Sustainable cleaning: How we reduce waste at home

I think in the UK, spring is the time for deep cleaning, isn’t it?

In Japan, that would be the end of the year. Before welcoming the new year, we should deep clean our house(or workplace). It’s as if a VIP guest was coming, so we must clean up.

But I don’t want to buy strong chemicals to make my house clean and shiny since we have a dog and generally dislike using them. We can actually clean things with something we already have at home, so there's no extra cost!

How about discarding items? It’s a shame to just throw them away. Bringing them to a local charity shop is a great idea. If you want to make a small profit, you can start thinking about using an app to sell items. You can also get something you want, sometimes even a brand-new one, cheaper.

So today, I am talking about:

  • Deep clean around the sink or bathroom without strong chemicals.
  • Discard whatever we don’t need before buying new items, then look at the secondhand market.

Speaking of reducing waste, I will also show you how to use the food compost bin we’ve introduced in our previous articles. Our garden is small, but this compost bin is too, so it’s convenient and eco-friendly!

Are you ready for an eco-friendly end-of-the-year cleaning? Let’s go!

Say goodbye to limescale and stains with these two simple ingredients 

When cleaning the sink or bathroom, we use a mix of bicarbonate soda and vinegar instead of the strong chemical cleaning spray from the supermarket. We buy them in bulk to save bottles and containers.

To be safe, please wear gloves and ventilate well by opening the windows when trying this method.

This is how I use it to clean the sink

  1.  Sprinkle some bicarbonate of soda on the sink and spray vinegar. Leave it for a few minutes.
  1. Scrub with a brush or sponge and rinse well. That’s it!

For the tougher limescale

I have some limescale on the shower screen and wanted to make it clear and shine again.

  1. Add some water to the bicarb little by little to make a paste.
  1. Spread on the shower screen and wait for 2 hours

If the above doesn’t work, try Citric acid.

I did the above two to remove the more challenging and thicker limescale, but it did not work.

Then I remembered how we removed the limescale in the kettle. I usually add some vinegar to boiled water in the kettle.

So, instead of bicarb, I sprinkle some citric acid on the tough limescale and pour a little bit of boiling water. Then, you can hear the fizz sound from the calcium from the limescale reacting with the acid.

I waited for a couple of minutes and poured hot water to rinse, and then the limescale quickly came off! It was so satisfying!

Newspapers to clean the windows

Have you ever tried using newspaper to clean the window? It’s quite common in Japan, and I learned about it in elementary school. Yes, school kids clean at school in Japan, and we clean at the end of the year, too.

The ink on the newspaper seems to make the window shine, and the rough texture effectively removes dirt.

Instructions

  1. Scrunch the newspaper and moisten it with warm water.
  2. Scrub from the top to the bottom to remove the dirt.
  3. Wipe off with some dry newspaper, and you're done!

Old towels are a perfect companion for cleaning 

I have to change some old towels to new ones. But before throwing them away, we should make them useful differently.

Use for cleaning

I use those old towels to clean

  • Floor
  • Window seal
  • Kitchen 
  • Bathroom
  • Shoes
  • Car (keep a few in your vehicle to use to clean)

It’s convenient and doesn’t need to make newer towels stained.

Use it for doggy

On a rainy day, I dry my dog with old bath towels after shampooing or returning from a walk. 

Wrapping fragile items

When packing fragile items to send, these old towels can provide cushioning. Just ensure the towel is clean and doesn’t have a strong smell.

Bring with you to an outdoor activity

Bring a few to clean, dry, or hold a hot cooking panhandle. You don’t need to worry about the towel getting some black stains from ashes from a barbeque. Reusable but disposable at the same time.

Don’t throw away the food scraps!

Where do you put all the scraps, like vegetable peels, when preparing food? 

I put them in two containers: one to keep in the freezer and the other in the compost bin in our garden.

Vegetable stock from the scraps (photo of the scraps in the freezer)

I make vegetable stock with frozen scraps from carrot, onion peel, celery, and mushroom scraps. Pretty much everything except starchy vegetables like potatoes. (What about deep frying clean potato peels to make a cheeky snack? Season them with some salt or mix of different spices… yum!)

I usually pick the largest silicon food bag to put the scraps in. Once it’s filled, I prepare the vegetable stock. I use these scraps to add more umami (savoury taste) to curry, stew, or soup.

After removing the nutritious umami from the vegetables, I put them in the compost bin, where they become food for insects and microorganisms. Finally, I put them in the garden soil.

No waste, isn’t it?

Our small terracotta food compost

If you’ve read our blog before, you know our garden has a small terracotta food composter. Since we built this, we’ve thrown away much less food waste. We went into more detail in our dedicated blog post. This is very helpful, and I'm delighted we have one in our garden!

You don’t need it any more? Try to sell it on Vinted!

It almost sounds like their ad, but yes, I am talking about Vinted (they do not sponsor us). There are other options, like eBay, but Vinted is what I currently use and find most helpful.

Since I love collecting things, like sweets in fancy tins and vintage items, I need to rethink whether I still like or need them before buying something new, and that’s where Vinted comes in.

You can also buy second-hand (or brand-new) items, which offer good quality for a cheaper price.

Shipping parcels is not complicated

Sending items is very easy to do as well. The buyer is paying for the shipping cost and choosing the courier based on your choice. Once the buyer buys the item, you can print the label at home or bring the QR code, and the shop will print a label for you. (This depends on the shipping method.) 

For example, a few shops near my house accept InPost, Yodel, DPD, and Royal Mail parcels. I used to ship with Evri, but the parcel shop is on the other side of town, so I removed it from my settings.

Are you worried about any trouble during the shipping process?

These are just my experiences using Vinted for over a year. 

The courier lost my parcel.

I experienced this once when I bought an item. It never showed up, but the tracking showed “it’s ready to pick up.” However, the parcel wasn’t at the shop for me to pick up. In the end, Vinted refunded me. The seller lost their item because of the courier and got the sold price as planned.

The item was broken.

This case happened to me as both a seller and a buyer. Both situations are sad, but it was particularly sad for me as a seller. When this happened for the first time, I was sorry that my loved item got broken in shipping even though I wrapped it in bubble wrap and newspapers, added more cushioning on the bottom, top, side, and even between the items, and wrote “FRAGILE” on the box.

When this happens, Vinted will ask the buyer if the wrapping was adequate to send the items safely. Then, they’ll ask the seller, so taking photos when you pack the items is crucial to show them as proof. They understood that I packed the items well, so I still got paid for them.

Closing words

These are some of my sustainable cleaning ideas and ways of reducing waste. They might take longer than using strong chemicals, disposable cleaning items, or throwing unused items into the bin. 

However, I feel comfortable doing these things by using natural cleaning solutions and reusing them instead of throwing them away.

If you have more questions or ideas about cleaning sustainably, please comment on our Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook pages. We will try our best to answer! Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss our future blog posts about other eco-friendly tips and ideas.