“It’s not easy to teach an old dog new tricks, but I want to try to be green” - Barb Hughes, Racheal’s Mum, in a bungalow in Selsey.

Gawd bless her. My mum is a housework obsessive. She can spend all day, everyday cleaning her home, and still thinks there’s lots to be done. She’s the sort of lady that irons her tights, you get the picture! 

Well, the lovely Barb has spent her life bleaching the hecky peck out of anything and everything. She’s a bit of a cleaning product addict. She has a chemical cleaner cocktail cabinet under her kitchen sink in Selsey. Flash, Cif, Bleach, oven stuff, hob stuff, floor stuff. The loo, sink, bath, mirror, shower all have a different chemical solution to keep them clean.

Last week Mum placed an order for a few eco friendly products. “I’ll start with a couple and see how I get on”. She has already been using E-Cloths, and loves them, but hadn’t tried anything else. I took her some Ecover washing up liquid, loo cleaner, and fabric softener (and some MORE e-cloths.. what’s she doing with them all!).

I rang her yesterday for a quick chat about Mum and Dad coming for a visit tomorrow. (1 hour 15 minutes, one flat phone battery, a very red ear, and pins and needles in my phone holding hand!). Anyway, I asked how she was getting on with the Ecover products. She seems really pleased with them because the do the same job as the old chemically products! 

Mum is going to bring over some empty containers tomorrow to get them refilled with green products! She says she needs more Fabric Softener.

Me - “Mum, you can’t have used a litre of fabric softener in 1 week, there’s only 2 of you”, says me.

Barbie - “I do, it’s all gone. I do 2 or 3 loads a day.”

Me - “Glossing over the fact that that is a ridiculous amount of washing for 2 people, you still shouldn’t have used a litre in one week. How much are you putting in?”

Barbie-clean-freak - “I only fill the little tray up to the top, that’s all”

Me - “Mum, you’re only meant to put a cap full in. The little pink cap on the top of the bottle. Just one of those will do!”

So, anyway, she’s bringing her empty bottle back to be refilled. And she’s going to take some more things to give them a try. I’ll report back with how she’s getting on learning a greener, healthier way to clean!  

I used Ecover floor soap for the 1st time last week. I used it on lino and tiled floors.

It cleans the floors as effectively as any chemically product. It freshens and smells fab too.

And as there is no chemical residue left, I felt happy to let Dave-the-Tortoise roam around the kitchen floor after mopping the lino!

It’s a shame it says that it’s not to be used on “varnished, sealed, waxed or polished flooring”. That warning has made me scared to try it on my bamboo flooring, or my cleaning customer’s wooden floors. I just use my E-Cloth mop on them instead, but as you only use a bit of water with the mop, it doesn’t have the same aromatic fresh smell as using the floor soap.

If anyone has used Ecover floor soap successfully on wooden flooring, let me know!

It does the job just as well as the chemically washing up liquids.

It’s no brainer really; it works just as well, it’s not expensive, doesn’t leave a chemical residue on your dishes & it’s kinder to the environment.

The huge benefit for me personally has been that the exzema on my hands has virtually disappeared since switching to a plant based washing up liquid. My hands were always unbearably itchy, swollen, weepy, cracked.. horrid. Now they are almost normal! Only the scarring gives them away.

Anyway, my bottle of Ecover is almost empty, so I’m going to refill it with the Bio-D washing up liquid so that I can review that. Here’s hoping that my hands will like that too! I’ll report back…

Don’t be annoying or anything, but things like photo copiers in reception areas. They’re hardly ever used, but left ready to leap into action. The colour printer in an office I work at is rarely needed, but it’s always on. I switch it off, and it’s often several days before it’s been switched back on again. Unnecessary lights left on in offices or waiting areas. If you switch them off, people will switch them on when they need them. Let’s look out for things we can switch off that aren’t being used regularly (don’t irritate anyone!)

We should all now have heard all about not leaving things on stand by, or not leaving mobile phone chargers plugged in and switched on. And switch off the computer (see Local Cooling post to learn how to get this automated for you).

It’s not only sensible in terms of being ‘green’, it also is a great money saving habit to get into. If you’re typical, you probably spend around £100 annually on stand by power alone. I know it’s not a fortune, but if you’re also reducing your carbon footprint, then everyone’s a winner!

Prevent limescale build up by popping in a small shell in your kettle.