Eco-Friendly Way To Clean Your Bathroom

No-one likes a dirty bathroom, and no-one wants loads of toxic chemical particles floating around either. Not only are most shop bought bathroom cleaners full of chemicals but when they end up down the drain they can be damaging to our waterways and marine life as well. What’s the most eco-friendly way to clean your bathroom? Personally I think it’s probably to make your own homemade bathroom cleaners, because you’d be hard pushed to find bathroom cleaners that don’t come in the seemingly ubiquitous plastic spray bottles. You can now buy refills for some bathroom cleaners, but the refills also come in plastic packaging which just seems pointless to me.

Before you throw out all your plastic cleaning bottles in a bid to be more eco-friendly keep in mind that those spray bottles come in very handy when making your own homemade bathroom cleaners. Let’s go through some homemade bathroom cleaning solutions and some of the most eco-friendly bathroom cleaners you can now buy…

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Homemade Eco-Friendly Bathroom Cleaners

There are 3 main ingredients to keep around for most eco-friendly cleaning jobs around the house:

• Baking Soda
• Distilled White Vinegar
• Lemons

These 3 items are cheap and can easily be bought in eco-friendly packaging.

Go for Baking Soda which comes in a cardboard box and white distilled vinegar by either Heinz or Sarsons which comes in a glass bottle. When buying lemons, buy them loose.

Although white vinegar is amazing for cleaning, there are certain cleaning jobs you shouldn’t use vinegar for.

Baking Soda

Baking Soda, also known as bicarbonate of soda, is one of the most useful things to keep in your cleaning cupboard.

The eco-friendly way to clean your bathroom is to use simple ingredients. They’re cheap, less toxic and simple to make (some require a little more elbow grease). I’ve provided homemade ways to clean the bathroom below but also linked to a few eco-friendly bathroom cleaners you can buy, and bathroom cleaning accessories, if making your own seems a bit too much effort.

1. Cleaning Bathroom Mirrors and Glass

There are a few really easy eco-friendly ways to clean your bathroom mirrors and your glass shower doors.

• Hot water and newspapers
• White vinegar and newspapers
• Black tea and newspapers

Spray either hot water or a vinegar and water solution onto the glass then wipe it dry using some old newspaper. No streaks! So simple, yet extremely effective.

For the black tea version, pour hot water onto your black tea and then you can either pour it into a spray bottle or just dip a cloth into the black tea (when it’s cooled down a bit) then use newspaper to wipe it dry.

If, like me, you don’t regularly have newspapers, then you can use a cloth or paper towels but I do find this can leave a few streaks. You just have to spend a little more time getting rid of streaks if you don’t use newspaper.

Eco-Friendly Glass Cleaners You Can Buy

2. Cleaning the loo

Ah, the job we all love… cleaning the toilet! A dirty toilet is extremely unpleasant so we often reach for the bleach to get rid of all the nasty bacteria and, eek, stains. Bleach is not great for the environment and if you’re not careful you can get quite dizzy when using it if your bathroom isn’t well ventilated. So what to do to clean the loo? Here’s where a combination of baking soda and vinegar can start to work their magic.

• Mix half a cup of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of baking soda.

Pour the mixture around the inside of the toilet bowl and leave it to sit for 20 – 30 minutes before giving it a good scrub. If you only have vinegar that works too, it’s just not as abrasive, just spray and leave as above before scrubbing.

Eco-Friendly Toilet Cleaners You Can Buy

3. Eco-Friendly way to clean the bath and the sink

There are a couple of ways to green clean your bath:

• Vinegar and water
• Lemons (with or without salt)

Mix some vinegar with a small amount of water in a spray bottle and give your bath and sink a good spray. Leave the vinegar to work for between 20 – 30 minutes and then use a cloth or a brush to give it a good scrubbing. The vinegar should also help get rid of any mould.

If you’re using lemons, cut a lemon in half, (squeeze it and have a nice healthy glass of hot lemon water), then wipe the lemon around the bath or sink. Sprinkle salt over the lemon so it acts like a scourer for any slightly trickier bits of dirt. If you want to save a bit of time, use a grapefruit instead, it has a slightly larger surface area! Use a cloth and some water to wipe away any excess juices and salt. Your bathroom will smell nice and citrusy using this method.

4. Surfaces

You can make an eco-friendly multi-purpose spray for various surfaces within your bathroom (and around the home) using some of our favourite ingredients.

• Lemon, vinegar and water

Put the juice of one lemon, one cup of vinegar and one cup of water into a spray bottle for an easy and cheap eco-friendly multi-purpose spray. If you have any stubborn dirt, spray and leave for a while before wiping.

Eco-Friendly Surface Cleaners You Can Buy

5. Unclogging the drain

For me this is my least favourite cleaning job around the house. Pulling hair out of the plughole makes me gag, and it’s my own hair. This cleaning method doesn’t prevent this gag-inducing moment but it will clean the drain.

• Vinegar and baking soda

Pour about 3/4 of a cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by 1/2 a cup of vinegar. Put the plug in and let the mixture do its business fizzing and breaking down any debris. After 30 minutes you can pour some boiling water down the drain to flush it all away.

Eco-Friendly Drain Cleaners You Can Buy

• Drain Cleaning Sticks
• Drain Unblocker

6. Shower tiles

If you haven’t used your multi-purpose spray or vinegar and water mixture to spray down your shower walls then a really great way to clean your shower is by steam cleaning. If you have a handheld steam cleaner it’s a very environmentally friendly way to get rid of any built up dirt. Handheld steam cleaners can be used for various different jobs around the house making them an eco-friendly way to your clean your bathroom and the whole house.

7. Shower curtain

The simplest way to give your shower curtain a bit of a spruce up is to pop it in the washing machine with some eco-friendly washing powder and a cup of vinegar. To prevent mould growing on your shower curtain, or in fact anywhere in your bathroom, make sure it’s always well ventilated. After showering let your shower curtain dry before pulling it all the way across.

8. Watermarks on taps

There are a few different ways to get rid of water stains on taps and bathroom fittings.

• Lemon
• Vinegar
• Olive oil

Rubbing a slice of lemon over your taps sounds strange but it works and it makes your bathroom smell nicer than vinegar does. If you don’t have any lemons in the house, then vinegar will work well.

To give stainless steel a good shine, polish with a small amount of olive oil. Don’t use too much you don’t need slippery taps. You can rub the oil into your hands if you have used too much though for a nice cheap hand moisturiser.

9. Bathroom floor – tiles

Now that the rest of the bathroom is sparkling clean and hopefully smelling a bit citrusy after cleaning the taps it’s time to give the floor a good clean.

• Baking Soda & Lemon

Dissolve a cup of baking soda into a bucket of warm water and add a squeeze of lemon then mop the floor as usual.

Eco-Friendly Floor Cleaners You Can Buy

10. Air freshener

And the final touch… air freshener. The bathroom is totally clean so now you just want it to smell nice. Bathrooms are not always the nicest smelling room of the house but there are a few eco-friendly ways to keep it smelling fresh.

• House Plants
• Dried flowers
• Essential Oils

House plants are nice to have all around the home. They help to purify the air making it healthier for everyone. Alternatively you could place a bowl of dried flowers to let off a subtle aroma.

For a more traditional way of keeping the room smelling nice you could use a nice candle or an oil burner with your favourite essential oil. Or just mix a few drops of essential oil with some water in a small spray bottle so you can give the room a quick spritz.

Eco-Friendly Air Fresheners You Can Buy

As you can see, homemade bathroom cleaners really are the simplest and most eco-friendly way to clean your bathroom. They’re generally a much cheaper way to clean as well. As long as you can buy baking soda and vinegar in plastic free packaging then you’re on your way to living a plastic free life as well.

However there are lots of companies now making really good eco-friendly products for cleaning your bathroom. If they do come in plastic, most of the time it’s made from recycled plastic or is recyclable, although my personal preference is to buy products that are completely plastic free. Bathroom cleaning soaps and powders are a brilliant new invention, as are the soluble cleaning products because I hate that refills normally come in plastic!

Do you have tips for eco-friendly ways to clean the bathroom? Let me know below. Also check out this comprehensive list of eco-friendly bathroom swaps. Make sure you also check out some eco-friendly ways to clean your kitchen too.

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