My Mom Swears By This $15 Cleaning Gem (It Makes Every Room Smell Amazing!)

Do I love having a spotless and sparkling apartment? Without a doubt. I wouldn’t, however, consider myself a fan of cleaning. I wish I was one of those people that find that process gratifying, but it’s truly like pulling teeth to me. It may be worth it in the end, but I wish I could just snap my fingers and skip over all the elbow grease. (Luckily, I’ve found some tools that’ve made my routine easier.)

There is another part of cleaning that I’m not crazy about: the chemical smell that lingers in my poorly ventilated apartment. If I’m just doing some light upkeep, I’d rather not break out the bleach cleaners. To solve that problem, I started looking for a cleaning solution with a nice scent, but then I remembered that my mom swears by Capri Blue’s Volcano cleaner spray.

Even if you haven’t ever purchased a Volcano candle before, you’ve likely already inhaled the sugary, citrusy scent if you’ve ever walked into an Anthropologie store. There’s usually a candle burning near the door, so it hits your nostrils right away — and I would know, after working there while I was in college.

The scent has been bottled up so you can use it to wipe down your counters and pretty much any other surface in your home, including bathroom fixtures, wood, and tile. The formula is nontoxic, vegan, and cruelty-free. While it doesn’t use ingredients like gluten, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and synthetic colors, it does use grapefruit, tangerine, and sandalwood essential oils, which give it that summery smell.

I know that cleaning would be way more bearable if it resulted in my apartment smelling like my all-time favorite candle. After owning it for about a year, my mom agrees that the spray “definitely makes cleaning more pleasant.” She uses it for dusting and lowlift cleaning in the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and even in her car, and she says the scent lingers about as long as a spritz of Febreze does.

When I first noticed it at my parents’ house, I assumed my mom had actually lit a Volcano candle in the bathroom, but she confirmed that the cleaning spray was actually the source. As someone who goes through Volcano candles on the regular — it’s one thing I’ll always consider worth the splurge — that was more than enough to sell me. I burn the candles all year long, but the light, fruity smell is especially great during the spring and summer months, so with the weather turning, I’m grabbing this spray ASAP!

Buy: Capri Blue Volcano Multi Surface Cleaner Spray, $15