Tidy up, muck out, clean, scrub – are you ready for a thorough spring clean? March or April is traditionally used to make the apartment or house shine again. At this time of year, people like to buy masses of conventional cleaning products so that nothing stands in the way of the cleaning marathon.
However, many cleaning products contain substances that can harm our environment and health in different ways. Conventionally produced cleaning products contain detergents, petroleum-based substances and synthetic dyes, preservatives and fragrances. These substances end up in wastewater, can accumulate in the environment and subsequently harm aquatic organisms. Furthermore, sewage treatment plants are unable to filter out all substances, meaning that sewage sludge often ends up back on agricultural land as fertilizer. Cleaning agents also often contain harmful substances that dry out our skin and mucous membranes and can trigger allergies and rashes.
But the good news is that many sustainable alternatives to traditional cleaning products are already available to make environmental protection possible when cleaning.
Eco-cleaning agents - it all depends on the materials
Fantastic household remedies
Cleaning with home remedies has many benefits for the environment and your health. You can make various cleaning products yourself with just a few household products and save a lot of packaging waste. Classic examples of home remedies are vinegar, baking soda (= sodium hydrogen carbonate), washing soda (= sodium carbonate), citric acid and curd and soft soap.
Washing soda helps to get greasy surfaces clean. With a mixture of water and vinegar or vinegar essence, you can easily remove limescale stains and give your bathroom a new shine. Citric acid can also be used as an alternative to vinegar. Baking soda should be your cleaning agent of choice if you want to clean your oven or unclog drains. To clean the drain, you can add two tablespoons of baking soda to the drain, pour in a small cup of vinegar, leave to act briefly and rinse with hot water. Sustainable and biodegradable soft soap made from potassium soap, water and olive oil can be used to remove dirt from windows, various surfaces and laundry. You can easily make your own liquid soap or various universal cleaning products from curd soap.
Sustainable cleaning sponges and cleaning cloths
Sustainable cleaning sponges, cloths and brushes have several advantages over conventional cleaning products: They contain no microplastics, are resource-friendly, made from renewable raw materials and can also be washed and reused very easily.
Cleaning sponges are often made from sisal (= fiber from the agave plant), cellulose or recycled post-consumer PET bottles. There are also various washable cleaning cloths and tea towels made from organic cotton or linen as well as sponge cloths made from cotton and rayon. Tea towels instead of kitchen rolls are always the best choice, as conventional kitchen rolls produce a lot of waste. The tried and tested copper cloths can also remove stubborn stains or burnt-on spots on metal pots and pans. As an alternative to cleaning sponges, copper cloths are not only washable and therefore durable, but also fully recyclable in the end. For washing dishes, you can also use a stylish wooden brush with natural bristles and a replaceable brush head. This also saves a lot of valuable resources.
Last but not least, it makes sense to use cleaning products sparingly and pay attention to the dosage. It is best for our environment to use as few different products as possible and to reuse materials.