DIY Make Your Own Clorox Clean-Up
Courtesy of Adventures of a Couponista, I’ve got an awesome diy project for you. This project is sure to save your wallet tons! Sign me up! We all have to have some form of cleaning products on hand – well, if we want to be clean, right? So, you might as well save where you can so you can have more to do what you want. That’s my motto anyway! I’m going to teach you how to make your own Clorox Clean-Up, at just $.10 per bottle.
There’s the initial cost of the empty spray bottles, but they can be reused time and time again, so I promise there will end up being savings. Plus, if sanitizing products are flying off the shelves in your area, you can rest easy knowing you can still disinfect your home! Who knows, you may never want to go back to purchasing Clorox Clean-Up again!
First you need an empty plastic spray bottle. You’ll want a good quality leakproof bottle, and this 3-pack from Amazon work great!
For any DIY project that uses solutions (or for making your own juices), funnels are handy to have! I am loving this silicone collapsible funnel set, complete with two different sizes. I recommend using a funnel when pouring bleach into the spray bottle, to prevent spillage.
- ¼ cup of Bleach
- 1 Teaspoon of Laundry Detergent
- 1 Empty Plastic Spray Bottle
- Water
- Rinse out your plastic spray bottle and then add the bleach and laundry detergent.
- Fill the remainder of the bottle with tap water. Shake to mix.
- Easy as that!
this is awesome I got to try it
I am going to try this… I use so much Clorox Clean-up!
Anyone actually try it?? Or i everyone just gonna comment : “sounds like a great idea!”
I’ve been doing this for a while and it works that same as the store bought one. I use it everyday to clean up after my pets and it works great. Just be careful when filling it with water, some times there are to many bubbles. I fill it half way then shake it up, then fill it the whole way and shake one last time. I use my roommates bleach so the only thing this recipe costs me is a teaspoon of my laundry soap, super cost effective.
made it today, works great.
Does this use liquid laundry detergent or powder?
Liquid, Sharon.
Thanks so much . I clean a few houses and this will be a good savings!
Happy to help Beth!
This really works and saves money. I use Dawn liquid in my mix.
I just used it to clean all 3 of my bathrooms. I used dreft liquid laundry detergent. It smells great. But not an over bearing bleach smell. But you can smell the bleach. Which makes me feel better knowing it’s still disinfecting. I will never buy Clorox clean up again. Thanks so much for the tip. 😉
So glad it works for you Sarah!
Is this safe for countertops? Seems like a lot of bleach.
I imagine it’s as safe as any Clorox.
I’m using this to disinfect after my son has been sick. I mixed in all baby detergent and derft scent inhancers and it smells amazing and clean.
Mmm that sounds heavenly!
The recipe for DIY Clorox CleanUp does not say what size empty bottle to start with. I buy Clorox CleanUp in a 32 oz (one quart) bottle and will use that for my own mix.
A smaller bottle would, indeed, make a quarter cup of Clorox a rather strong mix.
Would powdered laundry detergent work or Borax or Arm & Hammer? I’ve been doing my own DIY products lately and DAWN dish soap is quite popular in them. Would that suffice? My DIY laundry detergent is a concentrated powder mix with laundry softener in it… want to try to avoid using that. TY
You Oly use 1/4 teaspoon for 30oz of water
I have been making this clean-up solution for years. I have always used Dawn and the solution works great.
I appreciate finding this recipe online- and I am going to see what else you have to offer as I have always been a DIY kinda gal. I have survived MS and have been hyper-sensitive to chemicals, thus über-cautious with any coming into my home. Bleach is one I can’t do without- as well as white vinegar and ACV.
I use diatomaceous earth, (food grade) to keep the house and yard flea free. I put some in the palm of my hand and rub it in along the spine from head to toe to ward off fleas. And I add DE and turmeric to my pets’ canned foods to reduce chances of cancer and UTIs. So far, so great. This came about when one cat, Jasper, was diagnosed with skin cancer about 12 years ago and given just 3 months to live. I googled ‘skin cancer, feline’ and found the first few sites recommended turmeric- I did a bunch of research and put everybody on turmeric. Jasper lived 8 more wonderful, happy and active years.’
My 11-year-old lab, Ronan, has a neurological condition that has crippled his rear legs- I call this Bumblebutt Syndrome’ as his butt swings wildly as he gets around. Recently I find myself cleaning up after him in the house 3-5x a week.
Otherwise, he’s healthy, happy and gets around very well in a dog-wheelchair.
As I am cleaning up these horrible biological messes more and more often and this spray IS rather expensive, I am happier now having this recipe/mix on hand.
I’m not sure the ratios suggested are correct.
My 32-oz bottle of Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach indicates it is 1.84% Sodium Hypochlorite.
A regular Clorox Bleach has 5.25% Sodium Hypochlorite.
Note that Clorox Concentrated and Clorox Ultra have different concentrations!
So for every part of regular Clorox Bleach you add if you also add 2 parts of water then you will end up with approximately the same concentration of Sodium Hypochlorite that is advertised in Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach. So 10oz of bleach to 20oz of water for 32oz bottle.
If you only add 1/4 cup (4oz) of Bleach to a 32oz bottle, then your concentration of bleach will be only about 1/8th the concentration of the Clorox® Clean-Up® Cleaner + Bleach.
Nice post. Must recommend this to my friends. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Clorox Clean Up contains 1.84% sodium hypochlorite as its main ingredient (according to the safety sheet for the product). Typical bottled beach contains 5.25% of the same chemical. So if you want to duplicate the contents of CCU, the bottle should contain about 1/3 volume of its volume as bleach and most of the rest is detergent and water. One type of retail bottle contains 600 mL total volume. So add 200 mL bleach, some detergent (like Mr. Clean about 50-100 mL is a guess) and the rest is water. The recipe in the article is too low on bleach.
I just made a bottle. Works and smells GRAT!
Sorry, left off the D in my first name. 🤣🤣
I’m so glad it turned out for you Donna!
The directions on the back of the Clorox bleach bottle says to add 2 Tbsp of bleach to 32 oz of water to make a surface disinfecting solution. Use this after cleaning the surface to disinfect. So a quarter cup of bleach which is 4 tbsp should be more than enough to make a disinfecting home made Clorox Cleanup.
Read the Dawn label, don’t mix with bleach!
What is the concentration of the bleach you are using?
What is the final volume of the mix?
Without those two factors you cannot calculate the percentage of sodium hypochlorite in the final product.
If the final product has a concentration that’s to low it is absolutely useless as a sanitizer.
Do you have to be careful about getting this on fabric? I’d worry about taking color out of clothes, rugs, etc. due to the bleach. Thanks.
As with anything using bleach, I’d be careful what it touches.
Hi there!
What kind of detergent do you use for the “tablespoon of detergent” ?
I don’t want to mix in the wrong kind and create toxic fumes.
I would just use your favorite detergent. Any should be fine, as far as I know.
Does this lose bleach disinfecting potency in 24 hours as does bleach water?
You know, I’m not really sure about that. I wouldn’t think it would completely.
Does anyone know a solution to disinfect and clean around the house to kill the coved 19 virus using Clorox disinfecting bleach
You could use straight bleach if you’re careful. Otherwise this Clorox Clean-up should do the trick.
A bleach mixture for disinfecting is only good for 24 hours. Read more about it here.
https://www.clorox.com/how-to/laundry-basics/product-usage-guides/shelf-life-of-bleachwater-solutions/
Here’s a link that discusses what actually is in the wipes…and it doesn’t look like there’s any bleach at all. Which is probably why when you read/look at a Clorox Cleanup bottle it says + Bleach on the front.
https://www.thelist.com/157459/heres-the-dirty-truth-about-disinfecting-wipes/
And in this link Clorox answers the question ‘Can Bleach go bad?’
https://www.clorox.com/how-to/laundry-basics/bleach-101/bleach-expiration-date/
Deceitful or clever packaging?
The “Recipe” really should indicate the size of the spray bottle, some are 24 oz, some are 36oz or larger. Missing the bottle size can really skew the final mix.
These are very irresponsible directions. There is not even a mention of how many ounces of water.
Mark is right. Never mix bleach and dish detergent.
It says it right on the dish detergent bottle.
It PLAINLY says “LAUNDRY DETERGENT” NOT DISH DOAP!!”
Yes, thank you Gerrie! 😉
Yikes it says on the Dawn dish liquid bottle not to mix with bleach! ðŸ¤
That’s why I don’t say to use Dawn dish detergent. I’m not sure where people are getting that idea.
I’m confused! I’ve been refiling my Clorox Clean Up bottles for years using a solution of bleach, water, and Dawn (or whatever I have). Now I am reading all this information that says diluted bleach loses its disinfecting ability after 24 hours. Obviously, no one uses the whole bottle in one day, so have I been wasting my time and energy all these years by using degraded bleach? Thank you!
As far as the size of the spray bottle, the picture shown is a 24 ounce bottle. Guessing one could use a scented bleach, as well.
Why do you need the detergent
I made it today using 1/4 cup bleach, 1 teaspoon Tide and 24 oz. water. Smells good and a little bleachy clean. Will see how long it lasts. Maybe when they say bleach lasts only for 24 hours, perhaps that is how long it stays effective on a flat surface, such as a countertop, but in a bottle all closed up it stays fine. p.s. I first used my old Clorox foamer bottle, but could not get it to work; it dribbled foam out, but not very much, so was useless. Any helpful hints? Can you reuse foamer bottle?
I would guess a foamer bottle wouldn’t work the same since the ingredients are different. Maybe try a different bottle?
It’s a cleaning ingredient.
Fine & Dandy… but it does not say what size the bottle is… it says add 1/4 cup… for how many ounces? VERY UN-SCIENTIFIC
(I use about 10% Clorox and the rest Water- don’t know why the soap is needed? but OK
Formula is OK, but I would like to suggest two annotations. First, please specify the bottle size. If you follow the Amazon link you can see they are 24 oz. Second, and more importantly, for safety reasons it is always better to add the bleach to water, not the other way around. This is a standard laboraty practice for chemists. Thanks for the publishing.
One question Why do you need the detergent?
You know, I’m not entirely sure as it was a friend who originally posted the recipe. I’ve seen several similar recipes that require detergent as well. I’m guessing it’s the cleaning agent in it, but I can’t say for sure.
Thank you so much, Emily. I can’t bring myself to pay so much for what’s basically bleach and water in a spray bottle. I wasn’t sure of the bottle size, but followed the link and will purchase those 24 oz bottles. The laundry detergent makes sense. It’s meant to break up dried stains and the HE (for high efficiency machines) doesn’t create a lot of suds. Thank you again 😀
Please correct the article. Your 1/4 c in a 24 oz bottle is 17% bleach, which is 5 to 10 times what most recommend. Even the most extreme recommendations I have seen are 10%. Your recipe could cause harm.
All: This is a great idea but:
– Use 1 tablespoon of bleach, not 1/4 cup (see Clorox and CDC sites).
– Clorox claims a life of 24 hours for mixed spray but that’s overly cautious. Sites I see say that if you can still smell bleach, it’s working — I replace mine about monthly.
– The detergent is a wetting agent, so the drops spread on your surface. Use in very small amounts.
Great tutorial, but you’ll probably want to add the detergent last, or it will suds like crazy as you fill it with water.
I am amazed how many people chime in with their comments rather than simply trying the formula that is listed. I used the exact ratios and used the 32 OZ Clorox clean-up bottle as the receptacle. I’ve used this for over 8 years and have always used Tide liquid laundry detergent as the wetting agent. IT WORKS EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL Clorox Clean-up. Thank you Emily !
I’m so glad it’s worked for you, Dan! Thank you for sharing.
Caution: The rule of thumb is to ADD bleach to WATER as opposed to adding water to bleach. This process reduces the potential of strong harmful fumes in that the bleach to water ratio, and therefore the fumes, is reduced considerably.
I’ve used this all the time saves so much money