Green cleaning Natural cleaning products
Clean your home the old fashioned way, using green and natural cleaning remedies made from everyday items in your kitchen cupboard that will get your home gleaming.
By doing this you'll create less waste packaging - and, especially if you already have them hanging about the house, there's less environmental impact from transportation and production.
Vinegar
Known for Being an all-round versatile natural cleaner.
Its acidity makes it perfect for killing bacteria and germs, and it can be mixed with various other natural cleaning products for a shiny and environmentally friendly cleaning result. In all cases make sure you use white distilled vinegar, not malt vinegar!
Did it work? It may smell, but cleans kitchens and bathrooms well. It was excellent on all stains and surfaces except burnt-on pasta sauce when it took fewer sprays but more effort to clean than other products.
Lemons and lemon juice
Known for Its effective natural cleaning powers – it's a natural bleaching agent and disinfectant.
You can clean kitchen tops and remove limescale from taps by rubbing with lemon juice, then rinsing with water. Or mix up a paste of lemon juice, baking soda and warm water to clean the oven hob.
Did it work? Our quick test found that lemon juice certainly cleaned up kitchen counter tops well and left a fresh smell. Make sure you rinse well, though, as the lemon juice leaves a sticky finish otherwise.
Salt
Known for Its natural cleaning properties. Salt dissolved in white vinegar creates a good all-round household cleaner that can be used on tiles, glass and sinks, for example.
Did it work? Salt dissolved in vinegar worked well as a multi-surface cleaner – but the smell of vinegar afterwards was quite overpowering.
Baking soda
Known for Its versatile cleaning and deodorising properties.
Baking soda, when mixed with lemon juice, white wine vinegar or even water, creates a hard-working paste perfect for stain removal and all-purpose cleaning around your home.
Unclog your sink by mixing half a cup of baking soda with half a cup of white vinegar and pouring down the sink followed by boiling water. Or use with lemon juice and warm water to clean the hob or inside your oven.
Baking soda is also well known for its ability to absorb and neutralise odours – try placing half a cup into your dishwasher between loads, or sprinkle onto carpets and leave for half an hour before vacuuming to remove unwanted smells.
Did it work? Yes. During out testing, we found that a mixture of baking powder and water (or white wine) tackled a red wine carpet stain well.
Newspapers can be recycled and turned into new ones in a week
Newspaper
Known for Its unlikely ability to shine and clean windows and mirrors.
Simply wash your windows with a mixture of warm water with a drop of vinegar, then wipe dry with scrunched up newspaper - using some good old fashioned elbow grease - until the glass is sparkling.
Did it work? This old-fashioned method worked a treat on our tester's windows. Again, there was a slight vinegar odour left behind afterwards.
