scouring powder or scrubbing powder is simple to make, with a bright lemony scent. It's great for cleaning sinks, tubs, pots and pans, and more!

Print

Materials

• 1 cup baking soda
• ¼ cup table salt
• 15 drops lemon essential oil
• 1 Tbsp powdered lemon peel, optional

Instructions

Put baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Break up any lumps with a spring whisk or fork.

Sprinkle the lemon essential oil and powdered lemon peel on top, and whisk again to distribute throughout the baking soda and salt mixture.

Pour into a canning jar with a shaker top, or a recycled parmesan cheese jar.

To use: Sprinkle on soiled areas and scrub with a damp sponge.

Notes

Other essential oils that are great in this recipe: Grapefruit, On Guard blend, or Purify blend.

Recommended Products

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