I have been making my own homemade shower cleaner for years, but I wasn’t always using the best ingredients. I decided to make a few tweaks to my original recipe and created a powerful homemade shower cleaner using just 3 ingredients.
For years, I used a DIY Shower Cleaner made with dish soap and vinegar. And it worked amazingly well. Check out the results!
Pretty good, right?!
However, as the years went on, I became more aware of the ingredients I was using in my homemade cleaners. In the original recipe I used Dawn dish soap. (Don’t get me wrong, I think Dawn does a great job cleaning and cutting through grime, but if you check out the EWG website, Dawn dish soap gets a D rating.) So, I made a few tweaks to my original homemade shower cleaner recipe, and that’s what I’m sharing today.
What You Need to Make Homemade Shower Cleaner
Ingredients Needed for DIY Shower Cleaner
IMPORTANT: This Homemade Shower Cleaner cannot be used on stone due to the acidic nature of the vinegar.
- Vinegar– Vinegar has natural antibacterial/antifungual properties which makes it great for use in homemade cleaners.
- Sal Suds– I found Sal Suds just a couple years ago, and fell in love with it. Sad Suls is created by Dr. Bonner’s, but unlike Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap (which is used for personal care), Sal Suds is an actual cleaner “made with plant-based surfactants and natural fir needle and spruce essential oils”… and it gets an A rating from the EWG.
- Essential Oil (Optional)- I love adding essential oils to my homemade cleaning products for extra cleaning power. For this homemade shower cleaner, I make sure to add Tea Tree essential oil because of its antibacterial and antifungal properties. If you are unsure where to buy essential oils, check out this post to help you find a brand that works best for you.
Supplies Needed for Homemade Shower Cleaner
One of my readers reported irritation when using this recipe in a spray bottle (which is how I originally wrote the recipe). I decided to test with a spray bottle and a dish wand to compare, and I think the fine mist from the spray bottle may have been the problem. In order to avoid this issue, I now recommend pouring the mixture into a dish wand instead of a spray bottle.
How to Make Homemade Shower Cleaner
The recipe below makes 3 oz. which is what you need to fill a dish wand.
This homemade shower cleaner recipe is incredibly easy to make.
Start by adding 3 Tablespoons Sal Suds to a glass liquid measuring cup.
Then add 3 Tablespoons of vinegar and give it a gentle stir.
Once mixed, add in Tea Tree essential oil if desired. (The amount will vary depending on if you are adding additional essential oils… See below.)
Tea tree essential oil does not have the most pleasant scent, so feel free to add drops of other essential oils as well. Technically, you can add up to 18 drops of essential oil to keep this at a 1% dilution rate, but that’s a lot of essential oil. I would recommend using about 5-6 drops instead. Here are a few other essential oils that are great in the cleaning department and add a pleasant scent.
Lemon | Orange | Pine | Any Immune Supporting Blend
I used equal amounts of tea tree, lemon, and orange as Sal Suds already has fir needle and spruce essential oils.
Stir in the essential oils and then pour the shower cleaner into a dish wand for immediate use.
Prior to trying any cleaning product, it is strongly recommended that you test the product on a small, inconspicuous area to make sure there is no change to your finish (other than getting it cleaner). Please see our disclaimer statement for more details.
When ready to use, simply wet the shower walls and floor with warm water, then scrub everything down with the solution-filled dish wand.
Once everything is well scrubbed, rinse down the shower with warm water.
IMPORTANT: If you choose to use essential oil in this recipe, you should pour any remaining solution out of the dish wand as some essential oils (like tea tree and citrus) can break down plastic. Make sure to thoroughly rinse the sponge/brush used for scrubbing as well.
Homemade Shower Cleaner Results
Ready to see how well this shower cleaner works? I decided to do a side by side comparison. I put a strip of painter’s tape down the center of my shower floor and used the homemade shower cleaner on half the floor.
These are the results!
First, I’m disgusted by how gross our shower floor was, and also amazed at how well this shower cleaner worked!
Common Homemade Shower Cleaner Questions
Can I use dish soap in place of the Sal Suds?
As mentioned, I used to make this recipe with Dawn, so yes you can certainly replace the Sal Suds with Dawn if you prefer. However, big word of caution! Some “natural” dish soaps contain sodium carbonate (washing soda) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). You remember 4th grade science class, right? Mixing baking soda and vinegar is going to cause problems, so make sure you check the ingredients on your dish soap before mixing it with vinegar.
Do I have to add essential oils?
Nope. That is totally up to you. Sal Suds actually has a very pleasant scent with the added fir needle and spruce essential oils, so you certainly don’t have to add additional essential oils. They do, however, add a little more cleaning power and scent to the mix.
I heard Sal Suds contains Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Doesn’t that cause cancer?
I actually looked into this claim because I am trying to use the safest, most effective ingredients in my homemade cleaners; I certainly don’t want to add a known carcinogen! First, Lisa Bronner wrote an entire post on SLS used in Sal Suds, addressing the claims about it being cancer-causing, which you can read about here. Okay, but Lisa Bronner probably wants her products to look good, so how do we know SLS is really okay to use? I found an article titled “Human and Environmental Toxicity of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS): Evidence for Safe Use in Household Cleaning Products”. It addresses everything from ocular and dermal irritations to carcinogenicity. After doing my research, I feel completely comfortable using products containing Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.
Homemade Shower Cleaner
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp Sal Suds
- 3 Tbsp Vinegar
- 5-6 Drops Essential Oils (Optional)
Supplies
- Glass Liquid Measuring Cup
- Dish Wand
Instructions
- Combine Sal Suds and vinegar in a glass liquid measuring cup. Gently stir.
- Add essential oil of your choosing. Stir. See post for some great essential oil options. (While you can add up to 18 drops, this would be excessive. I would go with 5-6 total drops.)
- Pour the mixture into a dish wand.
- Wet the shower walls and floor with warm water. Scrub everything down with the solution-filled dish wand and rinse with warm water.
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What can you recommend for cleaning a natural stone shower??
Unfortunately I have never had a natural stone shower to be able to try out homemade cleaners. I am going to leave a link that may be helpful. Alexis does a lot of DIY Cleaning Recipes on her site and she recommends using a magic eraser and then her shower cleaner (that is SAFE for natural stone). The only problem is you would have to purchase her e=book in order to get the recipe. If that’s of interest to you, here’s the link I found >>> https://chemistrycachet.com/how-to-clean-shower-tile/
This cleaning recipe worked wonders in my old shower that had horrible hard water build up BUT I have a question. Did yours have strong fumes? I followed recipe exactly but as soon as I sprayed this on my shower walls I started choking and coughing uncontrollably! I’ve used Sal Suds for tons of cleaning and on it’s own the smell is mild. I use vinegar by itself all the time with no issues. I’ve used harsh cleaners and the fumes don’t bother me at all compared to this diy cleaner! What could it be?
Thank you so much for providing this feedback. I have a rather large bathroom and didn’t experience what you are describing, however, I tried using a dish wand filled with the solution (instead of using the spray bottle method) and I it greatly reduced the fine mist from the spray (which may have been the issue). I have updated this post to recommend using a dish wand instead of a spray bottle to avoid this. I hope that helps!