This blog post has been sponsored by Seventh Generation. All opinions are all my own!

When I started this blog over 6 years ago, one of the first things I looked at was cleaning products. I used to buy normal cleaning products and an eco-friendly washing up liquid. The normal products came with scary symbols on the back of them with things like toxic and dangerous to aquatic life.

I decided it was time to stop using these toxic cleaning products. So I replaced my old cleaning products with vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, lemon juice, washing balls and cleaning cloths. I got so excited about it I even wrote this poem –  R.I.P. My chemical crammed cleaning cupboard. Most of my replacement cleaning products work really well but I couldn’t quite crack the toilet cleaning though and eventually went back to putting bleach down the toilet.  We use washing up liquid as well as my husband refused to be without it. I ended up going back to mainstream products for dish washing and toilet cleaning that weren’t eco-friendly.

When Seventh Generation offered to send me some of their cleaning products to try out I decided to give them a go. If I am going to have some mainstream cleaning products in my home I would rather have environmentally friendly ones.

Products sent to me to review:

I received a bottle of cleaning spray, two bottles of laundry detergent (one concentrated and one not), some washing up liquid, some glass spray and some toilet cleaner.

Fragrance

The products I received either have a mild fragrance or are fragrance free. I really like the fragrance of the mint and lavender scented dishwashing liquid – two of my favourite herbs!

Recycled Plastic bottles

Most of the products come in plastic bottles which are 100% recycled. One of the laundry detergents has a plastic inner and cardboard type outer made of repurposed fibre. It says on that bottle that ‘this package uses 66% less plastic (than a typical 2.9l laundry bottle)’.

I am not a fan of plastic. One of the reasons I moved away from mainstream cleaning products was to avoid it where possible. Recycled plastics are one of the better plastic choices out there though and are currently preferable to biodegradable plastics. This is because biodegradable plastics often either end up in recycling or landfill, neither of which are beneficial. In landfill they don’t biodegrade because the conditions aren’t right. If these are put into recycling they contaminate the batch as they are unsuitable for recycling. They also won’t break down in a home compost bin.

Palm oil

Sustainably sourced palm oil

Seventh Generation add SLS to their laundry detergent and washing up liquid. The sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) they use  may have come from coconut oil or palm kernel oil . One of the reasons I stopped using conventional cleaning products was because I was trying to avoid palm oil.  They say that:

• Seventh Generation uses sustainability sourced palm oil. While there are sustainability and social issues associated with the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations into high conservation value rain forests in South East Asia, Seventh Generation pays a premium to support the production of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Certified Sustainable Palm Oil, which ensures that palm oil is not produced on forestland cleared since 2005. 

Problems with palm oil

Palm oil is widely used in cleaning products, foods and beauty products. However, it is is a controversial ingredient. This is what the say no to palm oil website has to say about it –

The industry is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations. According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This large-scale deforestation is pushing many species to extinction, and findings show that if nothing changes species like the orangutan could become extinct in the wild within the next 5-10 years, and Sumatran tigers less than 3 years.

Seventh Generation are avoiding paying for palm oil from newly cleared forests, however they are still adding to the demand for palm oil. I mentioned earlier that we have been using a mainstream washing up liquid, which also contains palm oil, which is not sustainably sourced. It also does not come in a recycled plastic bottle, so compared to that I would prefer to use the Seventh Generation washing up liquid. It isn’t an ideal solution though.

Product cleaning ability

Laundry detergent

I usually use balls to wash my clothes. I didn’t notice any benefit of using the detergent over the balls. The balls work out a lot cheaper and create less waste overall compared to buying bottles of laundry detergent.

The laundry detergent came in two different types of bottles as I mentioned earlier. One was a brown cardboard type material with a plastic bag inner and the other was a recycled plastic bottle. The cardboard one says it used a lot less plastic than the plastic one. While that is good, I found the liquid dripped onto the cardboard and I couldn’t clean it off as easily. The worry is that the bottle won’t last long if it gets damp or wet or squashed for any reason.  It was also hard to work out if I was pouring in the right amount of detergent as the level indicators are difficult to see.

Surface cleaner and glass cleaner spray bottles

I had two spray products to try. A surface cleaner and a glass cleaner. The surface cleaner had a bit of a losing battle because I don’t see the point of them. I usually clean surfaces with water and a cloth. I add a bit of vinegar or bicarbonate of soda for antibacterial action if needed.  The surface cleaner was not antibacterial and so I just didn’t feel like I needed it. I put it to the test though and cleaned out some cupboards. I wiped them with water, then I wiped them with the spray and couldn’t see the difference. The cupboards had loads of marks on them though which only disappeared when I wiped them with bicarbonate of soda. I also struggled to see the markings on the spray nozzle for spray and stop.

The window cleaning spray didn’t compare to the action of a microfibre cloth and water. (Although microfibre cloths are problematic as tiny plastic fibres leach into the water when they are washed). Again the markings on the nozzle were difficult to see.

Toilet cleaner

The final product I tried out was the toilet cleaner. I found the lid a bit confusing to start off with and took it off, instead of popping up the sticky out bit in the lid. When I took the lid off I dropped it down the toilet – doh! I was quite happy with it though once I had cleaned it up and worked it out, . My toilet wasn’t particularly dirty, but the cleaner worked OK. As this product is in a recycled bottle and the ingredients aren’t as harsh as bleach I would use this over mainstream toilet cleaners. There is no SLS in the toilet cleaner but the list of ingredients seemed less complicated than the other products.

I wouldn’t buy all the products, but I would consider buying the washing up liquid and toilet cleaner. Thanks to Seventh Generation for giving me their products to try out / sponsoring this post and for taking the environment into consideration when developing their products.

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Mr ETL found a company that would do a test patch for £30 and then if we went ahead and got them cleaned they would deduct the £30 from the final cost. We got the test patch done  and had a nice big clean patch in an otherwise filthy sofa. The clean patch convinced us to go the whole hog and then they were too busy to come back again to do the rest of it until after Christmas – oh well you can’t have everything :). Now however, the sofas look amazing!  In fact they look a bit like a teeth whitening advert (you know when the teeth are all white and shiny, except in this case they are sofas and cream coloured – I know what I mean ). We did notice that there were a
few patches that didn’t get picked up the first time round (it can be hard to
see how clean they are until fully dried), but they came back and went over them again and they got most of them. There were a few bits they just couldn’t do anything about, but overall they look a million times better than they did!

I just assumed that the cleaning solution wouldn’t be particularly eco-friendly and was going to deal with it in return for reviving the sofas, but that was where I was wrong – I totally underestimated my husbands powers of research! It turns out that the product they use to clean the sofas is completely non-toxic and fragrance free. Natural Carpet care is run by a father – Spencer Davies (pictured with me above) and his two sons – take a look at their website here. I discovered that Spencer is really into being eco-friendly – he’s a vegetarian, only drinks out of glass bottles and was really keen to try out this non-toxic cleaning product as soon as he heard about it.  As you can imagine we had a long chat – it was really nice to meet a local businessman who cares about the environment!

Spencer took a bit of footage of the sofas being cleaned so you can see for yourself how disgusting they were and how much cleaner they became.

We also took photos of one of the sofas – it was really awful, but thankfully looks much better now!

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I mentioned the other day that I wash my dishes with bicarbonate of soda.  

For some time I was washing them with a mixture of vinegar, lemon juice and salt.

I bought the above pictured shaker (I think it was meant for sprinkling flour and icing sugar over things) from one of my local shops before I gave up buying new stuff.  I did think that actually I should have bought a metal shaker, or that I could have just used a salt or pepper shaker or an old spice jar, but I didn’t have any going spare. 

There are so many uses of bicarbonate of soda – these are just a few when it is handy to be able to sprinkle it on things!

I am currently undertaking a Year of Eco Challenges . If you have a moment I would really appreciate it if you would consider sponsoring me with an action on my DoNation page. Also if you liked this post please click like on Facebook and follow on Twitter – thanks so much!

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Sometimes though some of those things are just calling out to be rescued.  Things like this toy that we found in the woods a while ago:

We took it home, washed it thoroughly and soaked it in vinegar for a couple of hours.  Then off it went to play.

Last week we found this leaf:

What do you think – would you have rescued these things, left them where they were or chucked them in the bin???

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Please note, that this blog post contains affiliate links which are marked with *. It won’t cost you anything extra to shop through them, but it will help to support the blog.

So you can imagine my excitement when Ecoforce sent me some of their range to review.  The range includes recycled dusters, multipurpose cloths, a clothes line, scourers,  sponges, ‘dishmatic’, clothes pegs and a peg basket.    

Ecoforce product review

Dishmatic – this is  a washing up sponge that dispenses washing up liquid through the handle.  I’m sure I’ve used less washing up liquid than I normally would using this brush. It was nice to know there is an eco-friendly alternative to the non-recycled  washing up brushes I usually use.  Two types of replacement heads are available for Dishmatic. A heavy duty and non-scratch. So far I have been very happy with the heavy duty one it came with. Replacing the heads means that the handle part can be reused again and again, which is great.   

Dusters and multi-purpose cleaning cloths. The dusters looked thin and flimsy and didn’t say they were able to be washed.  I gave one a tug and it wasn’t as flimsy as it looked.  Not sure how long they would last though.  The cleaning cloths on the other hand look more luxurious and can be washed at 40C. Recycled and re-usuable. Great!

Clothes line , clothes pegs and peg basket. More environmentally friendly and will save you money if you hang your clothes out to dry.  Add to that these products use recycled materials and you will definitely feel you are doing your bit for the environment! The spring system in the pegs won the Design Council Millennium Products Award as they are made from a single piece of plastic.  Ecoforce claim the pegs ‘are extremely tough and almost impossible to break’, so I had to have a go. The peg did break but I can see that they would unlikely to break during usual use.

Scourers – I tested one of the heavy duty scourers out on a filthy oven tray. The scourer survived to scrub another tray and seems to have plenty of life left in it yet! They also do non-scratch scourers similar to the replacement non-scratch  Dishmatic heads, which are for use on delicate surfaces and non-stick pans.  Probably best to try them out on an inconspicuous area first when using them on a new surface.  I found they were excellent for cleaning the grout in between my tiles in my shower.

Overall I thought the most of the products were of a good quality at a reasonable price.  I would definitely buy most of the products over similar less eco-friendly versions. Especially dishmatic, the peg basket, washing line, pegs, scourers and the multipurpose cloths.  Areas to improve include making the dusters washable and making the labelling on the non-scratch scourers more specific about the types of surfaces they can be used on.

Have you tried Ecoforce products?  I would love to hear your experiences with them and what you thought.

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I really don’t miss any of those chemical laden cleaning products at all. Most of the time I just use water and cleaning cloths.  For limescale removal I use lemon juice, for shining metal and glass I use e-cloths and that is pretty much it.

My only vice currently is bleach, which I still use down one of my toilets.  This is mainly because the flush isn’t very good and it seems to get very stained.  The flush on my other toilet is good and I don’t put any cleaning products down it – I can’t see the point!  Any recommendations for effective bleach alternatives are gratefully received!

I try to use a dustpan and brush wherever possible, limiting the use of the hoover and for spillages on the floor (of which we have lots with small children around) I am starting to use flannels and towels.
 I used to use kitchen roll which I swapped for towels for big spills and flannels for smaller ones.

I find it easier to clean as there is less equipment to lug around and it doesn’t pose any danger to my children. In fact my older son, loves using the water spray and cleaning the windows or the mirrors (or spraying water at me and his younger brother!).  I also feel happier that I am not polluting the surfaces and the air in my house with potentially harmful chemicals.

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1. This might seem like a strange question to some, however I have never really known why I use washing up liquid.  It is just something I have always done because I grew up with it.  It gave me a sense of reassurance that things were cleaned ‘properly’ when cleaned with washing up liquid.  I have now found out the scientific explanation for using washing up liquid and the answer is below in the answer to Q.2.
2. Shop bought washing up liquids often say they contain anionic surfactants and non-ionic surfactants.  Surfactants are used in washing up liquid as they have two ends to them.  One is attracted to water and the other to dirt and grease.  When added to water and agitated they pull the dirt and grease from your dirty dishes into the water, making cleaning easier. 

   Other common ingredients in washing up liquids include fragrances and preservatives.  Some even claim to have antibacterial action.  For more information on what I think about antibacterial cleaners, have a look at my previous post: https://ecothriftyliving.com/wp3/?p=751. 

   The problem I have is that I don’t know which surfactants, fragrances and preservatives are being used in many cases and whether they are good, bad or ugly.  Ecover claims it’s product is biodegrable and has a ‘minimum impact on aquatic life’, however that means it is still having some impact and I’m not sure how happy I am with that.   

3. Washing up liquid prices range from around £1.30 a litre to over £4.00 a litre depending on the brand and where you shop.  The most expensive brand tends to be the well known ones and the cheapest, the shops own label.  There are various ‘eco’ versions on the market, some of which are as follows: Ecover washing up liquid, Eco Cleanhome washing up liquid, Tesco Naturally washing up liquid, Asda Eco Friendly washing up liquid.  Many of these tend to be at the cheaper end of the scale and are often cheaper than Ecover.  I haven’t tried other brands, so I don’t know if they are any good or not.
4. There are various recipes for washing up liquid out there.  Today I had a go at making my own, but it wasn’t great as I made it far too runny and it wasn’t very good at tackling grease.  I didn’t follow a recipe though, so that might be why it wasn’t great! I basically combined some of my liquid hand soap that I had already made (see my previous post http://ecothriftyliving.blogspot.com/2011/07/make-soap-at-home.html ), with some warm water and vinegar.  It could potentially be cheaper than shop bought washing up liquid and more eco-friendly if I do get it right, so I will continue to experiment!
5. Having experimented by making my own washing up liquid that wasn’t very effective, I realised that sometimes you do need more than water to effectively wash up, but it doesn’t have to mean using washing up liquid.  Scrubbing brushes, scouring pads and microfibre washing up cloths can be used instead.  
6. The way forward for me is to try microfiber washing up cloths, scrubbing brushes and scouring pads. I will do that first, as if they are successful, they should provide a significant financial saving compared to purchasing washing up liquid.  If they are not successful, I will experiment further with homemade washing up liquid and if that isn’t successful, I will resort to a cheaper brand of ‘eco’ washing up liquid.  I am going to keep my mind open to other alternatives however and I am going to investigate the issue of microfiber cloths and other cleaning implements a little further, as although they may be more environmentally friendly in some ways, they are entirely man made and I have no idea how eco-friendly their production is.

For more information about the science behind surfactants have a look at Science in the Box.

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Microfibre cloths are great, but an old pair of socks will do. 

To stop using disposable wet wipes microfibre clothes have become a popular alternative.

While microfibre cloths are reusable, making them better than a single use cloth, they do still contain plastic. So they are a step in the right direction, they are not the perfect solution.

The most well known microfibre cloths are e-cloths, but they are quite expensive. There are cheaper alternatives out there for example, I bought a microfibre mop for £5 in Aldi. While the e-cloth version is £20. On the e-cloth website there is a calculator of how much they estimate you will save by buying their products. Think how much more you will save if you buy cheaper alternatives! I polished my mirrors and taps with a pair of old socks with a little water and they were just as clean as if I had used a microfibre cloth. They were however a little less smooth to use than the microfibre cloth.

Other green cleaning tips

Did you know that lemon juice is a great limescale remover and works fast on taps and sinks?  Make sure you test it on an inconspicuous area first to ensure it doesn’t remove more than you bargained for! Although I do use microfibre cloths (or old socks) I have not found them to be effective against limescale.  To tackle the limescale, I used to use Viakal Limescale Remover spray currently priced at £3.20 for 500ml in Sainsburys.  Lemon juice however is priced at around £1 for 500ml. It’s cheaper, effective, smells nicer, is edible (less worrying when cleaning with small children around). So I now use it for all my limescale removal needs.  

Bicarbonate of soda is a wonderful deodoriser and makes a great underarm deodorant. It is not an antiperspirant so doesn’t stop you sweating. But it does get rid of bodily odours fast and I have found that it lasts all day. Use it sparingly though as it is abrasive and will rub if too much is used. Also pour some into the bottom of your bin, as it will keep smells away. 

This post has been updated in Feb 2020 & all opinions are my own, thanks!

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I have decided to give away my chemical laden cleaning products
To replace them with items containing ingredients I can recognise and understand
In fact most of the ingredients will be edible
So I won’t be so afraid of them coming into contact with little hands

I’m excited about the idea that I can make alternatives at home
That are potentially safer and cheaper than I can buy in the shops
but I’m not sure yet what works best and when
So I’m going to test them out and will let you know which ones come out on top!

I am swapping:

Antibacterial cleaner for Water and lavender oil / vinegar
Toilet bleach for vinegar / lemon juice
Window cleaner for e-cloths and water
Bathroom and kitchen cleaner for e-cloths and water
Floor wipes and floor cleaning solutions for a steam cleaner.
Airfresheners and deodorisers (in the fridge/ bin/ dishwasher/ bathroom) for bicarbonate of soda / home made lavender pot pourri
Oven/ greasy stain remover for bicarbonate of soda (and other natural cleaners as necessary)

Any other ideas for natural/ edible cleaners are welcomed here.

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