[in the hills]

Household and toiletries

Our teenagers are keen to ditch as many chemicals as possible for health and environmental reasons. I'm all for this but struggling with it a bit.

Would really appreciate any tips from anyone that cleans the house and themselves without using the usual shop bought cleaning products and toiletries.

Starting from scratch with this really so any help appreciated.

[SallyintNorth]

The folks here use essential oils.  You can get ready-made cleaning products, or can make up your own.

There's some information on natural cleaning here.

[landroverroy]

White distilled vinegar.
   It's stronger than your common malt vinegar.
   Use it neat in toilets to dissolve limescale.
   Put it in a spray bottle with some water and washing up liquid for general cleaning of work surfaces, paintwork, windows etc. Brilliant for putting a shine on stainless steel sinks and chrome taps.


Baking soda / sodium bicarbonate.
  An excellent deodoriser.
   Sprinkle on carpets and leave for a few minutes, then vacuum up. Removes odours, eg doggy smells.
   Use it underarms as a deodorant. I tend to put some handcream or similar on my skin first so that it sticks.
   Put it on a damp cloth to wipe inside fridge. Keeps it smelling fresh.
   
   

[Herdygirl]

Thanks for that Landroverroy, I have been struggling to find a 'natural' cleaner that will do for the loo as we are have a septic tank and can't use normal loo cleaners.

[CarolineJ]

My septic tank doesn't seem to object to a normal cleaning agent, but then there are only two of us living here and I don't have a rim block or anything, just clean it once a week.

[YorkshireLass]

Ecover and the like are good for a halfway house between complete annihilation and only using half a lemon for cleaning 
I use their loo cleaner and washing up liquid, but their laundry stuff is rubbish. I also use the washing up liquid to wipe down kitchen surfaces etc.
Bio-d is/was another brand.