It’s time to dish the dirt on cleaning. Let’s face it, it’s a necessary evil that no-one really enjoys. The November goal in our Year of monthly waste reduction goals is to reduce waste in our cleaning products. Today’s post will focus on how you can green your cleaning routines and adopt sustainable methods that will reduce waste, protect your family’s health, and save you time and money.

This post was originally published in November 2020 and updated in January 2023.

Three ways to green your cleaning routines

 When it comes to reducing waste in cleaning, you really have three options.

• Make your own cleaners at home. Many zero-waste experts swear you can make just about anything. I’m not a big fan of DIY, mainly because I just don’t have time. I have two rules for DIY cleaners and personal care products. First, can I make it in less than 10 minutes? Second, do I already have all the ingredients in my home? With that in mind, I think you’ll love my DIY toilet cleaner. You’ll find the details below.
• Use your own containers and buy cleaning products in bulk at a store like Molloy’s, one of my favourite local small businesses. This is my preferred option because I find it saves me time, and money.
• Instead of buying specialized cleaners for different tasks, look for multi-purpose solutions. Castile soap is a great example of a single product that can be used for everything from skin car to washing floors. It’s highly concentrated so a single container goes a long way.

Roundup of my favourite cleaning solutions

I’ve written a lot about eco-friendly cleaning in the past. Here is a roundup of some earlier posts to give you some ideas.

Chemical-Free Cleaning

Sustainable cleaning is about more than just reducing waste. Many everyday cleaning products are full of harmful chemicals. We don’t need these chemicals in our water supply, and you definitely don’t want them on your body or in the air you breathe.

Be a smart consumer and know what’s in the products you buy! Take a look at Chemical-free cleaning for seven things to watch for when buying cleaning supplies.

Laundry

In one of my earliest posts, I discussed how I’ve totally eliminated waste and chemicals from my laundry routines. Check out Easy tips for zero-waste laundry days for details.

Window Cleaning

Take a look at Easy Window Cleaning – With No Chemicals to learn how I reduce waste, and save time and money, on window cleaning. And I get sparkly windows with no streaks!

Toilets

Ugh. This is definitely the least pleasant of all cleaning tasks. This easy DIY toilet cleaner passes both of my tests for homemade cleaning products. You can find the simple recipe in Easy 4-Ingredient DIY Toilet Cleaner.

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Dusting

I haven’t bought furniture polish in years and I don’t miss it. Dusting mitts and my microfibre dusting wand do the trick with no need for additional product or chemicals. And the dusting wand makes it easy to clean hard-to-reach places like under furniture.

Cleaning will always be a chore

I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where I can say I enjoy cleaning. But, at least I can take some comfort in knowing that I’m minimizing the environmental impact.

I hope you’ve found something here you can use to make your household cleaning more sustainable.

What have you done to green your cleaning routines? Tell us below.