Cleaning Doesn’t Need to Cost the Earth
When it comes to clever marketing, I think cleaning products would have to rate right up there in terms of products that have created a market for themselves.
I mean, we all HATE to clean and LOVE to play, right? We are perfect sitting ducks for ruthless entrepreneurs who want to make their riches from us.
“Here, buy my product, it’ll make cleaning a breeze”
“Buy this and you won’t even know you’re cleaning”
“Life getting you down? This product will solve ALL your problems”
Don’t feel bad if you think you’ve been “sucked in” by these kind of advertisements. The fact of the matter is that companies employ psychological research when it comes to how to market their products.
They KNOW how to play on our weaknesses and fears. IT STINKS!!!
When you go down the cleaning aisle of your supermarket, do you KNOW what you are paying for? You are paying for the advertisement that convinced you you need that cleaning product in the first place!!!!
I’ll just repeat that last sentence in case you didn’t get it the first time….
You are paying for the advertisement that convinced you you need that cleaning product in the first place.
When that concept really sinks in, it’s a real DOH! kind of moment. I know because I’ve been there.
Want to know what I use when cleaning?
WATER
If you exclude washing dishes and clothing, around 80% of my cleaning is done with a wet cloth.
Guess how much that costs me a week? ZERO DOLLARS
And for cleaning with? Old face washers and cut up towels. I do also have a microfibre mop, a couple of microfibre cloths and a brush that I use on our tiles to scrub the grout.
Anyone Been to an Enjo Party?
I went to one a few years ago that really turned my thinking around when it came to cleaning. The demonstrator was cleaning the bathroom and mentioned that all you need to do is give is a wipe over with the bathroom mitt each day.
EACH DAY?
I was looking for the miracle that would lead me to need to clean LESS. Not MORE.
The sceptic in me couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I wiped over our bathroom each day with just an old rag of some description.
So I tried it. It worked no problems. Without a fancy $40 microfibre cloth.
Do I wipe over our shower every day? No. But I do try to do it reasonably often and very rarely do I need to use any cleaning products at all.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not really anti-Enjo. I do use *some* of their products although it’s unlikely I’ll replace them as they wear out.
My point here is that Enjo promote cleaning with less effort but more often. It’s a great tip. It just doesn’t necessarily require their products in order to work. They also promote drying with a cloth as you go - another great cleaning tip!
Do I Really Use ONLY Water to Clean?
No. Just for the majority of my cleaning tasks.
When I get behind, I need the help of cleaning products to help me “catch up”.
For some tasks I’ll use vinegar or bicarb. Plain old soap is a great and frugal cleaning agent as well.
I do also use some commercial cleaning products.
I just think that too many people use a “product” as a FIRST resort rather than a LAST resort.
More Does Not Equal Better Cleaning Ability
When you do use commercial cleaning products, are you pouring your hard earned money down the drain?
Cut back on the amount you’re using. Remember that manufacturers are going to put a MAXIMUM reasonable measurement on their packaging instructions. To find out how much you *really* need, just cut back a little each time until you notice it doesn’t do the same job anymore (this is what I’ve done with my washing powder - although I also know someone who washes simply in water).
Cleaning isn’t Only Costing us the Earth, It’s Costing us the EARTH
The cleaning products I do use are almost all naturally based and considered safe for the environment. This is doubly important now that we recycle ALL of our household water onto the garden (via a proper system so that it’s treated etc).
Now more than ever we need to be very aware of what we’re putting down our drains. The great thing about green cleaning is that it is often more frugal than chemical cleaning. Of course, now that we have an established market for green cleaning products, caution still needs to be had so that we aren’t talked into parting with our money unecessarily.
Summary For Reducing How Much You Spend on Cleaning
- Try Water first
- Recycle old facewashers, towels and other fabric to use as cleaning cloths. Throw through the washing machine and reuse (it’s best to edge cut up towels etc to reduce fraying)
- Use soap, vinegar & bicarb soda as cleaning agents
- Where you do choose to use a cleaning product, consider purchasing from an environmentally aware company and use SPARINGLY
- Avoid getting taking in by bright and cheerful advertisements promising you the world
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Commercial cleaning products all set my asthma off so I avoid them as much as possible. About the only thing we use regularly is white king spray bleach and that only to clean the toilet seats which get alarming filthy very quickly. Toddlers and toilet training = mess.
Other than that, water, vinegar and bicarb soda do just fine.
I heart my steam mop which makes cleaning the kitchen floor a breeze. Even dried up wheat bix comes off with no problems.
Nice job! *applause*
I’ve noticed that my earth-friendly laundry powders seem to be half something very similar to bicarb… *ponder*
Great post!!
I do use some Enjo stuff but have other cloths as that do the job just as well. BUT I can’t find anything else that cleans our floor tiles as well as the Enjo mop. We have very shiny tiles and everything else leaves them really streaky. And I gave up using cleaning chemicals a few years ago as the smell makes me cough and my nose hurts from breathing the fumes.
The other thing to consider too is with the increase of cleaning products that are “anti-bacterial” we are adding to the number of bacteria that are becoming immune to chemicals etc. As you said, the best way to avoid thriving bacteria is to dry after cleaning so that the bacteria can’t survive.
Add Eucalyptus oil to the list, a smidge of that on a wet cloth will do the mirror, handbasin, splashback (behind handbasin cause for some reason males cant wash their hands down near the actual basin, so ours is constantly covered in mud splashes), the bathtub, the cistern, toilet lid, seat and outside of bowl (in that order for me lol cause I am funny that way). That is my antibacterial for my bathroom and it leaves it not only clean, but smelling fresh without being overpowering, and all with one cloth, doesnt need wetting again and I throw it straight into the dirty towel basket in the laundry (towels, teatowels, floormats, kitchen cloths and cat placemats go in that basket). Then go over in same order with dry cloth/old towel/old teatowel and straight into same wash basket. Takes no longer than 5 minutes (although might be a smidge longer when I get walls around the bathtub/shower and they need wiping down too).
Only issue I have is the inside of the toilet bowel, cause of the humidity, as well as the watersaving mellow if its yellow habit (and yes Kelley, I would love to flush every time, but they teach this watersaving thing at schools now too), my toilet bowel keeps growing a pale brown algae (not all over, just at the front, right at the water level line) that takes horrendous scrubbing to remove each day and is driving me batty. I hate chemicals, especially bleach, but have resorted to using white king toilet bleach and even that doesnt remove all of the algae (and the bowel has a really weird fold in the front that allows it to grow in a tight corner that is almost impossible to scrub).
So, if anyone else knows a cure for algae in toilets, please pass it on!!
Only chemical i use in the kitchen is one grease removing, citrus cleaner (it has other chemicals in though) and that isnt used every day, probably once a week unless there is something stubborn like coffee powder that DBF or DS has spilt on the bench or floor and not wiped up and it sucks the moisture out of the air and becomes a hard sticky mess. I also use this same chemical for cleaning up the spots that the cat pees on (when her senility is on high and she forgets she has a litter tray, like last week when she peed in her food bowel in the kitchen??????????????) and then i go over it with eucalyptus oil to get rid of the lingering smell.
I also use the enjo mop on my shiny white tiles, and inbetween just run over them with the swivel sweeper, which also does the carpets and floorboards (and the kids fight over who gets to do this job lolol).
Dishwasher has tablets and washing machine i alternate between omo powder and Marg’s homemade washing goo (water, lux flakes, eucalyptus oil, washing soda and a smidge of stuff -forgotten what its called - to treat the hardwater).
Oh and agree with the rags, i have several ripped up chux cloth rags (used as wet cloths while painting and renovating, ie wiping any dust away befofe painting and wiping paint splashes etc), old teatowels and face washers that have torn, so I help them along by tearing into smaller peices for cleaning cloths. So far the towels havent torn (had them six/seven years) and the couple of old cheap towels get used to mop up large spills or to dry the cat when she has a bath (which takes three towels cause she is a full long haired cat and cant go outside into the sun because of health problems).
Now if I can just teach DBF which are the rags and which are the good teatowels (which are all stained now cause he has used them as rags and then left them stuffed in a corner on the bench, or soaking wet in the sink for hours til i get home etc etc).
I do have some old Bathroom cleaner that I have been trying to use up for the past couple of years which I use — when I remember to clean that is. Which is probably why I have had this product for several years now.
I have to sweep the floors fairly regularly, dust bunnies and Buddy’s hair all over the place.
Hot water and vinegar is how I wash my kitchen and bathroom floors.
Soap and water for the kitchen counter tops.
I’m not sure if my ‘natural’ cleaning products/methods are due to a green streak, frugalness or plain laziness. I would much rather be knitting or reading a good book than scrubbing the toilet thank you very much!
Ironically along with the email notifiying me of new comments to this post I also got an email from Neco my fav. eco friendly online store. Was about a new bathroom cleaner - http://www.neco.com.au/product.asp?pid=1055&cid=248%3E&c=221040
Might help with your toilet problems Erin.
LOL Marita you wouldnt believe it, but I have been planning on buying my new downlights from Neco (replacing the halogen ones) but I had been looking at them via Country Energy’s website and never realised Neco even did other sorts of products.
Thankyou for that link, When I order the lights I will be getting that boys bathroom cleaner as well and will see if it fixes the problems.
Always amazes me what a small world it really is lolol.
Hugs!
Great post Lightening - Dh uses metho and water on our floors. PLus squeeze bucket mop.
I do many of these things already but I learned a few new things too. The comments are just as great.
I stay at my cabin in the mountains sometimes and take about 20 litres of water with me to last 2 or 3 days. Pretty good lesson in how to use water well! In the morning I put about 2 litres in my plastic basin, stand in it, wash myself with a cloth, and then leave my undies and tights in it to soak. I swish them around every now and then and hang them on the line after a couple of hours. Then the water goes on my plants.
I find that underwear washed thus seems perfectly clean after one wash but retains a hint of smelliness after 2. This tells me that I was using far too much laundry liquid at home and now I put a tiny dollop in. More for whites to keep them white.
Also, still on cleaning but me not my house: shampoo! I don’t get oily hair anymore and it finally dawned on me that there are some chemicals I no longer have to smother my scalp in. My hair gets rinsed with water every day in the shower, but I only use shampoo if it feels noticeably gritty or uncomfortable, usually about once every 2 or 3 months. Hair washing day was always a bad hair day for me so this is a bit of a relief.
Good post Lightening
Have only used vinegar and bicarb for years.
Clean the windows with vinegar and warm water and dry with newspaer - yes its an old fashioned way but for me will always be THE way.
Like Trish I’ve learned a few things here today
I use mostly soap and water to clean our place. It’s clean. It doesn’t smell. And if it doesn’t smell, that’s because it’s CLEAN…
Calming deep breaths…
Ok, better now.
I have *discussions* with certain peoples in my house who seem to think that cleanliness is next to smelliness! But I do use eucalyptus on the bathroom floors for the Smell of Bloke problem, and I do use a bleach-y toilet cleaner as nothing else seems to shift the *mellow* stains. But I might investigate that Neco stuff, as we have Can Not Shift Even With Bleach stains in the bottom of the bowl. But the loo is 50 years old…
Sink full of warm, soapy water and the kitchen is clean, spray bottle for the bathrooms with a drop of eucalyptus. Magic!
And if you look at the active ingredients of the vast majority of cleaning products… 90+% WATER!!!! Also, there’s less chance of having to ring Poisons Control when one’s fine young son upends a bottle of WATER on his head!
Like Maggie I also have a few cleaning products that are years old because I don’t clean with them much and use the barest minimum when I do. Mostly things in the kitchen get wiped over as part of the dishwashing routine and that’s good enough for me. Bathroom? Dry after use. Toilet? Water with a touch of bleach.
To Erin–the brown stain in your toilet is likely to be a mineral deposit from your hard water. Ask at hardware supply stores for products that might shift it.
River unfortunately the brown stuff in my toilet is not just a stain, if left for a few days, it grows outwards and floats in the water, is most definitely some form of algae, looks identical to the muck they are trying to remove from the lake at the university too. Oh and it is only THIS SUMMER that I have had this algae problem with the toilet, have had same toilet, same family members etc for the last four years and never had it happen before.
Our water up here has a tendency towards bluegreen algae in our main river and several lakes in the area and I KNOW they put river water (from the yukky part of the river too!) in our drinking supply (they had to notify us of this several years back). Tap water stinks of sulphur some days and of chlorine on others. I try not to drink straight from the tap, i drink boiled water from the kettle.
We do also have hard water problems, on occasion I have to boil the kettle with citric acid in it to clean the mineral deposits out of it too, but for the most part the daily scrubbing gets rid of that in the toilet, handbasin and bathtub.
LOL Jodi in Vic at the BLOKE SMELL, lol I have yet to work out which is worse, the cat peeing in odd places due to senility or DBF and DS who manage to splash around and on the toilet on a daily basis, both stink and both are left for me to clean up. If I went away for a week and left DBF, DS and Cat here, the place would be rancid by the time I got back.
I’ve got an awesome cleaner that is cheaper and better for the environment than water - procrastination!
Actually I just use a steam mop that has a cloth attachment that just requires a bit of (trying to think of the word when you bang a duster against the side of the bin to get the dust out - de-dusting sounds wrong)
Cat Pee > Kid Pee. At worst kid pee lands on lino and can be easily cleaned. The cat is far more creative and involves props such as “behind the couch”, “under the bed” and “in the laundry basket”
Oh man! I get so sucked in by the cleaning product ads… that bathroom one with the foamy stuff… after the 30 seconds is up I really do believe that all I need to do is empty a bottle of that toixc chemically expensive stuff and my bathroom will suddenly look all white and sparkly and new….
Thankfully our budget and my lack of house keeping skills stops me from actually finding out how far fetched the ads really are… Though I think I am going to take up the spray bottle of water with a drop of eucalyptus in it.. at least then it will smell clean!
I wonder how expensive Eucalyptus oil is here in Canada? I remember when I was in Australia the friends I was staying with hand an all natural cleaner with Eucalyptus in it, it was a first for me. Never seen anything like it. But it did smell quite lovely.
At present my Asiatic Lilies are doing a great job of freshening my place. Can’t even smell the nasty Tobacco leaching from across the hall. Not a fan of those particular neighbours lol
With regards to cat pee — Buddy is a well trained cat. He uses his litter box. Granted he’s only 3.5 yrs old and has still a few years before he reaches senility. Here’s hoping he continues to use the litter box!
LOL yes even senile cats are creative, although in her own bowl was a little much lol.
Maggie unfortunately Tiger is only 5 yrs old and has been senile on and off for the last two, as its not age that is causing the senility, but the trauma inflicted when a 50+kg bulldog chews up a 3kg cat. Mad cat that she is (hates dogs even before that) she kept rolling back into his mouth to keep scratching and biting his nose. The dogs owner broke bones in his hand trying to get her out of the dogs mouth.
However, in saying that, i really like that dog, he is calm, placid and would protect a child with his own life, he just hates cats and my cat hates dogs, so rather than run from him, she ran AT HIM as both animals believed they were in their own territory as we share a dual driveway.
So now she lives inside permanently, and has a litter tray which she does use MOSTLY, but when she doesnt use it, thats when I have to be creative with the cleaning, because it soaks into things like carpet and wooden floorboards and is almost impossible to remove the smell fully. Can remove it enough that no human will smell it, but any cat or dog would still notice it. The best I have found for the wooden floor boards is to clean with the orange kitchen stuff, then clean with window cleaner (lol its brandname is Kitten as its a car one, kind of ironic in my house as its only use is cleaning up after the cat) and after its dry, then i rub eucalyptus oil into the floorboards straight. So far it works, even on really hot days when the house has been shut up all day, you cant smell it.
Lol ok well i best shut up about the cat now lol, although i must admit, she is good for trying new products with, if it passes the cat test then its good.
Oh and Kate are you talking about that Easy Off Bam stuff’??? If so, I have used it when helping a friend clean their rental that they were moving out of. They had the bathroom and kitchen one, both absolute rubbish. It looks impressive when you squirt out pink foam, but it just coloured the soap scum. I used an entire bottle of the stuff in a very small bathroom and still spent an hour scrubbing til i had next to no skin left on my fingers and it still looked dirty/moldy. Went home, got my enjo mitt and my Eucalyptus and redid the entire bathroom and it sparkled. Oh and the easy off bam really was toxic, I had burning throat and lungs after working in that bathroom with it for half an hour.
I find the Easy Off Bam commercials so bloody cheesy. I can’t take the product seriously because of it.
I knew of someone who had a cat that peed all over the place. Mostly on the furniture. They ended up having to get rid of all their livingroom furniture because of that. So thankful Buddy is good about the litter box. Now if only I could get him to stop drinking out of the toilet.
I was told the best thing for getting rid of cat pee smells is laundry powder with enzymes in it. The enzymes break down the pee and get rid of the smell. For anyone in Aus, Bio-Zet has enzymes in it and so does Radiant. Mix it in a bucket of cold or lukewarm water and sponge on the pee. Don’t use hot water though, however tempting, as it breaks down the enzymes and they don’t work.
Hope this helps someone with cat pee problems
Me too. Water all the way. And for things that require a little extra on the hygiene side, I have a spray bottle with a little bleach in it. And I mean just a little. Do you know how much bleach you need to kill all the nasties? About three drops. That’s what the scientists say. So all those products supposed to protect your family from germs are extreme overkill. And considering that chemicals aren’t exactly great for your family, they’re not doing a very good job.
And I agree with the drying as you go. I always have, and that’s more hygenic too as bacteria likes a little moisture.
Great post, Lightening. xx
What a great post !!!
We use few products, but I think after reading this, we could use even less.
Fantastic post Lightening!
I’ve used good old bi carb and yellow laundry soap for years now - it’s cheaper, kinder on your clothes/whatever you’re cleaning and with all our waste water going straight out onto the garden I know there’s nothing to harm my fruit trees or flowers.
For cat pee bi carb works well, absorbs all the moisture and odour and vacuums up when dry.
Bi carb works for almost anything!
Ohhh, I do 99% of the stuff in your post already - even down to using old chopped up towels for cloths. That made me smile!
One thing I do that you didn’t list is use “Laundry Balls” instead of laundry detergent most of the time (do a search of the name just in Australia or ask me and I can look up the address if you’re interested). I don’t know exactly how they work but they work fine for me! If I have stuff that’s really dirty I use BioZet detergent only using half the amount the recommend - I checked in Choice magazine and it’s one of the ones most recommended if you’re using the grey water like I am, and not hideously expensive either. The Laundry Balls are good for most stuff but after a while everything gets sort of dingy and grungy and I run them through with the BioZet for one wash instead.
Hugs,
:)
r
PS
I’m pretty sure there’s some affiliate program for the Laundry Balls so if you want to buy some and put my email as the recommending person that’d be cool
I wonder if a little bicarb dropped into the toilet each night and left until morning might help the algae problem? Or maybe vinegar? I’d be having dreams about sitting on the loo and having the algae growing and trying to get me.
Great post, Lightening. We are trying to use less of the commercial products, too, but it’s more because we don’t want to use all those chemicals all the time. Never thought about how it will save us money, too! Hubby uses vinegar to wash the windows and sliding glass doors and it does a fantastic job. Thanks for the great ideas!
Nice article. I’m trying to reduce my commercial cleaning product consumption as well. I know I could make a lot of it, but it’s the time factor. I always say I will, then never get to that part of my to do list. So I try to find coupons for the green commercial products.
I have tried a number of cleaning techniques with my toilet bowls, and this one is my favorite: squirt some lemon juice or vinegar around (anything acidic, though the lemon juice certainly smells better!) then sprinkle in some Borax. Scrub with your toilet brush, then let sit for 30 minutes or overnight. I just leave it until the next person uses the toilet.
I clean the entire toilet and area with a vinegar and water solution in a spray bottle, let it sit to “eat” the urine splashes (two potty-trainers and a husband!) then wipe down. My toilets have never been so clean! With the commercial products, the toilet always looked clean, but the stale urine smell never went away. The vinegar takes care of that easily, and would probably also kill algae.
[…] big shout out to Lightening and the people who have commented on this blog. I am a cleaning Nazi. Let me rephrase that, I was a cleaning Nazi. Now I have relaxed some. But it […]
This was brilliant. I am trying each day to consider what I am using and how it is a waste of money and resources. Being more frugal and environmentally conscious is actually quite fun.