It may be snowing outside, but the spring bulbs are starting to push through and trips to the allotment are becoming more frequent. This is the time of the year when many of us feel the urge to put our houses in order and have a spring cleaning session. This year, don’t just clean up your house, clean up your cleaning products! There are lots of good, reasonably priced alternatives to the usual suspects lurking under the kitchen sink. This is EcoStreet’s Guide to being Clean Green.
Keeping the bath sparkling clean is never an easy task in a family home, kids get dirty, and the rings that they leave can be pretty tough to get off. Ecover Cream Cleaner is very effective and leaves the bath looking beautifully shiny. It is available in most supermarkets.
Although vinegar is fine to use to clean the toilet and a good germ killer, I still prefer to have my loo smelling fresh as a daisy, or a pine forest. Ecover Toilet Cleaner has the cleanest pine smell I’ve come across in toilet cleaning products, and the greenest. Again, this Ecover product is stocked by most supermarkets.
Getting clothes to smell fresh while not polluting the earth is no problem with Bio-D Washing Powder. It is contains no enzymes or perfumes and is suitable for sensitive skin. A 2kg pack costs £6.29 from Spirit of Nature. See below for a tip to save on washing powder.
Ecover harnesses the power of nature, using only plant based materials in its Fabric Softener, making sure of optimal levels of biodegradability. All of Ecover’s packaging is fully recyclable. Buy it at a supermarket, or better still, from a local shop.
Ecover features large in this guide because it is currently the only readily-available green cleaning product range in the UK shops (most other green cleaning products are available in health shops and by mail order only). Other great products that we’ve tried from the Ecover range are the Marigold & Camomile Washing-Up Liquid, Dishwasher Tablets and Rinse Aid, Non-Bio Washing Powder and Laundry Bleach, and their Floor Soap and SquirtEco.
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There are of course also the home-made cleaning options, here are some of my favourites.
All Purpose Cleaning Spray
In a spray bottle mix a cup of white distilled vinegar with a cup of water, and add a few drops of either lavender or tea tree essential oil for extra germ-busting action. The vinegar cuts through grease and disinfects, great for using on kitchen worktops, mirrors and windows, and for general surface cleaning.
Bathroom Deodoriser 1
Commercial bathroom deodorising spray is awful overpowering stuff. It’s so easy to make your own in a pump-action spray bottle. Just fill with water and add your favourite essential oils for a pleasant effect in smelly bathrooms.
Bathroom Deodoriser 2
Make a pomander to hang in the bathroom by making holes all over an orange, squeezing gently to get some of the juice onto the surface of the fruit, and then rolling on a saucer of ground mixed spice. Put a clove into each hole, then tie up with string or ribbon and hang up to dry.
Or just hand some dried herbs in the bathroom for a lovely smell.
Drain Cleaner
For happy drain maintenance, pour a cup of Soda Crystals down plug holes and sluice with hot water.
Save Your Washing Powder
Soda Crystals are also great when it comes to economising on expensive washing powder. Add half a cup of Soda Crystals straight into the drum of your washing machine, and halve the amount of washing powder required.
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Ecover
Spirit of Nature
Soda Crystals
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Tags: ecostreet, green, eco-friendly+house