Ask Mum Now - hints and tips and solutions » eco-friendly

Home-made cleaning products

admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:59:13 +0000

If you think about it, there are a number of commercial cleaning products on the market that include these ingredients eg household cleaner with baking soda or lemon (citric) along with the slogans clean and whiten or cut grease. Well it’s because they have woken up to the power of green advertising. But they just add these natural ingredients to the chemicals in the product, they don’t replace the chemicals, unless they are selling eco-friendly products.

So go for it make your own. It only takes a few minutes – and check out the size of your supermarket bill. If you don’t have a food processor you can use any other kitchen equipment with cutting blades. Or you can save electricity as well and use a fine hand grater for the soap and crush the washing soda crystals to a powder with a rolling pin or well sealed glass jar or bottle filled with water or sand.

We’ve got some ideas for you for dishwasher powder, laundry powder, household cleaner

Save energy in your bathroom #3

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:48:20 +0000

Have an egg timer in the shower to help children to limit the length of time they spend under the shower.

Save energy in your bathroom #2

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:04:43 +0000

Heated towel rail

If you have a heated towel rail, turn it on a few hours before you have a bath or shower so you have a warm towel to dry yourself adn turn it off again afterwards. It is energy wasteful to leave the towel rail on 24 hours a day.

Save energy in your bathroom #1

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:57:36 +0000

Save electricity in your bathroom by having the fan linked to the light and on a timer. So when you turn the light off after your shower, the fan will stay on and continue to remove moisture from the bathroom. Best of all, you don’t have to remember to turn it off later. The timer should be set to turn the fan off 10-15 minutes after the light is turned off.

Eco friendly cork mud matt

admin — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:23:13 +0000

Corks from wine bottles have long been used for home decorating. Pin boards made from bottle corks has hung on many a wall. To build up a collection of corks you may have to drink a lot of wine, or you can ask restaurants to keep them for you. If you live near a winery then you may have a good source, even in these days of screw capped wine.

This video from Michelle Kaufmann of Green it Yourself shows how to use corks to make an eco-friendly mud mat for your entranceway to store dirty or wet footwear.