Have the powers of the social media algorithm sent you the video of the people who made cleaner out of orange peels? Allured by the promise of a cleaning solution that’s zero-waste, good for the planet, and budget-friendly, I decided to test out this orange peel cleaner. Apparently, I was not alone. The search for “cleaner with orange peel” has 9.7M views on TikTok! The orange peel cleaner works mainly because of two key ingredients: vinegar and limonene.
If you’re like me, and you’re always trying to be more sustainable and integrate the best eco-friendly, zero waste, package-free options into your life – you’ve come to the right place! Made to Sustain focuses on Food and Lifestyle Sustainability. So when I saw a video for orange peel cleaner several times on the internet. The essence of the video is to showcase how you can make a powerful multi-use cleaner at home with just two ingredients: orange peels and vinegar. I decided to test the orange cleaning solution and give it my honest review.
Does the orange peel cleaner work?
The orange peel cleaner works mainly because of two key ingredients: vinegar and limonene.
Limonene:
Limonene is the primary ingredient used in Pledge, 409, Method, and other cleaners. It’s commonly found in the peels of citrus fruits. Limonene provides a fresh citrusy scent and acts as a degreaser. It’s also bio-degradable, safe around food, and approved by the EPA. Limonene is a great ingredient for effective and safe household cleaning products. You can learn more about limonene here.
Vinegar
Vinegar is a multi-functional household ingredient. From making great salad dressings to pickling to unclogging drains, vinegar serves many purposes. It’s an inexpensive kitchen pantry ingredient that’s been used for many years. Vinegar is strong enough to dissolve dirt, grease, and minerals, making it an effective cleaner.
How to Prepare the Orange Peel Cleaner
Based on the videos on TikTok, there are only a few essential steps to prepare the orange cleaner. The simple instructions are
- Collect orange peels
- Place them in a container
- Cover them with Distilled White Vinegar
- Let it sit for two weeks
- Use as you would any multi-purpose cleaner
Here’s how I did it.
I started by purchasing my oranges in bulk when they were in season. While I’m sure you could use tangerines or clementines, I used Cara Cara oranges since those were available.
I ate oranges throughout the week, and saved the peels in a repurposed an old glass jar. Since I didn’t peel them all at once, I stored the peels in the refrigerator until I had enough to make the extract. The purpose of the fridge is so that the orange peels aren’t fermented when you need them. Spoiler alert – I learned that.
You only need about 3-4 orange peels to make the cleaner. So once you have collected enough in your jar, all you need to do is fill it with distilled white vinegar to the top of your container. I had about 5 or 6 peels, so my cleaner was a bit stronger.
The main compound that we’re trying to extract here is called Limonene. Limonene is found in a lot of citrus cleaners like Pledge and is great for disinfecting. We need to let the vinegar work its magic, which should take about two weeks in a cool dark place.
Some accounts suggested diluting the liquid one to one, but it would make a less concentrated cleaner. I put it in my pantry and prepared it the same way. But I forgot about it, so this cleaner had a little longer time to distill. After about three weeks, I poured it into a spray bottle.
The Results
It shouldn’t be surprising that how much vinegar you use is how much cleaner you get out. The solution yielded about 250 mL of cleaning solution when I poured it into my reusable spray bottle.
The orange peel cleaner smelled as you would expect, with faint notes of orange and vinegar, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I tested it on my countertops and on my stainless steel dishwasher.
The cleaner worked great! The design makes it hard to tell when my countertops are messy, especially by my coffee pot. So naturally, this is where I decided to test. The cleaner seemed to wipe everything up, even the coffee stains!
On my dishwasher, the orange peel cleaner was able to wipe up some fingerprint marks and some pet licks from our pets! I find most cleaners don’t perform great on stainless steel, but this one was effective.
Other Options vs Homemade Orange Peel Cleaner
If you love the idea of an orange cleaner but don’t want to do it yourself? You can purchase Limonene concentrate on the internet. We bought orange oil concentrate a few years ago to keep the cats from scratching the couch, but they ignored it. Left with a large bottle of cleaning concentrate, we used it as a household cleaner.
While we were able to get about 8 refills out of our concentrate, which is a decent return for a $25 bottle of concentrate. However, the smell of the concentrate was very potent. If you’re sensitive to smells, I would avoid purchasing a limonene concentrate.
Final Thoughts
This orange peel cleaner is a cost-effective way to create a simple, non-toxic, environmentally friendly household cleaner. Since it has both limonene and vinegar, the cleaner is effective at removing grease and dirt while being anti-bacterial. Orange peel cleaner has a low cost of entry for someone looking to go zero waste. I enjoyed getting to experiment on this mixture on my countertops and my dishwasher. Would you test this out?
Hope you enjoyed the post! Check out more on our homepage, and feel free to send to a friend. Let me know in the comment section if you test it out yourself!
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Hope you enjoyed the post! Check out more on our homepage, and feel free to send to a friend. Let me know in the comment section if you test it out yourself!
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