So you’ve been trying hard to eat clean and reduce the additives and toxins in your diet, but are you cleaning clean?
In this blog episode I’ll introduce the concept of “Clean Cleaning” with you and share how cleaning with foods is the best waste-free, safe, and natural way to clean your home.
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You may not be aware of it, but the typical unassuming suburban home has hundreds, if not thousands, of chemicals under its roof, just in the cleaning products that are applied every day to windows, floors, toilets, bathrooms, carpets, furniture, crockery, glasses, clothes … even the air we breathe (!).
Just like eating the junkiest junk food, using these products to clean our home can make us feel like crap and even worse, significantly impact our health and that of our environment.
Of course, many of us are already aware of this and have no problems splurging on luxe eco cleaners which have a much safer, and typically shorter, list of ingredients. But we pay a premium price for these and are still stuck with a specific cleaning product for every cleaning application (which isn’t a win on the clutter front) …. plus the container it came in.
Surely there’s a better way to clean? A waste-free way, using safe and natural ingredients that don’t cost a bomb?
Well there is…. and I call it Clean Cleaning.
What is Clean Cleaning?
Where green cleaning uses natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products (that may or may be commercially produced), clean cleaning takes it another step again.
I coined the phrase clean cleaning to describe cleaning the way nature intended; it’s waste-free and toxin-free cleaning.
You actually have almost everything you need on hand to make your home spick and span, without dosing your living environment with nasty chemicals, and these trusty toxin-free cleaning products are right in front of your eyes, each and every time you open your pantry.
They were the cleaners our great grandmothers used to clean their homes. They did the job then, and they still do the job now.
I’m talking food that doubles as a powerful natural cleaning agent. Clean cleaning is the most environmentally-friendly form of cleaning as it repurposes foods you have on hand to clean your home.
What Foods Can Be Used For Cleaning Purposes?
There are many different foods that can be used for household cleaning.
Foods like lemons, olive oil, vinegar, salt and baking soda are well known and accepted. But did you know you can even use honey, raw rice, walnuts and even banana peel to clean your home?
3 Easy Ways to Clean With Foods
To get you started on your clean cleaning journey here’s three of my favourite ways to clean with foods from your pantry.
(1) Remove soap scum from a bath tub by sprinkling bi-carb soda (baking soda) on a damp cloth and wiping the surface. Rinse and dry with a separate cloth.
(2) For some reason many kids love putting stickers all over the house. To easily remove stickers from a solid surface, pour some olive oil onto a cloth and dab onto the sticker to wet it. Let it sit for a minute or two before removing the sticker from the surface. If there’s some gum remaining, you can easily remove this with fresh lemon juice (just be sure to patch test on the surface first).
(3) White vinegar is a popular home cleaner and for good reason. It’s widely available, economical and safe to use around the home. I have many favourite uses for vinegar but my no.1 is for cleaning mirrors and windows. Simply spray with a 50:50 mixture of white vinegar to water and wipe clean with either newspaper or a cloth.
Want To Learn More About Clean Cleaning?
If you’re keen to learn more about cleaning with food, join my FREE 5-day Clean Cleaning Challenge! Every day throughout the challenge I demonstrate a different food that you can use to clean your home and share my favourite tips and recipes with you.
So if you’re ready to re-purpose your pantry staples into trusty home cleaners that’ll make it super easy for you to say YES to a healthier you, a healthier home and a healthier planet jump on board here.
Regardless if you join me for my FREE 5-day Clean Cleaning Challenge, I hope today’s episode has made you think a little differently about the products you use to clean your home. By switching out some commercial cleaning products for food you’re taking one more step towards making green mainstream.
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Laura Trotta is one of Australia’s leading home sustainability experts. She has a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering, a Masters of Science (in Environmental Chemistry) and spent 11 years working as an environmental professional before creating her first online eco business, Sustainababy, in 2009. She has won numerous regional and national awards for her fresh and inspiring take on living an ‘ecoceptional’ life (including most recently winning the Brand South Australia Flinders University Education Award (2015) for the north-west region in SA and silver in the Eco-friendly category of the 2015 Ausmumpreneur Awards). With a regular segment on ABC Radio and with her work featured in publications like Nurture Parenting and My Child Magazine, Laura is an eco thought leader who’s not afraid to challenge the status quo. A passionate believer in addressing the small things to achieve big change, and protecting the planet in practical ways, Laura lives with her husband and two sons in outback South Australia. 
