I love the thrill of discovering a new cleaning product by accident, especially one that’s natural. And when I was having trouble with my regular go to, vinegar, I needed something that would get the job done.

I had been seeing some buzz from pro cleaners on social media about how they swear by keeping coconut oil in their cleaning kits. I would never think of oil as something to clean with. After all, we are taught that oil is the enemy. Isn’t it what we are trying to remove?

Lucky for me, I happened to have a brand new sealed jar of coconut oil just sitting there collecting dust in my pantry. I was ready and willing to find out if this tip would work.

How I Used Coconut Oil to Clean

I turned to coconut oil to address the stuck-on tomato sauce spatter above my range when I was having difficulty removing it using vinegar. After using it in the kitchen, I wondered where else it might work.

Enter social media—again.

My most surprising and gratifying experience was using coconut oil on my glass shower doors. I am telling you, nothing worked on my hard water-stained shower doors. I kept reading “use vinegar” but it just did not work for me. Then I experienced the effectiveness of coconut oil.

To start, I heated about half a cup of coconut oil in the microwave until it was just entering its liquid form, then added a few drops of lemon juice. I used a clean cloth to apply the oil to the shower doors. This is where in the process you are going to think this might have been a bad idea, but keep going. I then used a new clean towel to buff the oil off of the glass.

Now comes the vinegar. I mixed a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water warmed up for one minute to remove any remaining oily residue. I was absolutely shocked by the result—crystal clear shower doors!

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Why Does It Work?

I’m sure you’ve heard of the “oil-cleansing” trend in the beauty world, where people massage oil into their faces and later wipe it off with a warm washcloth to rid their pores of dirt and buildup. The same basic principle applies here.

The reason that coconut oil works in some situations as an all-natural cleaner boils down to science. Oil dissolves oil. Water-based cleaners and solvents repel oil.

So while it may seem counterintuitive to want to use oil to clean up messes, it might actually do the trick. As I mentioned, in my experience using coconut oil to clean up backsplash sauce splatter, it worked well when vinegar came up short.

Now, you shouldn’t assume coconut oil will work on everything. This will largely depend on what type of mess you are trying to clean. If your messes involve peanut butter, crayons, or unidentifiable stickiness on hard surfaces, then coconut oil may become your new go-to.

But for things like clothing stains, bringing in coconut oil will likely only add to your woes. If you’re unsure about using it in a certain situation, I would try it on a small test area before proceeding.

Happy cleaning!