10 easy sustainable cleaning tips
Looking for ways to clean your home without toxic chemicals and unnecessary plastic packaging? We’re here to help!
You can take care of many cleaning tasks with common items you might already have on hand.
Our 10 sustainable cleaning tips use these household items:
Castile soap
Dish soap
Lemons or lemon juice
White vinegar
Baking soda
Coconut oil
Coffee grounds
Salt
Water and carbonated water
Tool-wise, our tips call for an ice cube tray and a microwave- and oven-safe bowl, plus your own spray bottle. We also suggest considering a steam cleaner to handle lots of tasks—but you can certainly clean your home without one!
Cellulose sponges are another cleaning tool we love. Also known as Swedish dishcloths, cellulose sponges absorb many times their weight yet dry quickly, discouraging bacteria growth. They’re biodegradable, too. Meanwhile, microfiber cloths contain tiny pieces of plastic, which go into the waste stream when you wash them.
Bonus tool tip: When you finish a store-bought product with a sprayer, keep it! Sprayers aren’t recyclable, but they are reusable. They’re handy when you want to mix up your own cleaning products. To clean the sprayer itself, put it in a container full of warm water, then spray to run the water through.
Planning to discard chemical-based cleaners? Visit your local hazardous waste center rather than pouring them down the drain or tossing them in the garbage.
Now, onto our top 10 easy sustainable cleaning tips!
Mix castile soap and water. Castile soap has a bunch of uses and you can often buy it in grocery store bulk aisles to avoid plastic packaging. Two “recipes” to try: mop floors with ½ cup of soap in 3 gallons of hot water and make an all-purpose cleaner with ¼ cup of soap in 1 quart of water.
Make garbage disposal cubes. Cut a lemon into small chunks, put them in an ice cube tray, add white vinegar, and freeze. Pop a few in the garbage disposal and run it to remove stuck-on food and smells.
Use lemons to clean the microwave. Slice one lemon, put it in a microwave-safe bowl filled with at least a cup of water, and microwave for five minutes. Leave the door shut to let steam work on stuck-on food, then wipe with your cellulose sponge.
Cleaning a fireplace? Use coffee grounds. Cleaning ash out of a fireplace can be a messy job. To keep ash and other small particles from forming clouds as you scoop them out, sprinkle coffee grounds on top first. They’ll weigh down the ash and make it easier to handle.
Polish stainless steel with coconut oil. Work a small amount of oil into stainless appliances with your cellulose sponge. Not only will it shine the steel, it’ll help prevent fingerprints!
Erase wall scuffs with baking soda and water. Mix the two ingredients in equal parts, apply them, let dry, and brush off. This method is best for white walls as baking soda may dull darker paint.
Clean grout with carbonated water and white vinegar. Mix up a 50/50 solution in a spray bottle, spray it on, and wipe it off. If the grout is extra grimy, add two parts baking soda to make a thick paste. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then scrub with a cellulose sponge.
Refresh your dishwasher with white vinegar, too. When your dishwasher starts to smell funky, bacteria is usually the culprit. White vinegar can help with that! Pour two cups into a dishwasher-safe bowl, place it on the top rack, and run a cycle.
Scrub bathroom surfaces with baking soda, dish soap, and salt. This combination of ingredients makes a soft scrub that’s great for tubs, tiles, and sinks. The ratio you need will depend on how grimy the surfaces are, so do a little experimenting.
Consider buying, renting, or borrowing a steam cleaner. Steam cleaners avoid toxic chemicals and plastic packaging by using only hot water to santizie and loosen dirt from floor tiles, upholstery, sealed countertops, and more—even mattresses! Avoid using steam to clean wood, brick, marble, or painted surfaces (including walls).
While we love these tips, we also recognize that mixing up your own cleaning products is something not everyone wants to do. If you’d prefer to buy readymade products, you can still avoid toxins and, oftentimes, plastic packaging.
Note that greenwashing is very common when it comes to cleaning products—for example, did you know companies aren’t required to disclose what goes into fragrances? That loophole makes it difficult to know what ingredients are present in a product, even when you read the label.
It can still be fairly easy to understand what you’re buying. There are organizations dedicated to helping you find the safest and healthiest products on the shelf. This rundown from Real Simple is a quick way to understand cleaning product labels you may see.
Plus, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice Standard and The Environmental Working Group’s VERIFIED products are both designed to help you find vetted products.
Finally, a reminder: doing a little bit counts! It can be overwhelming to think about both cleaning an entire home and making sure every product you’re using fits into your sustainability values. Know that taking it slowly and making one change at a time is worthwhile.
