5 ways to switch to eco-friendly cleaning
Here at Lemon and Pine, we have a true passion for environmentally friendly things. It’s important to us that we do our part to protect the wildlife, aquatic, air quality, and our health.
If we all take steps to be more environmentally conscious while cleaning, we can be happy knowing we are protecting the ecosystem. We have composed a list of just FIVE things that we do at work and in our own homes to help us be friendlier to the environment:
Switching Plastic to Glass
At home, I always choose glass over plastic. At work, we use plastic to avoid accidents but for the majority of our cleaners we always reuse the same container so it never has to go in the landfill. Glass is free from toxic chemicals, won’t absorb odor or stain, it’s 100% recyclable. Plus cleaning products look super cute in glass bottles! Win-win!
Polishing cloths instead of paper towel
At work and home, this is something that we do and take pride in knowing we are not wasting paper towels. Polishing cloths can be used for mirrors, windows, appliances, and making your taps sparkle. Plus, you don’t get all the little paper towel fuzz.
Utilize Homemade Ingredients
At work and home, we implement making our own products. The window cleaner we use in our client’s home is made by yours truly! Our multipurpose cleaner is all-natural and safe for the environment, but we do not make it ourselves. I love to use Mama Bare Naturals Cleaning Paste for all those hard scrubs and stains. Make sure to also check out their All-Purpose Spray, it’s amazing and smells so good.
Reuse old toothbrushes
We love a good denture brush to get into all the nooks and crannies and to scrub grout. You will always see one in our cleaning caddies. They are great for window runners, around taps, and in sink drains!
Dryer balls instead of dryer sheets
Dryer ball at home always! We add some essential oils to them and still get that fresh scent. Dryer sheets are awful for your health and the environment, emitting potentially harmful chemicals into the air and causing unnecessary waste. Plus, you’re spending extra $ you don’t need to be.
We also wanted to share some of our favorite ingredients to clean with :
Baking Soda - Use as an all-purpose scrubber; mix it with some Dawn use and go to town on all those stuck-on messes. It’s great for ovens or sprinkling baking soda down the sink or bathroom drain followed by vinegar, let sit, and pour boiling water to unclog a drain. Then, use baking soda and lemon and scrub the sink out.
Lemons - refresh wood cutting boards: sprinkle cutting board with course salt; using half a lemon, scour the surface, let sit, and then scrape off using a bench scraper, then rinse. To clean the microwave, fill a bowl with water and lemon slices and put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes; it will soften all stuck-on stuff, and then wipe clean.
White vinegar - we make our own window spray using vinegar, water, and rubbing alcohol with peppermint essential oils! Streak-free every time. For floors, a bucket of hot water and vinegar ( don’t use on hardwood or natural stone floors, shower glass doors: vinegar and dawn, spray and let sit, then scrub. laundry is in the washing machine as a fabric softener to keep your towels soft and fresh.
Rubbing alcohol - we add rubbing alcohol to our window spray and Dawn power wash. Used as a disinfectant
Essential oils - peppermint for windows ( also keeps pests away), antibacterial properties, deodorizing odors, citrus for grease and tacky substances. Lemon for sticker removal, polishes wood and leather, and antiviral tea tree oil has antibacterial and antiviral properties and eliminates fungal growth. Use a diffuser to make the house smell nice and dryer balls for laundry.
We hope you enjoyed these tips; they inspire you to take some shifts in your home. If you are a current client and eco-friendly cleaning is something that is important to your family, please let us know, and we can accommodate you by cleaning with more eco-friendly projects.