Eco-Friendly Cleaning at Home, for Busy People

This post is sponsored by Clean Living, who sent me their Complete Cleaning Caddy to try at home.

The Problem With Cleaning Your Home

A few weeks ago, I found myself in our small garden watering the plants and fruit trees. If you follow our urban garden adventures on Instagram, you might know that all of our trees, flowers, and herbs are in pots - mostly stacked on shelves vertically to save space. Because of this, when they’re watered, there’s a lot of run-off; water flows from the saturated pot to the pot below, and eventually into the ground. We try to not waste this water with our tiered system, but it got me thinking about something else. Even with three, sometimes four layers of plants for water to flow through there is still run-off. Even in our small garden, I can see how water can get wasted - we do everything organically in our garden, so luckily there are no pesticides or synthetic chemicals that are leached into the ground. After watering, I came indoors and thought more about the concept of run-off and water-waste, thinking more specifically about the millions of homes that inadvertently add toxins to water through washing and gardening. We already use eco-friendly dishwasher tablets (although I’m not sure how eco-friendly they can really be!), soap and dish soap, and have tried in the past to make our own cleaning products. Some of these worked well, while others were mediocre… but they all took a lot of time and energy to make at home. I tend to make them a few times and then get fatigued with everything else going on in life, and end up buying whatever’s labelled “eco” at the supermarket.

Just a few days after my daydreaming in the garden about wasted water, Clean Living reached out to me to try some of their products. Clean Living is a new brand whose purpose is to help others to clean their homes with conscience: making their products environmentally responsible and educational. I took them up on their offer and was keen to learn more.

Refill, Reuse

Our formulations are way ahead of their time, harnessing the power of nature to give a far superior than traditional cleaning products. They are free from hazardous toxins and include healthy bacteria that break down completely, removing dirt and grime for a deeper and longer lasting clean. 

Clean Living’s products are also 100% natural, which ticks off a big box for our family, especially as we have a curious dog and an even more curious toddler running around. They use a Refill-Reuse-Recycle system to help reduce the single-plastic-waste problem, which unfortunately most other eco-friendly cleaning products are yet to capitalise on.

Another key point that I’ve not come across before is that Clean Living’s products contain live healthy bacteria, which create enzymes that penetrate deep into the pores of hard surfaces. This completely removes dirt that conventional cleaning products can leave behind. This is the kind of dirt you can’t see and is where harmful bacteria and viruses can breed. In addition to this, the healthy bacteria continue to work long after product use, keeping the regrowth of harmful bacteria at bay for longer – which I find very impressive!

After doing some more research on the brand, here’s what I’ve found out. The following points were important to me as I’d like to maintain our home’s hygiene, but (if possible) not at the cost of single-use plastic, adding large amounts to emissions and polluting our waterways.

• Clean Living products aren’t found in the supermarkets. Products are sent direct to consumer to reduce the number of vehicles on the road to drive down CO2 emissions.

• Their aluminium (reusable) bottles are shipped empty with a sachet of concentrate, making them lighter and further reducing carbon emissions.

What Does Clean Living Offer?

A visit to Clean Living’s website shows a range of different products, from reusable aluminium spray cans to the cleaning sachets themselves. We were sent ‘The Complete Cleaning Kit’, which included multiple bottles, refill sachets (which are 30ml), a brush, a caddy, and cleaning cloths. As part of this, the sachets we were sent were ‘Biological Odour and Spot Remover’, ‘Biological Multi-Purpose Cleaner’, ‘Glass Cleaner’, ‘Biological Bin Odour Eliminator’, ‘Kitchen Cleaner and Degreaser’, ‘Limescale Remover’ and ‘Bathroom Cleaner’ bottles (Each 300ml). We were also sent ‘Biological Drain Maintainer (50ml)’ and ‘Dry Carpet Cleaner (150g)’.

This covers a wide range of cleaning products, and allows us to clean everything from our kettle to our mirrors.

The process from here is quite straightforward: you pick the cleaning product, open the sachet, pour it in to the bottle, fill it up with water, and give it a shake. It’s then ready to go! The first cleaner I tried was the ‘Glass Cleaner’, to clean a really old mirror in our living room. My initial reaction was that the spray had no chemically, synthetic scent - it makes as big difference to have gentle fragrances in your home over a heavily synthetic chemical smell! The mirror looked great and, in terms of the quality of cleaning, I was very happy.

Next up was the ‘Bathroom Cleaner’ on a dirty sink in an unused downstairs bathroom - it worked amazingly! After spraying, I left the solution for about 20 minutes and came back, rinsed it all, and was thoroughly impressed with how well the cleaner did.

Finally, I tried the Biological Bin Odour Eliminator. We keep our waste separated for our local borough’s collection, but sometimes there’s a little food waste that can’t be composted - usually some form of uneaten toddler food that the dog can’t clean up. We took out the contents of the bin, sprayed the cleaner and let it sit for 20 minutes, and once again the cleaner did a great job! We’ve been really impressed with the quality of cleaning and the cherry on the top is that the products are all-natural and low-waste.

While there will almost always be byproduct and waste with any type of consumer product, I’m really glad Clean Living wrote to us; we think we’ve found our go-to low-waste cleaner at home. We love the refill system, and the fact that no harsh chemicals are used makes us a lot more confident with keeping the house clean.

Thanks to Clean Living for getting in touch! If you’d like more information on what they to or what to find their products, click here.