Cleaning and Housekeeping

Here are a few changes we have made at home to be more plastic free in the cleaning and home management department.

Laundry

For washing clothes we use big boxes of powder from the normal supermarkets as they come in cardboard and last a long time. I also keep some eco eggs to use for those occasions when we have run out. I use an old fabric conditioner bottle and refill it at Mission Green with SESI fabric conditioner. When the weather is nice I also try to dry it outside to limit carbon emissions.

Dish washing

We have a dishwasher which we use daily as well as some occasional handwashing for larger or more delicate items. Going plastic free was a bit tricky as most things like sponges, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets, salt and rinse aid all came in plastic but we were able to find some good alternatives.

We are still making our way through the plastic sponges that we already had but I bought a few compostable alternatives for washing dishes. The coconut fiber scrub pad from Boobalou is good for scrubbing muddy vegetables and tough dirt on pans and dishes. The bottle brush I got from Peace with the Wild has been essential for cleaning out the bottle where I store vegan milk as well as water bottles. We have a large bottle of washing up liquid for daily use and a spare one which I refill at mission green with SESI washing up liquid once its been emptied into the one we use regularly.

It took a bit of research but I found plastic free dishwasher tablets by EcoLeaf. They have a soluble wrapper and come in a cardboard box. They are available from Ethical Superstore. Dishwasher salt is available in a cardboard box from Waitrose and I get rinse aid as a refill from Mission Green using an old bottle.