10 Green Cleaning Essentials

Spring cleaning needn't be an invitation to overload your home with a zillion and one different chemicals.

Over the last 4 weeks, I've shown how you can break the spring cleaning into small manageable jobs that can be done throughout the spring ...

1. Dusting, vacuuming and polishing
2. Bedding, soft furnishings and carpets
3. Kitchen
4. Bathroom

10 brilliant natural spring cleaners can break the back of most of these jobs.

1. Baking soda

Oh the wonders of baking soda - or bicarb if you're a Brit. When you're spring cleaning use its brilliant, natural cleaning powers to:

Scrub grouting with a toothbrush
Sprinkle over mattresses & hoover up, carpet and rug stains and smells
Unblock drains with bicarb and vinegar
Run a clean cycle in washing machine with vinegar
Clean the oven with vinegar
Applied via a lemon on stoves and hobs
Run the dishwasher empty with vinegar
Clean microwaves with vinegar and lemon

2. Cedar wood
Use the opportunity of cleaning all the bedding, soft furnishings and carpets to make sure you're not harbouring moths - use cedar wood moth treatment in drawers, wardrobes and laundry baskets.

3. Citric acid
Dissolved in water you can use citric acid to scrub and disinfect the loo, descale showers and taps and to clean coffee machines.

4. Feather duster
I completely swear by Ostrich feather dusters and particularly ones on telescopic arms. They get easily into every corner, however high and actually attract the dust rather than just swishing it around.

I have this one from Adams but you could also try one from Mr Long Arm.

5. Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide can remove really worn in blood and protein stains on linen, soft furnishings, carpets and rugs. Test for colour fastness first.

6. Lavender
Use lavender in tandem with cedar wood drawers, wardrobes and laundry baskets to protect against moths. You can also use lavender in your kitchen cupboards to ward off other insects.

It's also great in the drier or as a laundry spray to help with the ironing.

7. Lemon
Rub half a lemon directly on showers, taps and shower doors to get rid of limescale and tarnishing of and scrub hobs and stoves with half a lemon sprinkled with baking soda. Combine with baking soda and vinegar for a powerful but fragrant clean out of the microwave.

8. Newspaper
After you've sprayed windows and mirrors with a vinegar and water solution bub down with newspaper to prevent smearing.

9. Sunshine
Wait till the sunny days really come in to spring clean bed linen and soft furnishings and dry everything outside in the sunshine rather than in a drier. Remember anything with feathers in it needs to be dried flat and needs regular shaking to prevent clumping.

10. Vinegar
Vinegar like baking soda has a multitude of uses - it can particularly help to:

Descale shower and taps
Clean loos
Clean floors - don't use on finished floors
Descale iron
Clean out dishwasher with baking soda
Clean out washing machine with baking soda
Clean shower walls with added dish liquid - don't use on marble
Clean carpets and rugs with added salt clean carpets and rugs - test for colour fastness
Disinfect and clean out the microwave with baking soda and lemon
Disinfect and clean out the fridge
Descale and degrease kitchen appliances such as coffee machines

For a bit of extra oomph and convenience, I do buy some commercial green cleaning products over and over again. I particularly rate:

Method's wood spray which smells scrumptiously of almonds and is brilliant as a dusting and cleaning spray on natural wood
Ecover's cream scrub which gets my kitchen sink looking good again when it's taken a real battering
Ecover's limescale remover which used weekly keeps limescale off the taps and shower despite London's horrendously hard water.