Following on from my successful “Use it Up” campaign for beauty products – most of my cosmetics now fits in the bathroom cabinet with only one box in my cupboard, I do not take freebies from hotels, I don’t buy stuff just to have it – I’m moving onto cleaning products.
Here’s all the various products we have.
This lot I bought to make my own cleaning products. I have made various homemade products. They can be cheaper. With essential oils they can smell nice. Clove oil is meant to kill mould – so good for the bathroom whereas bleach just whitens the mould so it is still there but you don’t see it growing away happily. Word of advice, follow Shannon Lush’s recipe. I misread it as made it too strong. Ooo, the smell lasted months.
Gumption is my go to cleaner for bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, cleaning door frames and doors and other painted surfaces. It really is magic. But do I need three. I had four but decanted one half used lot into another almost empty one as the container had split. And I use shampoo on my shower screens – gentle, sweet smelling and awesome at getting soap scum off and the glass to sparkle. I also use shampoo in the basin to great sparkly effect.
Other general cleaning products. I have taken to diluted sugar soap. It is great for walls and wooden doorways and doors. I never really used the patio cleaner because it didn’t work. Domestos is my fav for the loo and when the mould takes over he shower. I made my own window cleaner to replace the one in the black glass cleaner spray. I seem to recollect it is just sugar soap and water.
Specialised floor and carpet cleaners. I know these are a take but I like the smell. Actually I don’t like the smell of this one but Mr S bought it so I will use it up before purchasing my favourite one. We have one rug. It started to get a manky smell and a bit dirty so I bought a carpet cleaning powder. What a take! Yes it scented the carpet but it really did nothing but I used it up anyway. Bicarb would probably do the same. And years ago Mr S bought this spray for when one of our dogs vomited in his car. (Our dogs have been gone for over 10 years.)
Laundry products. We used to soak cloth nappies and whites. And I use to add Napisan into my general wash. Now I just buy a good detergent and have a good machine. So these will hang around for ages. Unless I start multi-purposing them. I hate fabric softeners. They are just artificial smelly things that clog your machine. But Mr S liked them. He’s stopped using them except for some winter moleskin pants. We also have delicates and black wash. I very rarely use pre-wash stain removers.
As to ironing aids, I couldn’t be bother spraying things. More smell. More effort. I don’t know how I ended with this. I think a friend “gifted” it to me as she decluttered her home. I have a super steam iron so I really don’t need this.
Leather cleaning products for the lounges. These will last for ever as I rarely use them. I think they came with purchase of lounges. The white tub has oil or cloves and is apparently good for hand bags and shoes to stop mould. But I found I don’t want my handbags smelling of cloves! (I stuck another container of sugar soap in this shot as I found it while looking for my leather products.)
Bees wax was for skin amd for wood polish but I am mixing it up with a commercial product to occasionally polish the wooden furniture we have. One its own the bees wax is too gluggy and leaves sticky spots that attract and trap dust.
Car cleaning products. Who am I kidding? We don’t wash our cars. Drive through and the rare car cleaning place. But detergent’s detergent, right?
In the kitchen is washing up liquid (which I also use for generally cleaning), tablets for the machine and bleach which I use on the sink occasionally. (Used after gumption, it makes the sink shine.). I also use it to clean the cloths and sponge and get rid of musty smells in them.
Some of these products have been hanging around in my laundry for years. So no buying new stuff, until I use up all the existing products. There will be some exceptions of course, dishwashing liquid and tablets for the dishwashing machine and washing powder for the laundry. But for general cleaning – bathrooms, toilets, walls, windows, things – I will use it up. And then simplify the number of products I have.
My god I have enough chemicals here to breach the Geneva Convention.
I also have a host of microfibre and other cloths that apparently don’t need detergents or chemicals. They may work for those who wipe every day but as a more lacksadaysical haphazard cleaner, I need some grim cutting powerso I use them with gentle cleaners such as gumption. Here’s some of my clothes (I also have a tonne of cut up sheets and t-shirts.)
What about you? What’s lurking in your cabinets? So you use the same products and find others languish in the cupboard? Do you go through products quickly or are you like me, more an occasional cleaner who can live with a bit of dirt? I don’t use anti-bacterial products. Where do you stand on those?
lucinda sans 