How can you clean more environmentally friendly?
Here are the answers…
Cleaning is a lot about getting rid of:
Getting rid of trash
Getting rid of dirt and so on.
So the first part of cleaning more environmentally friendly should be to get rid of things in the right way.
- Sort
- Recycle
- Compost
And then to the cleaning itself, imagine you have a dirty surface - you want to get rid of the dirt!
Then think like this: How do I remove this WITHOUT adding anything else.
Do you really need to add perfumes and chemicals that you may not know much about?
Probably you don't need it.
Clean doesn't smell!
That a home smells strongly of perfumes is not the same as it being clean. Avoid perfumes if you can. Clean with things you know, such as soap, baking soda and vinegar. There are a few exceptional occasions when it doesn't work (read e.g. enamel paints) but for the most part it works to just think a little, increase time, heat or mechanical cleaning and it will work without resorting to something that is a danger to health.
Have it as a rule not to clean with anything that you don't know what it is, don't use anything where you don't understand the list of ingredients, then you are guaranteed to clean more environmentally friendly ;)
Does it still feel difficult? If so, here are some simple rules of thumb.
- Like dissolves like, you most easily remove greasy dirt with fatty soap.
- If the dirt comes from nature, animals, humans, then you need something alkaline to remove it. Soap and baking soda are alkaline.
- If the dirt comes from metals, or if limescale is the problem, then you need something acidic, e.g. vinegar or citric acid.