Green cleaning

I am not a clean freak by any standard, but considering Christmas is here and lots of people will be coming to the house I figured it was time to make the dirt less obvious. I have been using various green cleaning products for quite a few years (after all that is one of the easiest ways to make a green choice), but if you look at the ingredients they still don't look that healthy, so I decided to do some quick research on alternatives. How to have a 'cleaning-chemicals-free' house?

It turns out there are lots of websites out there telling you how to clean with ordinary household products rather than squirty stuff from a bottle, so I thought it was time to put some of them to the test. The most urgent issues to address were the bathrooms and the windows (my 2 year old thinks it is great fun to lick the windows - he keeps saying 'mmm, tasty!)
I quickly realised that the 2 must-have products in green cleaning are bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar. Bicarbonate of soda can do all sorts of things, but the main thing is to work like a scouring powder, so for cleaning the washbasin or bathtub, just sprinkle some on a sponge and scrub away. It does seem to work, the washbasins were just as sparkly as when I use liquid spray-on bathroom cleaner.

It also has the advantage of not filling the air with some synthetic flower smell, but maybe that is just me being weird. I have never really understood the thing about air fresheners and strong smelling cleaning products, I find them headache inducing and it is my firm belief that the best way to get fresh air is to open the window. The smells also tend to give away the fact that I have frantically been running around cleaning just before any visitors arrive, even if I am trying to pretend that my house is always clean...

For cleaning the toilets I had 2 options to try out. One was to pour white vinegar in and leave it overnight, the other was to put 4 Alka seltzer tablets in and leave them for an hour. Both options supposedly gives you sparkling clean toilets and as we have more than 1 toilet I decided to test them against each other. They both kind of worked, but I am not sure either are the ideal solution. There is something strange about cleaning toilets with painkillers and since Alka Seltzer is an American brand there is probably quite a footprint connected to getting it here as well- so I would have to look for a British alternative if I was to continue. The toilet was clean though. Likewise the toilet came out looking nice with the vinegar, but this option had even more down sides. First of all the whole bathroom smelt of vinegar, which is not the most enticing of smells (even worse than air fresheners). Secondly because the vinegar needs to be left in overnight it requires a bit more planning and can't really be used in toilets that (like one of ours)gets used during the night. The main problem however with both options was the fact that the products only worked in the water area, so the sides of the toilet bowl didn't really get that much of a clean - not fantastic. I might just stick with my usual commercial green toilet cleaner for now.

White vinegar can also be used for making your own glass cleaner. There are lots of different versions on the net, but the one I followed was something like 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar and a drop of washing up liquid. Put it all in a spray bottle, mix it well, spray on the window and wipe with newspaper. It works really well!

There were lots of other things I could have tried out, e.g. cleaning the oven with bicarbonate of soda. Apparently if you put a thickish layer of the white stuff in the oven, moisten it with water and leave for quite some time, at least overnight, you can then brush the bicarbonate away and all the dirt and grime will follow. Needless to say I never got round to trying it, frankly I hate cleaning the oven and I had absolutely no desire to test it, but if anybody wants to have go, please let me know the result.

My biggest discovery in green cleaning I think are microfibre cloths. I already exchanged my disposable kitchen cloths a few months ago for the washable microfibre option, and they are good. When rumaging through the cleaning cupboard this weekend I came across a microfibre bathroom sponge/cloth. I have a vague recollection of buying this thing on sale, but it must have disappeared into oblivion at some point during the house move. I can't remember how much I spent on it, but whatever the price it was well worth the money. It takes away the dirt no problem and without using any cleaning agents at all (the website for them is http://www.e-cloth.com/). Honestly it is a godsend for anybody who like me dislikes cleaning and just wants to do it quickly (that should be just about everybody then...).

So what is the conclusion on green cleaning. Well green cleaning products from the supermarkets are a better option than normal chemicals, but there are other options out there - and they are cheaper! From now on my main cleaning product will be a microfibre cloth and if things get really nasty I will sprinkle a bit of bicarbonate of soda. I shall never spend money on window cleaner again, a bottle of vinegar is cheaper than any ready mixed product and I dare say better. The one exception will be toilet cleaner, I haven't found the right substitute for that yet.

Obviously there are many more aspects to cleaning, and at some point I shall have to do some more investigating (although I don't think non electrical hoovers exist??), but for now I have made a start. With a bit of luck I will be spurred into action again next Christmas when I get another cleaning panic...