Plastic-Free Home Cleaning

We use the word “clean” frequently when it comes to climate-friendly solutions. But have you ever noticed how much waste is involved in keeping our homes clean? How many brands offer refills that aren’t really refills? Slowly but surely, I’ve become tired of filling my trash and recycling bins with items related to home cleaning.

As I mentioned in my post about bathroom hygiene products, we often pay for water and packaging when what we really need is a good, concentrated concoction and a reusable bottle to get the job done. In today’s column, I’ll focus on truly clean cleaning. It’s great for your home and much less harmful for the planet. Let’s dive in!

Disclaimer: As always, none of the companies mentioned below pay me to review them nor do they provide me with free products or discounted goods. Every review here reflects my personal experience with products I’ve purchased with my own money.

Dishwashing

Cleancult dish soap and dishwasher tablets (get 35% off via this link)

As you may recall from my previous column, the plastic-free-ish kitchen, we’ve been loyal to Cleancult for years. For our dishes, we use their dishwasher tablets and liquid dish soap. When ordering the liquid soap you can choose whether you want it to arrive in a refillable plastic bottle or glass bottle. The dishwasher tablet refills come either in a paper envelope or in a recyclable container. We also use their hand soap at every sink in the apartment.

Laundry & Stain Removal

Cleancult laundry tabs and wool balls (3 pack) $9.99

Ethique FLASH! Laundry bar & stain remover $6

I’m super excited to share these products because they represent a truly clean solution that saves tons of waste from ending up in landfills. Before making the switch to the Cleancut’s laundry pods, we used Tide. We’d buy one of those huge orange plastic drums about once a month.

How it is packed: All of the laundry products that I order are packed in cardboard with paper stuffing. No plastic in sight.

Cleancult laundry tabs and wool balls have been part of our go-to laundry routine for a while now. We don’t purchase any more plastic drums or dryer sheets. Our clothes are cleaned and properly dried without any static and waste. Huzzah!

Unfortunately, Cleancult has discontinued their laundry tabs (the demand for their liquid detergent has been higher). Once we’re done with our current batch of Cleancult laundry tabs, we plan to switch to Blueland’s. I’ve never enjoyed using liquid detergent and don’t plan on starting now. For those of you who prefer liquid, Cleancult offers that, but we haven’t tried it.

For stain removal, this next solution is incredible! You might remember from my plastic-free bathroom column that I’m a big fan of Ethique. Everything they sell and ship is in paper or cardboard, and very, very effective. Their FLASH! Stain Remover bar is no different in terms of innovation and effectiveness. You wet the bar to create a foam and then apply it to the stain with a scrub brush or like soap on skin and then wash. Like magic, it’s gone!

I’ve also very recently learned that Ethique’s packaging is home compostable! So you can just add it to your compost bin and carry on with your day.

Mirrors & Windows

Blueland Glass Cleaner starter set $16

We scored this awesome product from a kind neighbor who had duplicates via our community’s Buy Nothing Group. After trying and loving it, she also provided us with a 50% off code for their Clean Essentials kit (glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and all surface cleaner).

To use the product, you just add water to the bottle, drop in the tablet, let it dissolve, and use it as you would any other sprayed cleaner. It’s super easy, and gets the job done BEAUTIFULLY. The packaging is compostable and the fragrance is lovely.

How it is packed: The starter forever bottles (that you keep and reuse) are sturdy multi-use plastic. The rest is all paper and cardboard.

Pro tip: to avoid streaks on your mirrors or windows, use an old newspaper to wipe after you spray instead of a cloth. It sounds strange, but it's truly the most effective way I found to clean glass. It won’t hurt your windows or mirrors and won’t leave streaks.

Dust & Pet Hair

OXO FurLifter Brush $15.99

Fleece Duster $38 or an Old Fashioned Duster $5-$10

We’re dog people. BIG DOG people. We’ve adopted our German Shepherd, Ziggy, about four years ago, and since then we could’ve probably made 60 new German Shepherds from her shedded fur alone.

We definitely needed a fur-removal solution that doesn't involve throwing a million lint roller sheets in the trash. This product was also a score from our Buy Nothing Group (find yours here). The lint and fur gets caught on the brush as it would a standard lint roller, but the brush also has a holder that scrapes it clean every time the brush goes in — leaving you with a clean brush to work with next time. We use it constantly!

For dusting our shelves we use a machine-washable fleece duster that's washed after each use. If spending $38 on a duster sounds like a bit much (because it is), the old fashioned ones do the job pretty well and cost much less.

Floors & Surfaces

SupremeMop floor cleaner set $49.99

Rubber Broom (great for pet hair) about $10-$15 anywhere brooms are sold.

Unpaper Towels $16.99

Cleancult all purpose cleaner $9.99

Blueland multi-surface starter set $16

Before we made any effort to be plastic free, our go-to products for cleaning the floor were from Swiffer. Not gonna lie, they did the job great, but the disposable pads and containers are a big downside. A better solution had to be out there!

I found SupremeMop via an instagram ad a year ago and decided to give it a try. The bucket has two parts: one for soapy water and the other to strip the dirty water off the mop. It also comes with 10 machine washable pads. It’s been cleaning so well and we haven’t purchased any swiffers since. We still have the actual Swiffer wands since the pads fit on those too.

For surface cleaners, I’ve used the Cleancult all purpose cleaner and the Blueland multi-surface starter set. Instead of paper towels, I’ve made the switch to the appropriately named Unpaper Towels. They are made of 100% cotton flannel and absorb any mess extremely well. They also last about a million washes, which I love since I used them all around the house. They cling together easily, so you can set them up on a roll the same way you would have standard paper towels.

When it comes to our carpets, we usually sweep off all of Ziggy's fur with a rubber broom before vacuuming. If you have a pet that sheds, I'd highly recommend getting one. You can find them at hardware stores or pet stores (#BuyLocal).

Repair and Maintenance

Fabric Shaver ($12.95) + Sewing Kit

We recently fell down a rabbit hole estimating how much it would cost to reupholster a couch we’ve had for about 10 years (thinking it would be cheaper than replacing it). But manufacturing has gotten so cheap, in terms of price and quality, that it makes buying a new couch seem sensible (if you aren’t factoring in the true cost of it in terms of worker exploitation, how the materials were sourced, and how ethical the company’s practices are). It took a $12.95 investment in a fabric shaver and a 30 minutes sewing session to remove all the little bumps on the fabric and fix the holes Ziggy chewed when she was a puppy. It’s such a great couch. We’re definitely not ready to let it go. The fabric shaver is also fantastic with sweaters and wool coats!

Allergy Management

Upcycled handkerchiefs, from Whisper Campaign $15/each

I’d be doing you a disservice if I talked about springtime and dust without mentioning allergies and runny noses. A little before I gave birth to Max, my darling friend and brilliant artist Sharilyn Neidhardt gifted us with a gorgeous stack of cotton handkerchiefs she’d upcycled out of reclaimed bedsheets. The handkerchiefs are hand painted with nontoxic dyes and survive a million washes. You can order them directly from Sharilyn via her Instagram account. They make a very good gift for new parents and for everyone else.

Keeping your home clean shouldn’t be a dirty job. These are just some of the available solutions, but there are so many out there. If you choose to try any of the products I’ve mentioned, or go on your own plastic-free journey, I’d love to hear from you. What you do matters, where you shop matters, and how the products you use are made and shipped matters! Thank you so much for staying with me through this process.

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