Have you ever tried making your own cleaning vinegar? It is an easy way to add an extra step of intention to your cleansing magic with very minimal effort. Additionally, if you make it citrus-based, you can use all of those extra leftover peels from juicing lemons, limes, or oranges for your fabulous witch potions like my Hurricane Recipe or my Cranberry Lemondrop Martini. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a beautifully fragrant win/win – you’ve got a non-toxic cleaning solution to use in your rituals AND you are using all the parts of the fruit. Waste not!
All it takes is a little bit of pre-planning (if you’re intending to use the vinegar for a specific cleansing ritual anyway). Or, conversely, this is just a good way to use up the leftover bits after a party since most of us have white vinegar on hand.
That was me last week. Dora and I had a lovely small Fat Tuesday celebration and we juiced almost a dozen lemons to make the above-mentioned hurricanes. Rather than let those beautiful rinds go to waste, she suggested putting them in some vinegar and I was, of course, onboard. By the next day, I had a plan. I’ve been eyeing the Virgo Full Moon which, here on the East Coast, goes exact very early on Friday, March 18th. This seems very significant since the astrological new year (00° Aries) falls on Sunday afterward. There is no better aspected day this year to do a spring cleaning!
If you looked up That Witch in the dictionary – the one who always cleans and cleanses their house – you might well find a photograph of me. I find that my mental state tends to disintegrate quite quickly when there is mess and clutter around me (that’s probably my Mars in Virgo talking).
I will be writing more about how I clean for the Virgo full moon soon, but for now, the first step. Creating the cleaning vinegar.
You will need: A airtight bottle (a mason jar will do in a pinch but I would suggest something with a top that won’t corrode if possible), white vinegar, and some leftover citrus peels. You can choose to add in some herbs if you’d like – rosemary would be a good option.
The reason that mason jars aren’t ideal is that their lids corrode when they come into contact with vinegar which makes it more challenging to shake/stir your vinegar – the last thing that you want is to corrode the lid and ruin your vinegar (trust me, I’ve done it). Take a jar and fill it with citrus peels – I used lemon because that’s what we had an overabundance of but any citrus will do. Each citrus will have a slightly different type of cleansing effect so if you’re buying citrus to use specifically for this, you might want to consider the properties of the citrus you purchase. You could add an intention of happiness to your cleansing by adding orange instead of lemon, as an example. Now fill the jar with white vinegar and cap it. (It’s important if you use a mason jar to make sure that the vinegar doesn’t touch the lid here, as mentioned above)
Set your vinegar out in a sunny location and let it infuse for 1-2 weeks. (I used my plant altar that gets a decent amount of sun) Longer will infuse more of the properties of the fruit into your vinegar but it really depends on how long you are willing to wait. I like to return to it each day and stir or shake the jar, reintroducing my cleansing intention into the vinegar. After the week(s) have passed, strain out the vinegar and store it in a bottle. Vinegar lasts fairly indefinitely so you can make a lot to use often or a small amount for one ritual – it’s really up to you. You could further charge it with a cleansing candle, add sigil magic, or use it as is.
Vinegar can be used to clean most surfaces. (Double-check if something is weird – do your own research always here!) To make an all-purpose cleansing spray mix 1:1 Vinegar to Water in a spray bottle. To clean your floors, add a cap full (tablespoon or two) of vinegar to some water with a handful of salt. Not only will your house smell great, but you’ll have added some cleansing magic to your regular cleaning, and what in the world could be better than that?