Okay, so many of the cleaning products we purchase in the supermarket contain unpleasant chemicals that are damaging to the environment and not particularly pleasant for us either. And most of them come in plastic packaging.
I’ve been on a mission to test some natural cleaning products and I’m amazed at just how effective they are. In some cases, they’re even better than their shop bought equivalents.
There are 3 main elements to your natural cleaning arsenal: sodium bicarbonate, citric acid and white vinegar. Here’s what they will do for you:
Sodium Bicarbonate: use with a damp cloth to scrub your kitchen surfaces; make into a paste with a little water and some white vinegar – slap it over your dirty oven, leave for a few hours and rinse off; put a teaspoon full in a dirty tea cup, fill with boiling water and watch it get to work.
White Vinegar: it’s great for cleaning kettles – simply put a cup full in a limescaled kettle, fill with water, leave to stand for a while, boil and rinse out a couple of times. You may need to scrub the limescale a bit. Put some in the fabric condition section of your washing machine drawer instead of fabric condition. Make an all-purpose cleaning spray with 50% white vinegar, 50% water and a dash of lemon juice.
Citric Acid: this saved my bacon on our dirty toilet. I clean our toilet regularly, but a limescale build up had left it quite grubby. I poured some citric acid around the bowl, left overnight and scrubbed. Sparkly clean!
The great news – you don’t have to buy these items in plastic containers either. White vinegar is readily available in bottles. Sodium bicarbonate and citric acid are available from Wilkos in cardboard boxes. Or you can buy any of these ingredients in bulk online. Go to it!
