PART II: I unleashed my competitive spirit and it foraged for pine needles and went home....

We decided we didn't have it in us for egg hunting this morning and decided gather some pine needles for our homemade Pine-Sol concentrate.

We're trying to lean away from chemicals and this is the perfect place to do that if you are in the market for new cleaning solutions. I made a concentrate so it will last longer and I can use it for multiple purposes. All you need for this is a large jar and small glass jars or bottles for the cleaning solutions. You can even find cleaning spray nozzles that connect directly to pint mason jars on Amazon. That is my personal favorite or go to!

Pine needles are antimicrobial and leave a fresh scent behind. This makes mixing them with white vinegar the perfect cleaning combination. (You can also spice things up with orange or lemon peels as well!)

Degreaser or descaler: You can use the concentrate itself for tough jobs.

Window Cleaner: Dilute with distilled water and rubbing alcohol for streak free shine. (Boil water and let cool if you do not want to go buy distilled water)

Multipurpose and multi-surface cleaning: Dilute with water, vinegar concentrate and a dash of dish soap. You can also add rubbing alcohol to this for some extra cleaning power.

You can use needles from any evergreen family tree depending on your scent preference. I personally love Douglas Fir needles but we don't have those around here that I know of. The pine needles I use to make this concentrate today are Red Pine. Dale couldn't believe I couldn't tell the difference between some of the different kinds of evergreen trees so he pulled up several YouTube videos to show me the difference. I thought it was a little bit of a snooze fest until I went out today and could identify the pine tree the needles were from based on the number of needles and coloring of the bark. It was actually really fun to know and be able to identify different trees. (Shhh, don't tell Dale.)

To make the cleaning concentrate, just remove the needles from the branch they are on, fill a large jar with needles and then white vinegar. Close with airtight lid and let sit for 4-6 weeks. I pick it up every couple of days and give it a gentle shake just to check it out. At 4 weeks I open it to check the smell... If I want more pine smell I will let it sit a week or two longer. Fresh pine needles will also infuse faster and better than dry or dead pine needles.

Happy Spring Cleaning!