The way we clean has a negative impact on our environment. And while a clean home isn’t negotiable, there are ways to keep it clean without the impact.
I have done a lot of research into the effects our cleaning routines have on our planet. And it didn’t come as a surprise to find out that the cleaning products we use are bad for the environment.
But it’s not just the cleaners we use. Our whole attitude to cleanliness has been hijacked by manufacturers of cleaning products who want us to buy more of their range.
So what is needed is a reset. Here we show you how to create an eco-friendly cleaning routine that will keep your home sparkling without impacting the environment. And you can even save money.
The Problem With Conventional Cleaning
Let’s first look at why our common cleaning practices have such a negative impact on our environment.
- Ingredients – the main reason cleaners are bad is what’s in them – mostly synthetic ingredients made from petrochemicals that are harmful to aquatic life (Edwards et al., 2023, Lee et al., 2022, Fair et al., 2009, Acir et al., 2018, Ding et al., 2023)
- Microplastics – many cleaning products contain plastic, which is absorbed by many marine organisms, causing them potenital harm (Baalkhuyur et al., 2018, Hernandez-Gonzales et al., 2018, Provencher et al., 2020)
- Single-use – for convenience, we use single-use products, such as cleaning wipes, which create a lot of waste
- Plastic packaging – the vast majority of cleaning products come packaged in plastic, which is predominantly made from fossil fuels and not always recyclable
- Plastic cleaning tools – the tools we use, such as sponges, are made of plastic, which contribute to plastic waste and the release of microplastics
- Overuse of disinfectants – we are so scared of germs that we use disinfectants way too much, which scientists think leads to antimicrobial resistance, which is bad for us and the environment (Lue and Guo, 2021)
Find out more in our article about how cleaning products are bad for the environment.
Now that we know what the problems are, let’s look at what we can do to mitigate them by changing the way we clean our homes.
7 Steps To Create A Sustainable Cleaning Routine
The steps we describe here are based on finding solutions to the problems we have outlined above and our own experience of changing our cleaning practices.
One of the side effects of creating a green cleaning routine is that you can save money, which, let’s face it, is never a bad thing.
So, let’s get to it and clean up (see what I did there?) our cleaning routine.
Step 1: Use Fewer Products
How many cleaning products do you have? The answer is likely quite a few. Probably a bathroom and a kitchen cleaner, a floor cleaner, a window and mirror cleaner, a duster, a toilet cleaner, a shower screen cleaner, an oven cleaner, an air freshner, etc.
What’s the problem with having so many cleaners?
- The more cleaners you use, the larger the amount of synthetic chemicals you use – each cleaner will have a wide host of harmful synthetic ingredients, such as surfactants and preseratives
- The more cleaning products you have, the more plastic waste you produce – most cleaners come in plastic, not all of which is recyclable
Not to speak of saving you money, especially because many of those specialised cleaners are more expensive. You’ll also save on space in your under the sink cupboard, which is alsways a nice bonus.
The thing is, the vast majority of these specialised cleaners aren’t necessary. They haven’t been brought to market because they are needed but for economic reasons.
If you buy several different cleaners from a company you spend more money than if you only buy one all-purpose one. Think back to your grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ time, when they didn’t have all these fancy special cleaning products.
They didn’t think they needed them until adverts told them so. This is how our consumerist society works. Rather than trying to solve an existing problem from consumers, marketing strategies focus on creating the need that a certain product can then meet.
So let’s step back and look critically at what we need for a clean home.
An all-purpose cleaner can be used for the majority of cleaning tasks. Wether this is cleaning the bathroom, the kitchen, the windows, the floors, or to dust. You can replace quite a few cleaners with only one, saving money and the envrionment.
We use our all-purpose cleaner for most things inside and it works great. It leaves our windows streak-free, our kitchen tops clean, and our bathroom spotless. We also use it to dust and it works just as well as a specialised duster.
Once you have an all-purpose cleaner for most of your cleaning task you can look at which of the specialised cleaners you actually need:
- Toilet cleaner – cleaning the toilet bowl needs a cleaner that works in water to get rid of limscale
- Limescale remover – if you live in a hard water area, this is a type of cleaner that can be useful, for taps especially
- Washing-up liquid and/or dishwasher tablets – cleaning dishes should be done with a cleaner that is safe for dishes from which you’ll eat
- Floor cleaner – unless you can use your all-purpose cleaner, if it comes as a concentrate (like ours)
This is based on our experience and needs. Of course, you circumstances might be different, but it might give you an idea on what your cleaning cubpoard could look like.
What’s important is that you find what works for you. So just give it a go and see which cleaners you could ditch. Even if you feel you can only let go of one or two, it will make a difference.
Step 2: Look At Your Cleaning Frequency
How often do you clean? Some of us have grown up with mothers who cleaned every day. And many of us kept it up, because that’s just what you do. But do we need to clean daily, or even weekly?
I’m not saying you don’t need to clean at all, it’s all just a big hoax and dirt doesn’t exist. I wish! Of course it’s important to keep our homes clean and hygenic. But we don’t have to go overboard with it.
If we clean less, we use cleaning products less, which will reduce our impact on the environment. What the cleaning frequency looks like in your home will depend on what you feel comfortable with.
The key is finding a balance between what is necessary and what you can live with. Assessing risk also has to play a part, because hygine is important.
For example, I wipe over our kitchen worktops and hob every day, because we use them daily to cook. Potential harmful bacteria can thrive in dirt, so it’s important to get rid of it in an area you prepare food. A deep clean of the kitchen only happens every fortnight.
Our bathroom we only clean every other week, because it’s not necessary to clean it more often, in my opinion.
Dusting and vacuuming also only happens every other week in our household. And I’m not ashamed to say that we only clean our windows a few times a year. Despite cleaning less than we used to, our home is clean and hygenic.
This frequency might not work for you. If someone in your houshold has a dust mite alergy, you might have to dust and vacuum more often.
What we have to remember is that we don’t want to live in a completely sterile environment. Microbes, good and bad, are part of our lives and we have to be exposed to them. Ideally, only on a low level for the bad ones.
But we don’t live in a hospital, where many harmful viruses and bacteria swirl around, so we don’t have to clean our homes from top to bottom every day.
Find a balance that works for you and your family. You might even gain more time to spend with loved ones.
Step 3: Consider Carefully When To Use Disinfectants
We have already said that we can’t live in a completely sterile environment. Yet, many people use harsh disinfectants, such as bleach, on a regular basis to rid their homes of nasty germs.
But bleach is a chlorine-based disinfectant, which has a huge negative impact on our environment. Several studies have shown that it is toxic to aquatic life, as well as soil organisms and plants. (Parveen et al, 2022)
The problem with all disinfectants is that they kill all microorganisms, whether they are chlorine- or alcohol based, or any other type of disinfectant.
So not just the phatogens, the ones that could do us harm, but all others. This will reduce the mircobiota, which will destroy the natural balance.
Given how important the relationship between microorganisms with plants and amnimals, including us, is, this could have huge consequences. (Sarsan et al., 2020)
While the use of disinfectants are necessary in some settings, such as medical and health care environments, in our homes, we need to be more moderate with our use of these toxic chemcials.
We have been taught to fear germs, and the pandemic has increased this fear, but we need these mircoroganisms in our lives. Even the bad ones, as they will encourage our bodies to produce antibodies to deal with infections and keep us save.
And yes, a home should be hygenic, but not sterile. So next time you are considering using a disinfecting or sanitising product, stop and think. Do you really need to use it?
I don’t use any disinfectants in our home, partly because we have a septic tank, but also because I don’t want to kill all microgarnisms in our home, because they are necessary for us and the environment.
Find Your Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products Quiz
Answer 5 simple multiple choice questions and get a personal recommendation:
Step 4: Move Away From Harsh Chemicals
To next step to create an eco-friendly cleaning routine is to move away from cleaning products with harsh and harmful chemicals. As we have seen, the ingredients used in most common cleaners are the main reason why they are bad for the environment.
And if you’re now worried that cleaners without harsh chemicals won’t to a good job, think again. A study has shown that the use of eco-friendly cleaning products was just as effective, if not more so, than their traditional equivalents. (Fontana et al., 2025)
You have two options: you can make your own cleaners using a few simple, natural ingredients, or you can buy eco-friendly cleaning products from businesses that put sustainability at the centre of their operations.
Make Your Own Natural Cleaning Products
This isn’t as difficult as you might think and you only need a few ingredients, some of which you micht already have in your home. All you need is:
- White vinegar – distilled from of vinegar
- Baking soda – also called bicarbonate of soda
- Citric acid – the substance that makes lemons sour
- Tabel salt – the one you use to season your food
- Tap water – to mix with the other ingredients
- Essential oils (optional) – to give your cleaners a scent if you want
All of these natural ingredients are easily available and none of them are toxic ingredients. White vinegar itself can be used as an all-purpose cleaner alone or in combination with citric acid.
My personal favourite is baking soda, because it has so many uses. I use it as a cleaning paste for tough stains on clothes or dishes. Add salt for even more cleaning power.
Mixed with water in a spray bottle, it becomes a refresher spray for furniture, cat or dog beds, and clothes.
Citric acid is a great limescale remover and I use it regularly to descale our kettle. Living in a very hard water area, this is necessary to extend the life of our kettle.
We’ve put together a list of our favourite DIY cleaners, to help others to embrace green cleaning with natural homemade cleaning solutions. Natural cleaning doens’t have to be a faff.
You can even make your own 100% natural laundry detergent. All you need is conkers (yes the humble horse chestnut) and boiling water. Read our guide about making laundry detergent with conkers to find out how to do it.
Switching To Eco-Friendly Cleaners
But if your busy life just won’t allow you to make your own green cleaners, you can buy eco-friendly cleaning products.
So what’s important when switching to eco-friendly cleaning products?
- Choose a sustainable company – you want a company that puts sustainability first and only makes eco-friendly products
- Non-harmful ingredients – eco-friendly cleaners should only contain ingredients that aren’t harmful to our environment, ideally natural, but at least plant-based and biodegradable
- Sustainable packaging – your green cleaners should come in eco-friendly packaging, ideally plastic-free and zero-waste
Ideally, you want to buy from a company that is UK-based or at leaste in Europe and produce their products and source their ingredients as close to home as possible. This will ensure your eco-friendly cleaning products have as low an environmental impact as possible.
We have tried and tested many sustainabel cleaning products and share our experience with them on our best eco-friendly cleaners page.
Top Rated Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products:
| Cleaning Products | Value For Money | Effectiveness | Ease Of Use | My Rating | Review | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Outstanding | Excellent | Great | 4.90 | Review | Visit |
 | Outstanding | Excellent | Great | 4.90 | Review | Visit |
 | Great | Outstanding | Excellent | 4.87 | Review | Visit |
Step 5: Reduce Plastic Packaging
As we have seen, plastic packaging is another reason why conventional cleaning products have a negative impact on our environment. Look in your cupboard which holds your cleaning products, what do you see?
The chances are, you see plastic bottle after plastic bottle. And while some of these will be recycable, it doesn’t mean this is sustainable. Plastic can only be recycled two to three times, before its quality is too bad to reuse it.
So it will end up in landfill sooner or later. Compare this with metal or glass, which can be recycled indefinitely. So we can’t recycle our way out of the plastic waste crisis we are facing.
The other issue is that we don’t have the facilities to recycle every plastic item that is technically recycable. We just use too much of it. We have to wean ourselves off our plastic addiction.
In light of all this, reducing the amount of plastic packaging we buy is a crucial step to live a more sustainable life. So what’s the alternative? Well, there are actually a few:
- Zero-waste, plastic-free packaging – this the gold standard and could be glass, metal, or cardboard that can be recycled and is made from recycled materials
- Refillable options – buying refills and reusing a spray or pump bottle, with refill packaging being sent back to be washed and reused or refills coming in plastic-free, zero-waste packaging
- 100% recycled consumer plastic packaging – plastic packaging that uses only recycled plastic and can be recyled again
- Recyclable plastic packaging for concentrated prodcuts – while far from ideal, if concentrated cleaning products come in concentrated packaging, you’ll have to buy less often, saving plastic bottles compared to diluted cleaners
Truly sustainable companies will have thought through their packaging and will offer a sustainable solution. If you have followed the previous steps, you will probably already have reduced the amount of plastic packaging in your cleaning routine.
But the start of living a sustainable life is awareness, which allows you to make conscious choices. So keep packaging in mind when choosing eco-friendly cleaning products.
Step 6: Switch To Eco-Friendly Cleaning Tools
Cleaners are only one part of a cleaning routine. You also need tools, such as sponges, clothes, and the like. Today, most cleaning tools we use are made of plastic. Surprise, surprise.
The worst one we use regularly is probably the sponge. Plastic sponges have a huge impact on our environment.
Well, technically they are made of polyurethane, which isn’t plastic in chemical terms. But it’s made of polymers that are also the basis of plastic. And they are made of fossil fuels. (Kaikabe and Sabnis, 2022)
And like plastics, these sponges shed tiny particles every time they are used, which have the same impact as microplastics.
These tiny plasticy particles are ingested by a wildlife. Researches have found them in many different species, as we have already mentioned earlier.
One major problem with sponges is that they aren’t recyclable and end up in landfill. Polyurethane also isn’t biodegradable, which means it will persist for a long long time, continuing to shed microplastics.
And now think how many of these sponges are used daily? In certain cases, such as washing-up sponges, we replace them regularly. Many people get a new sponge out every week or at least every other week.
That’s so many plastic sponges that are thrown away continuously. So what can be done?
Switch to cleaning tools thar aren’t made of plastic and that can be reused. The best switch I ever made in this respect was to compostable sponges. They are made from cellulose, which are natural fibres, that feel and work like a sponge, but are plastic-free.
The best thing about them is that you can pop them in the washing machine or dishwasher to refresh them. This means you can use them for much longer. My compostable washing-up sponge lasts over three months.
And once I’m done with it, I can cut it up and add it to our compost heap, where it will decompose and turn into nutrients for our garden plants. Fantastic!
You don’t have to compromise on performance either, because compotable sponges work just as well as conventional sponges.
So whenever, possible switch to eco-friendly cleaning tools.
Step 7: Stop Using Single-Use Items
Many of us use single-use cleaning items, such as wipes, because they are convenient. Whether this is to dust, clean floors, or wipe surfaces.
They save time and make cleaning easier, I get it. But at what cost for our environment?
Single-use items create a huge amount of waste. And according to one study, almost 66% of all plastic we produce has a short life span, which means they are single-use or are only used for a short amount of time. (Panda et al., 2009)
Wipes of all kind are in this group waste. The vast majority are made of plastic, which will take hundreds of years to break down. They shed microfibres, which, like microiplastics, get ingested by wildlife. (Zhang et al., 2021)
And cleaning wipes will also be soaked in cleaning products, which will contain the same ingredients as conventional cleaners. These synthetic ingredients are harmful to aquatic life, as we have already pointed out.
So it’s much better to use a reusable cloth, ideally made from natural fibres, such as cotton or bamboo, to clean your home. These can be washed and reused for a long time.
Another single-use item often used for cleaning is kitchen role. True, it’s not made of plastic, but you still throw it away once you’ve wiped your kitchen top with it.
Technically, you can compost paper towels, but only if they are clean and haven’t been used with sythetic cleaners.
I have knitted my own reusable “paper” towels, using 100% organic cotton wool. They can be washed and reusused and work great to clean or wipe spills.
If you aren’t handy with a needle, you can buy reuseable kitchen roll, that is made from natural fibres and can be washed and used again and again.
It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint
Creating an eco-friendly cleaning routine isn’t difficult. All it needs is willingness to make changes, a bit of time and effort, and patience.
Curcially, you don’t have to make all these changes at once. You can take one step at a time and make it work around your busy life.
It’s also not about being perfect. Every change you make will make a difference. Just do what you can and what works for you.
So give it a go and create your green cleaning routine in 7 steps. But remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
