The Easy DIY Degreaser You Can Use To Tackle Your Dirty Kitchen
Let's face it: not everyone enjoys deep cleaning the kitchen and scrubbing away the dirt and grime for hours, especially on their day off. Since the kitchen is one of the most high-traffic rooms in the house, it's the most time-consuming one to clean. Using a degreaser that will help keep your kitchen clean is key. You want something you can use daily, especially on fresh spills. There are multiple degreasers on the market with prices that range from as low as $4 to over $30. Further, they're often filled with chemicals, such as surfactants, hydrochloric acid, and caustics, that are detrimental to your health. Plus, they don't always work how they claim to; instead, you can DIY a degreaser with items you already have at home.
You'll need distilled white vinegar, baking soda, natural liquid soap, and your favorite clean-smelling essential oil. Other required items include a spray bottle, a cloth, and a sponge. Most of these ingredients are used daily, so you don't have to run to the store to buy everything new, but if you don't have them, you'll want to stock up on them the next time you're at the store. Using natural ingredients reduces the amount of chemicals you use around your house. However, they won't cut through grime or grease you've tried to eliminate for weeks. It will only help in everyday cleaning. You simply need a small amount of each ingredient to curate a degreaser.
Measurements for your at-home degreaser
One item you might have to purchase is a new spray bottle, which you can find at Walmart for $1.18. Once you gather your materials, prep your spray bottle by rinsing it a few times with warm water. Then, add 1 cup of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, two drops of liquid soap, and one drop of your essential oil into the bottle. If you use a scented liquid soap, skip the essential oil or use both. Next, fill the rest of the spray bottle with warm water, close it with the nozzle, and shake it for a few minutes. You want the ingredients to mix thoroughly. Finally, spray the solution on your kitchen counters, stove, or wherever you have grime-covered areas, and let it sit before wiping them down.
On the other hand, you can use this solution for other areas around your home. For instance, if you have any soap spills in the bathroom or laundry room, use the solution to clean any sticky residue. It's best used for in-the-moment spills when you don't have anything else nearby. As we mentioned, this solution won't remove baked-on food or grease since it doesn't have the chemicals needed to cut through grime. The baking soda is also a questionable ingredient that you can actually leave out for your solution as well, and it may work even better.
Does this DIY degreaser actually work?
While the DIY degreaser is made of natural ingredients and is easy to make, it won't always give you the best results you're looking for. That's due to the baking soda ingredient. When you mix baking soda and vinegar in water, they have a tendency to cancel each other out, so you're often left with water in your spray bottle. The fizziness that occurs when baking soda is mixed with vinegar is what will cut through grease. When the fizziness disappears, it's diluted. You would have to continuously mix baking soda and vinegar to get a bubbly reaction and for it to work.
However, if you skip the baking soda, you still get a perfect homemade degreaser. YouTuber Sustainable Slow Living claims that using your DIY degreaser each day on your stove or any fresh spills can prevent grease build-up. This DIY degreaser works on one- to two-day grime since it has vinegar in it. Oil-based degreasers will remove oil spills but won't clean tough, baked-on food as much. Instead, you want to make a baking soda paste to eliminate the caked-on food and scrub it with a wet rag. To ensure you get the best cleaning results, use the vinegar and baking soda separately.