In preparation for today’s Blue Peter moment you are going to need:
A large glass jar (950 g jar would be best) with its lid
Oranges, limes and/or lemons – the peel once you have eaten the fruit is perfect
White vinegar (preferably from a glass bottle)
Some muslin or clean old tights
An empty cleaning spray bottle
Essential oil – smell of your choice – lemon is good
I will explain all:
So far, we have swapped items in the kitchen, in the bathroom; we have thought about the food shop and hopefully reduced the size of our landfill bin significantly. One other area where I have made swaps is in cleaning. If you are anything like me, the cupboard under the stairs or under the sink is full of ‘this and that’ and ‘buy one get one free’ offers of sprays and liquids and creams.
The adverts attract us hook, line and sinker. This product kills the toilet germs, this spray means the surface is so clean your child could eat off of it, this cream will get rid of the horrific stains your dog has made on the carpet, etc etc etc. All of these claim to kill bacteria and keep us safe. This means that we buy various different plastic bottles full of chemicals, as they claim to do different jobs.
And where do the chemicals end up ... in the water supply. At best, the bottles end up in the recycling or at worst in landfill, if your Council doesn’t accept the trigger action part of the bottle.
It may take you a really long time to start using up all the different products you have under the sink. But in actual fact, this is a good thing because it gives you time to make your new cleaner!
Hopefully, it won’t be too hard to find all the items listed above. I was happy to find that Waitrose, Tesco and some Sainsbury's stores sell white vinegar in glass bottles and it is not expensive.
Making a Vinegar Cleaner
Fill approximately a third of your empty glass jar with the citrus fruits.
Pour vinegar until the jar is full.
Add a couple of drops of essential oil.
Seal tightly.
Leave for 3 – 4 weeks.
Pour the liquid through the muslin or tights to remove the pulp and pith.
Add a couple more drops of essential oil if necessary.
Pour it into a bottle with a trigger spray (simply keep one of your previous bottles when it runs out).
There you have it – your new cleaner.
Vinegar is acidic which helps it to cut through bathroom and kitchen grime. It also means that it will kill bacteria. The hob, the kitchen sink and your taps will absolutely shine when you use it. It can do windows and mirrors and when diluted in water is a great floor cleaner too. However, due to the acidity, it is not good for materials such as natural stone and wood surfaces.
Hopefully, by infusing the vinegar with the citrus fruits and some essential oils, you will find the smell of vinegar does not linger. Whilst cleaning, it does smell of vinegar, but, when I come back to the room 10 minutes later, the smell has gone.
Although this cleaner is great and has replaced most of my bathroom and kitchen sprays and creams, there are some other areas where cleaning products are needed and vinegar is not suitable. For these, I have tried to source more environmentally friendly products.
At the beginning of the year, a friend of mine recommended a company called Splosh. After looking at their website and their thoughts on Zero Waste, I thought I would give them a try. Their products are excellent. Previously, I would only buy Fairy, as I felt nothing else worked as well. I am now converted to Splosh!
Initially, you purchase a ‘starter kit’ which gives you the bottles that you want. I chose toilet cleaner, washing up liquid and fabric softener for my kit. These are then delivered full. Following on from this, you buy refills which come in sachets. The sachet contains either two or three refills which you dilute with warm water. Once empty, the sachets can be sent back to Splosh for re-processing. A quote on their website states they have ‘made refilling easier than recycling’ and in doing so are removing around 90% of the plastic waste. It also states that their bottles are for life. Should the bottle or cap ever break you can send it back and get a replacement free of charge. I would strongly recommend all the products I’ve tried so far but, if you don't like it there is a 14 day money back guarentee.
I still have some work to do with all the different cleaning products around the house. When I originally sorted out my cupboard, the number of sponge cleaning pads I had obviously stock piled under the sink was a little concerning! I am now moving over to using a cotton cloth to wash up which is machine washable and therefore much better for the environment.
They say a clean home is a happy home. Hopefully, your home can now start to be an environmentally friendly home as well.