homemade all purpose cleaner

with complete honesty - since i started using my own household cleaner i have never looked back. my go-to day to day recipe is a lavendar and tea tree mix but i read about extracting your own ‘scents’ from lemon and other fruit scraps and thought id give it a festive whirl with our nordman pine last year.

You will need

branches from your tree (ours was a nordman pine but any tree will work)

unscented vinegar (i bought in bulk a huge 5l container, available here - which i have used for various cleaning jobs around the house)

for this, you will only require enough to cover the pine needles in your jar, so how much you need will depend on the size of the jar you are using

a large airtight jar - i like to use ‘weck’ canning jars and we have plenty in our cupboard which can be purchased direct from weck (here)

tap water

dr bronners liquid castille soap (you only need a few squirts per batch, and can find it here)

an amber glass spray top jar (widely available)

What to do

simply snip off boughs from your christmas tree before you take it down, and stuff them into a large airtight jar. i used a ‘weck’ canning jar, but any large mason jar or clip top style ‘kilner’ jar would work.

fill to cover with unscented vinegar.

leave your sealed jar in a dark, dry cupboard for six weeks or more. feel free to forget about it, and re-discover when spring arrives.

when you come to mix up your household cleaner, simply strain your vinegar mix into an amber spray bottle until it is half full. then add in a couple of squirts of liquid castille soap and top with boiled, cooled water.

works a treat, and smells delicious too.