Homemade “Lysol” Spray {Easy & Non-toxic, with Essential Oils}

Homemade Lysol Spray with Essential Oils

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During my days as a Coupon Queen, I used to stock up on cans of Lysol and other aerosol sprays for next to nothing. We used them mainly for the kitchen trash can and in the bathroom.

But guess what?  Now I know that most household cleaners and sprays contain dangerous chemicals.  When you know better, you do better.  So now we use essential oils to make our household sprays.  

Here’s what I love about sprays made with essential oils:

  • cost effective
  • easy to DIY
  • smells great
  • purifies the air
  • cleans surfaces
  • eradicates foul odors
  • provides therapeutic benefit

I’ve already shared what we use now in the bathroom–it smells great and works really well. Plus, it’s very economical and simple to make.

Homemade Lysol Spray with Essential Oils
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Want to know what I use for the kitchen trash can and other stinky places in our home instead of Lysol?  It’s super-easy to make, and is very effective at cleaning surfaces and eradicating unpleasant odors.

Homemade “Lysol” Spray 

Ingredients and Supplies

  • Purify Cleansing Blend (Lemon, Lime, Pine, Tea Tree & Cilantro)
  • Water
  • Dark glass bottle, any size
  • Spray top
  • Water-resistant label

Instructions:

  1. Add desired number of drops of oil blend to the glass bottle.  (About 10 drops oil to 4 oz. water.)
  2. Fill the rest of the way with water, leaving plenty of room for inserting the spray top.
  3. Label the bottle.

Homemade Lysol Spray with Essential Oils
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How We Use Homemade Lysol

  • Kitchen trash can–A few squirts, as needed.
  • Bathroom mishaps–Think: little boys learning to stand at the toilet.  
  • Bathroom-related mishaps–For those things that should have occurred in the bathroom, but didn’t quite make it.* 🙂

Homemade Lysol Spray with Essential Oils
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Example of a Bathroom-Related Mishap: Little Brother emptied his bladder on a non-washable rag rug. For a moment, I panicked. Then I remembered: Homemade Lysol!

I used two rags–one with hot water, the other dry. First, I saturated the area with hot water, then placed the dry towel over it and stood on it to absorb as much water as possible. Then I used my Lysol Spray to cleanse the problem area further and leave behind a pleasant scent. Worked like a charm!

More Essential Oil Options

I like this particular oil blend because it sort of reminds me of that Pinesol/Lysol smell, but there are other EO’s that would work equally well to clean and banish odors.  Part of the fun is experimenting to see which oils–or combination of oils–works best for your particular needs (or olfactory senses).

  • On Guard (blend of Cinnamon + Clove + Orange + Rosemary + Eucalyptus)
  • Grapefruit
  • Tea Tree
  • Lemon
  • Wild Orange
  • Eucalyptus
  • Peppermint

Do you make your own cleaning sprays?  Share tips and recipes below…

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Kathleen | Roots & Boots

Let's get real! I’m Kathleen Henderson, your Natural Living Mentor. I’m on a mission to help families see the joy in real food, while finding natural remedies and creating a nontoxic home. Learn more about my story >>

18 Comments

  1. Teresa on 12/15/2014 at 4:16 pm

    making this too….right now! 🙂

    • Kathleen on 01/03/2015 at 5:22 pm

      Yay! Hope you love it, Teresa. 🙂

      • Mariah on 01/02/2016 at 10:06 pm

        How many drops of each oil do u put

        • Kathleen on 01/04/2016 at 3:13 am

          Hi Mariah, I use about 10 drops of a premade blend of Lemon, Lime, Pine, Tea Tree & Cilantro oils for every 4 ounces of water. If you’re blending the oils yourself, try using 2-3 drops of each of those per 4 ounces of water. Hope that helps!

  2. Brittany on 02/25/2015 at 9:44 pm

    I LOVE purify…but HATE the scent!!!! I hate the smell of cilantro, something I hadn’t even realized until recently when I was cooking with cilantro and then later went to use purify, and suddenly made the connection. I do love how effective purify is though, so I won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon! Thanks for posting the alternative options though, I do love all the citrus scents.

    • Kathleen on 02/25/2015 at 10:30 pm

      Brittany–I wasn’t a big fan of Purify’s scent for a long time, either, but for some reason it’s really grown on me. I actually use it to promote clear skin, so perhaps that’s desensitized me. 🙂 Have fun experimenting!

  3. jill on 04/05/2015 at 1:53 pm

    love your site and this spray! thank you so much! if i don’t have dark bottles (i live oversees so its a bit difficult to get things..)– if i put masking tape over my clear bottles, do you think that’s effective enough- or do you think i should really hold off till i have the dark glass? thanks!

    • Kathleen on 04/09/2015 at 12:22 pm

      Hi Jill–Dark glass is preferred, but if they’re hard to come by where you are, I would just use regular glass and store them in a dark place. 🙂

  4. Desiree on 10/21/2015 at 4:18 am

    Love this, but I need something more of a disinfectant for my dorm (you know how it is). Do you know of something I could add to kill germs? I’d do Vodka, but I’m not quite 21, and it’s a dry campus.

    • Kathleen on 10/21/2015 at 7:10 pm

      Hi Desiree, I actually do use essential oils to disinfect. 🙂 I’ll email you directly with a few ideas…

      • Marielle Dror on 10/04/2017 at 7:14 am

        Hey can you email me some too?? Stomach virus going around in my house I wanna protect my baby and disinfect but don’t want to use Lysol !

        • Kathleen on 10/04/2017 at 11:52 am

          Hi Marielle, This homemade Lysol recipe is a great place to start. You can use doTERRA’s On Guard, Melaleuca (Tea Tree), or any of the citrus oils. Just add to a spray bottle of water! I also love the On Guard Cleaner Concentrate.

  5. Ashley on 01/17/2016 at 2:40 am

    Hi, I’d like to know how you make this work since water an oils don’t mix ?

    • dona on 08/01/2016 at 4:15 pm

      Shake before using. The essential oils are not fatty oils but yes, fatty oils dont mix. If you would like more of a mixture simply cover the bottom of your bottle with 100% vegetable glycerine to help it to mix. With or without, it does work fine, just remember to mix.

  6. Rachel on 01/29/2019 at 8:44 pm

    I’m looking for something to spray on my kids book bags and winter coats after school to try to keep the germs away. Would this mixture be ok for that? Do you know what it would do to the fabric?

    • Kathleen on 01/29/2019 at 9:15 pm

      It should be fine.

  7. Connie on 03/22/2020 at 2:58 pm

    Where do you find glass spray bottles? Alls I can find is the plastic ones.

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