How to have a sparkling clean home without using harmful cleaning products?

Luckygirl3

I have gone for the option of abandoning the idea of a sparklingly clean home - works for me!

Good for you too! What is this obsession with sparkling clean homes? It's insidious and unnatural...

My home is never sparkling clean, good job I don't use harmful chemicals!! It is said that housework never killed anyone but I'm not taking any chances!

I use old fashioned brown soap, but I don't know if it is available in the UK for washing floors and paintwork. I clean windows in hot water with vinegar added.

I stick to these old-fashioned ways, as I am allergic to modern perfumes and other additives to cleaning agents.

Washing soda, dissolved in hot water can also be used for washing down paintwork.

You may find you need to rub a little harder if you avoid modern cleaning agents, but it is perfectly possible to keep your home looking and smelling clean using our grandmothers' methods.

Just don't let it all get too grubby before you start cleaning.

keepingquiet

Luckygirl3

I have gone for the option of abandoning the idea of a sparklingly clean home - works for me!

Good for you too! What is this obsession with sparkling clean homes? It's insidious and unnatural...

Why wouldn’t you want a sparkling clean and tidy home?

GrannyGravy13

keepingquiet

Luckygirl3

I have gone for the option of abandoning the idea of a sparklingly clean home - works for me!

Good for you too! What is this obsession with sparkling clean homes? It's insidious and unnatural...

Why wouldn’t you want a sparkling clean and tidy home?

I think that such homes look uncomfortably sterile and not at all welcoming. That's just my opinion. But I think we all have our own levels of 'dirt tolerance' and some can tolerate more than others.

I have never had and never will have a sparkling clean home.

Kandinsky

Thank you GrannyGravy13 - I’d never heard of Percy & Figg but looking at their products now. Completely non toxic which is exactly what I’m looking for.
Thank you!

Purdy and Figg only smell nice, they're not anti bacterial so useless in the kitchen and bathroom. Plus they're over-priced. I bought a glass spray bottle from B&M for 1.99 and buy essential oils a lot cheaper. Same thing.

I’m discerning about the products I use and read the ingredients. I find ecover better and also waitrose own brand.

MaizieD I think my tidiness and wanting everything clean (disclaimer I do have a cleaner) stems from working whilst having children.

If everything wasn’t neat and clean and in its right place with five children Sunday night and Monday mornings would have been one catastrophe after another, looking for sports kit, homework, correct uniform for correct child depending on age and which school etc.,

The only rooms that I’d didn’t insist on tidiness were when they reached 16, I would leave clean bedding and towels outside their doors, if they didn’t put their washing in the laundry baskets then it didn’t get washed. Our absolute gem of a cleaning lady would only clean their rooms if they were tidied, this worked a treat most of the time.

I have just carried on being organised since retirement, no frantic last minute rushing around if a family member wants to stay unexpectedly.

The GC’s playroom here is often not tidy after the younger ones have been here, but it is definitely clean 😹😹😹

Maybe the difference is that I grew up with 10 siblings and my parents both worked hard every day. Of course it was chaos but fun and maybe that's why I hate clean and tidy homes.

When I worked with young people with mental health issues in their own homes, it was always the clean and tidy homes that worried me...but, each to their own eh?

The main thing I am concerned about is the nasty bugs….e.coli, salmonella etc on my kitchen tops and in bathrooms. I’m not convinced that soaps, detergents, vinegars, bicarbonates etc kill these, so what to use?

.

Purdy & Figg
.

This episode of Sliced Bread on R4 was very useful. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0023x92

There was a professor of home hygiene who knew all about cleaning to prevent the spread of germs. It turns out that most of what we use is completely unecessary/useless. She recommended using washing up liquid and hot water for most cleaning, bleach in moderation on chopping boards, sinks and bathrooms, and anti-bacterial sprays on other surfaces eg kitchen worktops. They have to say that they are antibac on the label, which means that they meet certain standards for killing germs (apparently it is the modern name for disinfectant!). And they need to left for a minimum of 5 minutes to be effective before they are wiped off. She also said that she soaks her dishclothes in bleach solution regularly.

There was also a cleaning 'guru' who was a fan of P&F I think, but for the smell more than anything else.

Personally, I keep a pile of old teatowels etc for drying and polishing off etc. They only get used once and I wash them at 60degrees once I've got a carrier bag full.

BTW I don't think the bunny symbol means anything. Animal testing of cosmetics, household cleaners etc etc has been illegal in the UK for years. But the core ingredients were originally tested on animals....
its a bit like the red tractor symbol, which simply means that the UK minimum legal welfare requirements have been complied with.

Washing up liquid, micro cloths (I know not natural) are in general use for surfaces, even the shower. Anything needing real heavy work, which rarely happens in the house, I use a spray. Purdy and Figg too expensive for me snd Methid supposedly natural has been called into question for the production methods. I to subscribe to why do we need to have sparkling clean abodes?

Luckygirl3

I have gone for the option of abandoning the idea of a sparklingly clean home - works for me!

Me too! Grubby but happy!

Lahlah65 Bunny Free is PETA approved.

I doubt they would be willing to be associated with a label where the ingredients were tested on aniyeven if the end products were not.

Purdy & Figg is lovely and the natural oil scent leaves a gorgeous smell.

Try Nancy Birtwhistle’s books. Some great ideas without any nasty chemicals. She is also on Instagram.

Nancy Birstwhistle (won TGBBO once upon a time) has a Clean and Green book, can't remember the name exactly. I often do a search and use her hints, some of them too much of a faff but mostly good e.g. citric soda in the loo for limescale etc. All her cleaning is chemical free...

This is her book:

amzn.eu/d/hcFag2q

"For an eco-friendly home".

Florence2

Try Nancy Birtwhistle’s books. Some great ideas without any nasty chemicals. She is also on Instagram.

Oops, apologies, I missed that you has mentioned her

Nancy Birtwhistle makes all her own green cleaning products and is a great cook to boot

Hot soapy water and cloths. Always does the trick. I do use bicarbonate of today and white vinegar mixed together to put on taps etc for limescale

If you're in a hard water area this might come in handy for badly scaled up kettles.
Cut a lemon in parts, add to kettle with enough water to cover, boil and leave overnight. Comes up sparkling, but if not all the limescale has gone you might need to repeat

I have had asthma all my life and if any aerosol is used in the house I am wheezing for days. The spray bottles of some strong smelling cleaning products do the same. Eco zone products don’t affect me so I use those or washing up liquid with a little bit of bleach for kitchen surfaces and bathroom I use soda bicarbonate and vinegar. The original Cif doesn’t affect me if I need an abrasive cleaner. No spray polish just damp dusting and a tin of polish. I had an awful experience years ago when I came home from having had an emergency appendix op ( two small children and a very stressed husband) my dear sister in law had come in and used “Shake and Vac” all over the house and spray polished everything. I walked in and had the most dreadful Asthma attack I had ever had. SiL was mortified poor thing !