Spring is coming up, which means that it’s time to clean out winter’s mess for most of us.
Eco-friendly spring cleaning
When you’re taking on this year’s spring cleaning, there are many ways to go about doing it in an eco-friendly way. That means throwing out anything that needs to go and finding items or making them yourself that will replace them. You know what they say – why buy something new when you can make it old?
1. Replace Paper Towels with Old T-shirts
Old t-shirts are one of the best things to have around for all manner of cleaning jobs. Use them instead of paper towels or shop towels, which are using up trees unnecessarily. They also do a much better job, with the added advantage of being able to toss them in the laundry when you’re done.
2. Clean the Oven with Baking Soda and Vinegar
If your oven is dirty – really dirty – then this is one of the best ways to go about it. Mix baking soda and vinegar to make a paste, smear it all over everything inside your oven, leave overnight, then come back in the morning and wipe every surface clean. Just don’t use any harsh chemicals while using this method! It’s safe for porcelain enamel, too, if that happens to be what your oven is made of.
3. Clean the toilet with toilet paper
It may seem surprising, but many eco-friendly cleaning fanatics would never touch a toilet brush. Fill a spray bottle with vinegar and use it to sprinkle the bowl, making sure you get in all the grooves. The smell will dissipate after a few minutes, and then you can flush.
4. Make your cleaning products
There are many recipes that you can find for homemade cleaners that take up next to no time to make and which still do an excellent job of cutting grease and grime. One example is borax mixed with lemon juice – this makes a lovely scouring agent which smells nicer than bleach or ammonia.
5. Use natural abrasive agents
People have been using sand to clean for decades, but some great alternatives are more eco-friendly nowadays. You can buy scouring powders or use things like grainy salt to restore shine to dull surfaces. Just be careful of how you’re using the – vinegar is a less abrasive agent than lemon juice, for example, so you should use it wherever possible.
6. Clean the shower head
This is one of those jobs where most people are happy to put off for as long as possible, thinking that they don’t have the right tools to do it with, but all you need is an old toothbrush and some white vinegar. Mix up half water half white vinegar into a plastic baggie, then tie around the end of your brush and let sit overnight. In the morning, you should have a shiny shower head with no limescale or minerals!
7. Scour up surfaces
Another great cleaning product to make is baking soda mixed with just enough water to cover your surface. Let it sit overnight, then come back in the morning and wipe clean. It’s another scouring agent that smells much nicer than bleach or ammonia but still does an excellent job of cutting through soap scum and mineral deposits.
8. Sweep the Floor
One last one for our top five, because how could we forget? Wipe plastic floorboards down with vinegar once they’ve dried out after mopping – this will help repel dust so that it only looks like you’re doing the work. Also you should hire a carpet cleaning service to clean your carpet to avoid damaging your carpet.
9. Use old cut up clothes
There are other ways to make cleaning easier. When you’re doing laundry, please put all of the clothes that need repair into one pile, then when you’ve got a cold wash load, put them through. Make sure they come out before the rinse cycle to don’t get rinsed with hot water and shrink! Then cut up your sheets and towels to use as dusters for any extra stubborn bits on your floor.
10. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it
There’s no point buying expensive replacements when you can easily stick things under the tap or hose them down outside if they’re still perfectly functional.
All these tips will help you cut your consumption of water and harmful chemicals, which are healthier for you and better for the environment. Pro-tip, you can consider hiring a professional spring cleaning company if you want to save time with your spring cleaning.
Cover photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
