As the days grow longer and the sunlight stronger, it's harder to get away with sloppy housekeeping, hence the age-old tradition of giving your place an almighty spring clean around this time of year. Clocks go forward on the 29th March, so in less than a fortnight there'll be plenty more ambient light to work its way into your home's darkest nooks and crannies.
You may normally rely on powerful chemicals to do the work for you, but if you're concerned about your chemical splash and don't want to harm wildlife, you may want to use more natural methods to clean your home. Using strong bleaches and other products has been described as attempting to attack your home cleaning with pesticides, and there are far kinder ways to go about the job.
Follow the jump for some tips on how to get it looking spotless using friendlier substances, like lemon juice, vinegar and sald (plus a few of our favourite non toxic products!)
1. Make your own duster
Shop-bought dusters are such a rip-off! Almost every available variety requires exact refills that you can guarantee you'll never find in any shops once you've made that first purchase, which then results in you sending waste plastic to landfill, then shelling out more money on a replacement object. Why not interrupt this tiresome and wasteful process by making your own?
There's a great tutorial for making a 'swiffer' style duster here, using bits of fleece and the remains of an old duster that might otherwise be going to keep the landfill company.
2. Create kitchen cupboard cleaning products
When you know you've got all the tools to make safe, non-toxic basic cleaning products at home, buying more powerful, pungent ones in the shops seems utterly pointless, so here are a few potions you can easily cook up at home.
• There's nothing like smudged and dirty windows to ruin an otherwise pristine home, and one of the best window cleaning substances around is vinegar. Simply mix 50 percent white vinegar with 50 percent water and bung it in a spray bottle. Spray glass surfaces and wipe dry.
• You can also make a powerful dirt-busting antiseptic floor wash with vinegar and sweet-smelling herbs that works just as well as more noxious household chemicals. Click here for instructions
• Lemons can be used for all kinds of freshening purposes. Cut one in half to remove odours from your fridge, squeeze some of its juice to make a basic work-surface cleaner, or use one to remove limescale from draining boards and taps. You can find more uses for lemons here.
• Salt is another great multi-purpose substance. It's the perfect abrasive element for cleaning tea and coffee stains from china cups, it works in much the same way to clean off stubborn oven or other kitchen spillages, and it can even be used for sparkling up the underside of your iron. More info here.
Our favourite ready-made products
If you need something a bit stronger, turn to shop bought products for a quick and easy clean. I've tried various eco-friendly cleaning products, and some are definitely more effective than others, with the best ones easily out-performing 'traditional' chemical-laden varieties. My top recommendations so far would be:
• Method Pink Grapefruit spray cleaner An all-purpose cleaner that absorbs dirt rather than chemically degrading it, and smells really fresh and juicy. One interesting claim that Method makes is that there's no need to rinse the products off surfaces with as much gusto as you would for more chemically-laden alternatives, so it's great for us lazy types too!
• I have a real soft spot for Maison Belle - not just because of their oh-so-pretty packaging and mild, sweet aromas: they seem to be really good at getting tough jobs done, too. Watch me tackle one such task in this video, where I put the essential oil-based products to the test.
i use lemon's for my Whites! On sunny days you only need 1/8 cup of juice from a lemon ,(you strain to remove pulp)
First after washing your laundry,do not dry,Soak in 2cups water and the lemon juice for 1 or two,try to remove as much water as you can with damaging you clothes and hang you your clothes !it will bleach out your whites better than Bleach,Even whites that are older and grayish in color!Have fun its worth it if you love your clothes Bright!
I use lemon's for my Whites! On sunny days you only need 1/8 cup of juice from a lemon ,(you strain to remove pulp)
First after washing your laundry,do not dry,Soak in 2cups water and the lemon juice for 1 or two,try to remove as much water as you can without damaging your clothes.Then hang your clothes out on the cloths line!It will bleach out your whites better than Bleach,Even whites that are older and grayish in color!Have fun its worth it if you love your clothes Bright!