Make Your Own Dusting Spray

I ran out of Pledge one day. It was then that I realized I had the same bottle of Pledge for over 5 years. My furniture just never really acquired dust. I have more electronics than furniture, arguably, so I do go through electronic dusting spray every other month. When I went to the store, I found that I didn't like the chemicals in Pledge or the build up. I tried the Up and Up brand from Target. It had significantly less build up but after one use, the can ceased to dispense anymore. It would hopelessly clog itself. So I stopped buying dusting spray.

I tried using a mix of soap and water in a spray. It got rid of the dust and prevented resettling, but only for about an hour or so. I found that when the dust did settle again, it was sticky because of the soap, making it even harder to remove the second time around. I pretty much stopped dusting after that until a janitor told me that he uses an orange oil and water spray to dust his home. He had a lot of old wooden furniture and it worked wonders. The water thins the oil so it can be sprayed and the oil removes dust and prevents it from resettling. But what about the stickiness that sometimes comes from not dusting in awhile, or that persists on ceiling fans? Good old fashioned vinegar does the trick. So I combined these elements to make a dusting spray that worked better than Pledge, was organic and environmentally friendly, and of course, cheap!

Ingredients

2 parts water
1part vinegar
1 tbsp. of olive oil per part of vinegar
a few drops of citronella oil (or other favorite scented oil)
Small spray bottle

Shake the bottle vigorously to mix the oil and water before each use.

For my first bottle I used 2 cups of water, 1 cup of vinegar and 1 tbsp. of olive oil. I like the smell of citrus so I used citronella. The furniture was shiny but not oily or greasy. The dust stayed gone for about a week or two before I needed a rag dampened with the spray to touch everything up.