Eco-friendly spring cleaning
With more and more eco-friendly cleaning products on the market than ever before, your spring clean has never looked so green! We've rounded up some of the best tips and products below to get you started
What to avoid
When it comes to eco-friendly products, there are some things you want to be steering well clear of. You want to avoid as many toxic chemicals as possible, and the less packaging the better.
Some of the worst offenders (chemical wise!) to avoid are: Phthalates, Benzisothiazolinone (BIT), Methylisothiazolinone (MI or MIT), Methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI or CMIT), Petrochemicals, Synthetic fragrance, Phosphates/phosphonates, Optical brighteners, Urea, Lanolin, Tallow, Sodium tallowate, Glycerin (animal), Triclosan, Benzalkonium chloride, GMOs, and Chlorine bleach. For more on these, read this handy link here.
Refillables
Refillable is sweeping the nation! There are all kinds of ways to do this- if you're lucky enough to have a refillable shop near you, you can make the most of that by popping in with your bottles and jar.
If you're not able to reach a store locally though, there are lots of website that can do the trick too. Another great way to do this is to buy soluble tablets and skip the water. This is especially the case if you're buying online- don't ship water (whichcan be more than 90% of the volume of cleaning products) - instead you can add the water yourself!
Tools
Cleaning brushes with compostable, eco-friendly fibres are a brilliant place to start, and with options to get replacable heads you can significantly reduce the amount of waste each brush generates. Leftover fabrics can make great cleaning cloths (perfect for polish!) and we're big fans of these natural rubber gloves.
There are also plenty of natural fibre cleaning tools- check out our list of top recommendations below!
Homemade
When it comes to cleaning product recipes, we let the experts do the talking... We've got some great options here for you, with lots of simple household ingredients. Many rely on things like lemons, vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, essential oils, and water to make some really great cleaning products. The Family Handy Man has a round up of recipes here, as do Friends of the Earth here.
Products
Some of our favourite products are here, but there's plenty more on the market to chose from!
Letter-box subscriptions
Smol provides eco-friendly, plastic-free laundry and dishwasher tablets delivered straight to your door- what's not to love!
No water
Some of the refillable products we mentioned above can be found at Neat Clean- including with alliminum bottles as a starter pack.
Bulk buy
If you have the space to store them, bulk buying cleaning products, like these from Faith In Nature, cut down on packaging.
Polish
With a fully recycable bottle and made with glycerine and olive oil to condition, moisturise and add shine to your furniture, this polish from Method is a great addition to your cleaning cupboard.
Brushes/tools
Plastic-free, compostable, and natural cleaning tools/brushes are becoming widely available, with some really interesting options out there. These coconut fibre scourers are naturally antibacterial and non-scratch, plus these wooden dish brushes come with replacable heads.
Throw in a plastic-free dustpan and brush next time you need a new one, and you're cleaning cupbaord will be looking very tidy indeed!
Do you have some eco-friendly cleaning tips? Maybe a homemade recipe that never fails? Let us know!