How to Spring Clean Sustainably

As the days become longer and the nights shorter, our thoughts inevitably turn to our homes and the great spring clean! All that sunlight flooding in highlights those places we may have neglected, and also invigorates us to fling open the windows and get cleaning!

But as with all aspects of home management, it is only natural that we may begin to look for ways to clean our homes in a more sustainable way. Whilst we may be composting our waste food, recycling our glass and paper, and charging our electric vehicle on our driveways, we thought we would take a look at what we can do to minimise the impact on the environment that our cleaning has, and also how to upcycle and recycle rather than buy new.

Here's our quick guide to a sustainable spring!

Product power

Let’s start with the products we use. It’s easy to stick with our favourites that have been around for generations; we know they do the trick, and they bring the added benefit of being relatively inexpensive and easy to get hold of. However, should you wish to move to more sustainable products that can be vegan, plastic free, or simply less harmful to the environment, it seems like there’s an ever growing choice.

One well-known brand is Ecover which offers a range of laundry, detergent and household cleaning products. They are also pioneers of the #Refillution – a campaign to get us to refill existing bottles from one of their 600+ health and zero waste stores in the UK, or one of their new Refill Stations which are undergoing trials at major supermarkets.

When life gives you lemons…

There are also some hidden gems in our store cupboards that can have magical cleaning powers! Baking soda, white wine vinegar and bicarbonate of soda all have their place in your cleaning routine, however it is probably the humble lemon that is most versatile. From freshening dishwashers and washing machines, to shifting baked on food and odours from your microwave, popping a bag of lemons in your weekly supermarket shop will be a handy and inexpensive way to clean your home too.

To the bathroom!

When you’re giving the bathroom a good old spring clean, you may wonder why one family needs so many bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel etc. Think about it too much, and you may quite possibly be horrified by the sheer amount of plastic that is in our bathrooms, just to keep us clean.

But fear not! Just like our domestic cleaning products there is an ever growing range of refillable options for our toiletries including ones from well-known brands such as L’oreal, including its popular Elvive range, and P&G. In addition to these, there is also an ever growing number of independent brands that are really proving their worth in terms of eco-credentials and product quality.

And let’s not forget about other bathroom products such as loo roll and those disposable cotton rounds and cotton buds. Naked Sprout, deliver eco-friendly bamboo, loo roll in a cardboard box, direct to your door. A quick search on the internet will unearth several options for bamboo cleansing pads that are simply popped in with your washing, and cotton buds that are recyclable.

Recycle and Repurpose

Doing our spring cleaning always leads to us switching things up a bit. Perhaps you’ve decided that you really don’t like that vase that someone bought you a couple of years ago, or maybe that table that has seen better days would benefit from a quick lick of paint.

As you go through your home, put everything you no longer want to one side and decide whether you can repurpose it, whether it’s heading for the charity shop, or whether it simply needs to be recycled or thrown away.

Things that can be strikingly repurposed or upcycled, include pieces of furniture, radiator cabinets, table lights and more. If you’re in need of inspiration, check out Frenchic – a superb paint range that has endless capabilities to transform your home!

Perhaps the biggest thing we all need to do is just become more used to investing in eco-friendly products and making sure that we begin to move away from our ‘throw-away’ tendencies. If you don’t want it anymore, there’s a good chance that someone will so it’s worth finding out where your nearest charity shop is and also how you can recycle larger items of furniture – many local councils provide a service, or some of the larger charities tend to have dedicated furniture shops.

Happy spring cleaning and if you have any top tips – do let us know via our social channels!