By Dionne Stroebel
Cleaning. An evil necessity. I’ve heard that some people like it (though I don’t personally know anyone who does). The worst job for me is bathrooms. I live in a household where I am the only female. Enough said.
I don’t actually mind cleaning too much (apart from this business of it having to be done EVERY week). What I really hate is the harsh chemical smell of the products, delightfully described as “natural meadow-fresh” or “fragrant potpourri”. I’m sure there are no meadows within sniffing distance of the factories they are made in! And (with my old lady glasses on to read the small print) I have no idea what any of the ingredients are, and what they do in the cleaning process, let alone what they might do to our bodies.
We layer our homes in different forms of these chemicals: toilet cleaner, shower scrub, tile spray, surface cleaner, drain cleaner, carpet freshener, room spray, oven cleaner, laundry detergent, softener, dishwasher powder…That’s a lot of bottles. And, come to think of it, a lot of money and toxins going down the drain!
We want to simplify the process, use fewer cleaning products, and make sure the ones we use are friendlier to us, our home and the environment.
Here are some of our favourite BLANTs NZ multi-purpose cleaners; all natural, cheap, and capable of conquering many different jobs around the house, so you free up space in your cupboards too.
Organic Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) – the queen of clean! Use it as a gentle scrub on bathroom and kitchen surfaces; watch the bubbly fun of mixing it with vinegar to clean drains; get the satisfaction of watching a burnt pan come good again with some bicarb and hot water; easily wipe off caked on food splatters inside your microwave; clean the oven without fainting at the fumes; neutralise nasty niffs in your fridge/bin/lunch boxes/sports mad sons’ shoes/cat litter tray, and much more.
See next page for more, including a discount code for our readers!
