Sustainable practices in cleaning your home begin with using the right products that are energy-saving, toxin-free and biodegradable. The power is literally in your hands when you want a super tidy and clean home without having to waste resources or use products that can harm the environment.
A resourceful solution is to go the old-age way by using products that are naturally derived. Mostly handmade by highly skilled people, these alternatives like brooms or brushes compost at the end of their life leaving no marks unlike their plastic counterparts or electrically powered machines or chemical-filled liquids that end up in landfill and let out toxins in your house and surroundings. Using ethically made cleaning equipment and products is the ultimate eco-choice to reduce your carbon footprint without having to compromise on quality.
So, next time you are cleaning consider it being more than a chore but as a way of life!
Brooms and Brushes
Unbleached and biodegradable, Eco Max’s Kitchen Scrubber is a vegan coconut scrubber that is anti-bacterial and lasts long. Getting rid of the grease, the bristles get into hard to get appliances and utensils without leaving any scratches. These are great for your pots and pans, mesh strainers, micro graters, baking dishes, cast iron, and even bread board or thermomix. The Eco Max Scrub Brush is a Japanese inspired scrubbing brush that is a combination of two vegetable fibres fixed onto a rounded and comfortable to hold FSC certified rubber wood base to make the ultimate natural scrub brush. One of the two vegetable fibres is Tampico, a form of cactus that is a strong and soft fibre which gives an overall good clean. It absorbs more water than any other natural fibre and releases it as you scrub. The second fibre is Rice root which is a root of a native grass called Zatacon from the Mexican highlands. This fibre is naturally springy, slightly curly and extremely tough, which gives the brush extra strength for hard scouring.
For the dishes, the Eco Max Dish Brush or the Non Stick Pan Brush are the ones. While the former is handmade from natural unbleached coconut fibre which is a sustainable fibre from the husk of the mature coconut, the latter is constructed on a sustainable Alstonia timber handle with soft natural unbleached sisal fibres, which comes from the leaves of a cactus. Both don’t scratch heavy or delicate items and get those dishes and pans shiny and spotless!
Considering cleanliness and hygiene, the Toilet Brush is the ideal for those stained toilets. Again made from coconut fibre, its anti-bacterial properties don’t allow smell or mould and the fibres will not discolour or flatten like a nylon brush and the curved shape allows the brush to easily clean under the lip and S bend.
To sweep away the litter, the Coconut Palm Broom works wonders as a rake and an outside broom. Handmade from the center of the coconut palm frond and bound with coconut fibre string, this broom will rake leaves from grass without pulling up the glass roots and sweeps up wet litter as easily as dry.
Wash Cloths and Clothing Protectors
Avoid using disposable paper towels to help save trees by cleaning up with Agave Wash Cloth from Thurlby Herb Farm. These multipurpose washcloth handwoven from the agave cactus are long-lasting, quick-drying and resistant to mold. This cloth will scrub grime and mould from the bathroom kitchen, wash vegetables and clean dishes.
Laundry
Good housekeeping also involves good laundry and using the right products to clean up the sheets and other apparel are very important. Thurlby Herb Farm’s Laundry Bar made with plant-based oils such as palm, coconut, and olive among others is just the right thing for removing dirty stains and spots and also ideal for handwashing. Likewise, instead of detergent and fabric softener, place Soap Nuts from Aroha Earth into your washing machine and get clean and soft clothes without leaving any residue. These nuts are the seed pod of a macadamia-sized berry from the Sapindus Mukorossi or Soap Nut Tree which is collected when they naturally fall and then cracked, opened and dried in the sun, producing a sticky dark golden shell. And when you fold away the washed sheets and other clothes and place them in the cupboard, hang Thurlby Herb Farm’s Clothing Protector which made by blending essential oils imparts a fresh forest fragrance and naturally deters moths.
Indoor Plants
Since sustainable housekeeping is all about going green, having some indoor plants will be a purifying and healthy choice. Producing plenty of fresh oxygen in your home, you won’t have to be concerned about finding ways to fight air pollution indoors. By going this natural way, you can also avoid or limit the use of air-conditioners or fans which take up a lot of energy. For information about growing indoor plants read 50 Indoor Plants & How Not to Kill Them or New Plant Parent from Harper Collins. These books extensively guide on bringing the outdoors in. And if you are looking to green up your space in decorative pots, then grow them in unusual earth-friendly ceramic pots from Gail Ceramics such as the Giraffe Planter or Dinosaur Planter that will hold your plant and take charge, protecting them from snails, snugs and bugs.
