A visual testiment to how you don’t need harsh chemicals to clean. Even your oven.

Tools for the job:

Hot water

Soda Crystals (powder and liquid varieties)

Copper scourer

Elbow grease

Microfibre cloth

Rubber gloves

Method:

Dissolve about a cup full of powder soda crystals in a sink of hot water. Pop the racks in to soak. (may need to turn them after 5 mins if they’re too big to immerse completely in the water)

Slosh a bit of liquid soda crystals on the glass of the oven door. Smear it round with your gloved hand.

Have a cuppa.

Attack the oven racks with your copper scourer. Rinse in clean water.

Attack the oven door with your copper scourer. Wipe off with wet cloth. Buff dry with microfibre cloth.

Results:

A clean oven (see before and after pics below). Without the need to have a well ventilated room, extra thick special rubber gloves, eye protective goggles and a mask to avoid inhaling burny burny fumes.

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As the cold and flu season takes hold, regular cleaning of the things that gather our germs is vital. When we clean commercial premises, we place great emphasis on cleaning touch points like doors, light switches and hand rails. And phones and keyboards will harbour germs too. These are the places where germs can be passed on to others. If we could trust everyone to have impeccable hand hygiene regime, we’d all be fine. But that’s unrealistic. As a green cleaning company, we don’t want to compromise on our vow to never use harsh toxins in our cleaning. So we did a little research and it turned out that vinegar is a natural anti bacterial product. As is tea tree oil, which also has anti viral properties. So here is our concoction for a natural anti bacterial germ busting spray:

Take an empty spray bottle, add a few drops of tea tree oil, half fill it with white vinegar, then top it up with water. Give it a gentle shake to mix up the magic. And there it is. We use a clean microfibre cloth sprayed with a generous dose of our concoction.

Natural, easy AND cheap!!!
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www.greenmop.co.uk was mentioned in The Guardian last week! They recommended Bio-d loo cleaner and Ecover limescale remover in answer to a reader’s question. Here it is for you:

Your questions answered 

Saturday January 12, 2008
The Guardian

Now, I was generally using white vinegar for limescale, water marks and soapy scum. I thought I’d give the Ecover Limescale Remover product a go though, and found it to be really very good. It squirts out a satisfying froth which smells nice and fresh and clean. I spray the Limescale Remover on taps, shower screens, sinks and draining boards, the usual suspects. I rub it all over with a wet sponge, rinse, then buff with an e-cloth. It really doesn’t take much effort, and works a treat. I really like it. It works just as well as chemically lime lite type products, but it smells much nicer, and is obviously non-toxic. After buffing, chrome and glass are spotless and shiny and smear free. It’s now a fixture in my cleaning tool box. Great product.

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…

E-Cloths are microfibre cloths. But they are not just any microfibre cloth.. they are the best on the market, in my opinion! I know there are cheaper versions out there, but they really don’t perform to the same high standard as the E-Cloth range.

I use the standard E-Cloths, the glass cleaning cloth and the mop (I just think of the glass cleaning one as a buffer-upper as it shines more than just glass up to a streak-free shine).

The standard cloths used dry pick up any dust and bits from the surface, and traps it on the cloth (must be what the microfibres are for!). The same with a dry mop head, the floor dust and dirt sticks to the little fibres. Dampen the cloth or mop and use a bit of elbow grease and they remove dirt and grime and grease.

E’Cloths absorb excess water too, so I dry off surfaces and sinks and shower screens and tiles with an E-Cloth. Buff up with a dry standard E-Cloth, then finish off with the glass cloth for the best sparkling finish.

My taps, sink, tiles, mirrors, windows, hob, kitchen cupboards, windows no longer have streaks or water marks on them.

You really need at least 2 standard cloths, so that you can use 1 damp and 1 dry. But, they’re not cheap so perhaps just try one to start with what you think, I assure you you’ll be impressed and come back for more so that you have kitchen ones, bathroom ones, one in your car for the misted up windows, one in your shower to stop the water marks building up, glass buffing cloths, mops…

And, of course, you’ll cut down on the use of chemical cleaners as they only need water, which is a bonus. They say they last for up to 300 washes (mine have only been washed about 9 times), so they are actually good value for money if you wash them once a week they’ll last you for, um.. yonks! (Sums aren’t my strong point!)

P.S. Even my mum loves them, and she is a cleaning addict!

1. Clean the nasties off your fruit and veg by sprinkling bicarbonate soda in water and rinsing.
2. Wash out your bins with a bit of bicarb
3. Fridges and freezer clean up beautifully with a bit of bicarbonate soda sprinkled on a damp cloth
4. Keep the fridge free from food smells by simply keeping an open packet of bicarbonate soda in there. It absorbs the odours
5. Absorb kitty litter pongs by sprinkling a bit of bicarb at the bottom of the tray before covering with the kitty litter
6. Use as a scourer on hard surfaces (marble, granite, formica, ceramic), with a sprinkling of bicarbonate soda on a damp sponge
7. Sprinkle the soda on your barbeque grill, soak it, then rinse off
8. Dishwasher odours are neutralised by sprinkling bicarbonate soda on the bottom
9. Run your dishwasher through a cycle with bicarb instead of soap to give it a good clean
10. Scour pans with it, or if they’ve got really burnt on food, let it soak in soda and water
11. Keep drains free flowing and clean by putting 4 tablespoons of bicarbonate soda in them each week, flushing down with hot water
12. Stinky trainers?! Sprinkle some bicarb in to freshen them up
13. It’s another good non-toxic, biodegradable all rounder, and cheap too.

1. Remove stains from stainless steel and chrome with a vinegar dampened cloth.
   
2. Rinse glasses and dishes in water and vinegar to remove spots and stains
   
3. Prevent grease building up in your oven by frequently wiping out with vinegar
   
4. Wiping down walls with a vinegar soaked cloth eliminates mildew, dust and odours
   
5. Vinegar is great for cleaning glass, so use with water to clean windows and mirrors
   
6. Pouring boiling vinegar down drains unclogs and cleans them
   
7. Limescale in your kettle can be removed using vinegar
   
8. Boil vinegar and water in your saucepans to remove stuck on bits or stains (burnt bits in my case!)
   
9. Use vinegar in a spray bottle as a multi-surface cleaner
   
10. Vinegar is a great stain remover on clothing and carpets
    
11. Add vinegar to your washing machine as a natural fabric softener and brightener
    
12. You can clean the limescale out of your steam iron by filling the reservoir with half water / half vinegar and making it steam and spray until the reservoir is empty
    
13. Hot vinegar removes paint from glass
    
14. Cut flowers last longer if you add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the vase
    
15. Ants hate vinegar! Wipe your garden table with vinegar to enjoy ant-free alfresco dining! Or spray in problem areas, it’ll keep them away.
    
16. Vinegar neutralises the ammonia smell in urine, so clean out your cats litter tray with it.
    
17. Does your dog smells, well, a bit doggy?! When giving your dog a bath, add a couple of cups of vinegar to the final rinse. This reduces that doggy smell and makes their coat gleam.
    
18. Apparently, adding vinegar to your shampoo will make your hair gleam too! But I’m not sure I want to try that one!
    
19. Vinegar cleans out and freshens your fridge
    
20. To summarise (!), vinegar is a useful all round degreaser, odour neutraliser, limescale remover, water softener and jack of all trades. And it’s CHEAP!!