DIY ZERO WASTE CITRUS AND THYME SURFACE SPRAY

My home

23 Mar

DIY citrus surface spray. zero waste, natural, very cheap and antiseptic. Photography: Kristy Noble, Styling Hannah Bullivant

I have been making surface spray using citrus peels for the last year or so. I have shared it on instagram stories and always receive questions, so I thought i’d put the recipe in a quick blog post. There is something really satisfying about recycling and re-using all the elements (apart from the vinegar!) I gather the citrus in a bag in the freezer until I have enough to fill my jar. The thyme is from my garden. The glass bottle is an old vinegar bottle and the nozzle is recycled from another spray bottle too. I buy my vinegar in 5 litre bottles from Summer Naturals (one of my fave shops!) where is £5 for 5 litres. I used way less than a litre here so this cost me around 30p to make.

For this recipe I have used orange peel, juiced lemons, grapefruit skins and juiced lime skins. I have also used fresh thyme from the garden- the Thyme was an experiment (I love experimenting with ingredients for this spray!) and I really love the smell. Lemons are an amazing disinfectant, they actually have bleaching qualities which you need to be careful of. A friend left a lemon upside down on her surface for a few hours by accident and found that it made bleach marks on her concrete kitchen surface so a) let that be a warning for those with concrete surfaces and b) Let that be a demonstration of just how powerful citrus juice is! Similarly, Thyme has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties too.

My recipe for citrus surface cleaner:

1. Keep juiced lemons and limes and any citrus peels in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to fill a medium/large sized jar. Fill the jar 2/3rds of the way up with white vinegar, and put the peels in. The jar should be full.

2. Let the citrus steep in the vinegar for 1-2 weeks.

3. After 1-2 weeks sieve out the peels (compost them) and drain the liquid. Squeeze the peels to get the most liquid out, but make sure there are no bits in the liquid- they clog the spray bottle up. Decant it into a clean spray bottle. Top it up with water (around 50/50). Top tip- the spray nozzle of a Method brand spray bottle fits perfectly on old glass vinegar bottles, you just need to slightly cut the nozzle.

4. Use on any surface.You’ll need to re-make it after 4-6 weeks as it can go ‘off’. But if you keep all your juiced citrus skins and peels in the freezer, you’ll always have a supply to hand.