News Information and Media Site: It's Day 5 of Goodful's 7-Day Guide to Creating Less Waste

Keeping A Clean Home

We all have that cleaning-obsessed friend who owns a different product to clean every stain, mess, or surface, and could tell you the pros and cons of every different brand's antibacterial wipes on command. I'm not here to drag that friend of yours (it might even be you, after all!), but I am here to tell you that your home can be just as clean as theirs, without the same amount waste.

Here are a few ideas that might help you cut down on waste, and chemicals, in your home:

1. Replace paper towel with washable cloths. According to the NRDC, if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees. Now imagine if we replaced all paper towel with washable cloths. So many saved trees!

2. Try making your own cleaning spray with vinegar and essential oil. There are a number of different cleaners you can make with a vinegar base; beyond being chemical-free, another perk is that vinegar and essential oils can both be purchased in recyclable glass.

3. If you're a newspaper subscriber, try making your own paper bin liner to replace plastic trash bags. When it comes to breaking up with plastic, one of the hardest thing to imagine parting with is trash bags. One solution, in lieu of going totally without a bag inside your bin, is to make a paper liner. If you're composting food waste, your trash should be mainly dry items that will be fine inside paper.

4. Go for laundry powder over pods and liquid products. As per usual, the option with the least plastic packaging is key. I particularly love this laundry soda that's sold in an adorable reusable tin.

5. Avoid buying dry clean-only clothes when you have other options. Not only is dry cleaning a hassle, expensive, and a very chemical-heavy process, it also involves a lot of hanger and plastic waste. If you need to dry clean a lot, return hangers to the cleaner to be re-used when you can, and see if your cleaner will let you use a reusable garment bag over disposable plastic ones.

6. The next time you go to buy cleaning products, consider trying out castile soap. Castile soap basically has a thousand uses, which means one plastic bottle can replace all the plastic bottles you were once buying different products in. You can use it to clean your dishes, floors, shower, pets, teeth (apparently!), body, hair, and hands. There's a reason Dr. Bronner's has a cult following, after all.

7. Make use of refillable containers to cut down on excess packaging and save money while you're at it. Buying bigger/bulk-sized items cuts down on plastic waste, so refill, refill, refill.

Feeling inspired to switch up your cleaning routine? Good! In tomorrow's newsletter I'm going to be talking holiday season, how to give low-waste gifts, and how to avoid getting given shit you don't need, or want. Until then, these posts have even more practical advice on how to keep your home just as green as it is clean:

11 Natural Cleaning Products That Basically Have A Cult Following

What Are Essential Oils And Why Are People So Into Them? A Guide

Here's How To Turn Citrus Peels And Leftover Herbs Into Garbage Disposal Cleaning Pods

And finally, here are some products people swear by:

This multi-purpose castile soap from Amazon for $15.99.

This laundry soda that comes in an incredibly cute tin from Amazon for $18.99.

And this vinegar spray from Amazon for $7.99.

Is there a product or cleaning hack you swear by? I'm sure there are a ton I haven't even heard about. If you've got something to share with the world, please feel free to tag me (@gyanyankovich) and Goodful (@goodful) on Instagram. You'd truly make my day!