Sustainability is a buzzword in the 21st century for all the right reasons. Humans are collectively more conscious of their environmental impact due to their daily activities. At the individual level, a growing transformation towards a greener and environmentally responsible lifestyle aligns with the overall sustainability goals. Home cleaning has been integrated into this new paradigm.
Sustainable home cleaning refers to using washing materials and methods that are not harmful to people and the environment at the household level. This article offers a list of sustainable ways to clean your home.
Are you concerned about the damage you do to the environment and want to make a difference starting in your home? The way you clean your home will have an effect on the environment and on the available resources. We have compiled a list of things you can do to protect precious resources and to clean in a way that is more sustainable and eco-friendly.
Water Conservation in Home Cleaning
When cleaning, the resource most often wasted is water. This precious resource takes a lot of work and other resources to purify, collect, and distribute. You can do your part to minimize how much water you use when you clean.
Start by cleaning from a bucket rather than a hose or faucet. When washing or scrubbing, work from a bucket of water. This will help you conserve water and allow you to be more portable in your cleaning methods. Plenty of water is wasted when using a pressure washer, hose, or faucet to clean from. When you work with a bucket, you will only be using as much water as you need. Be sure to only fill the bucket part way rather than completely so that you’re not using excess water.
It usually takes less water to wash dishes by filling the sink with soapy water then running the tap over the dirty dishes while you clean. If you live by yourself and don’t have too many dishes to clean, running the tap is a better option. If you’re cleaning for an entire family, filling the sink with soapy water is the better choice. When running the tap, be sure to turn it off when it’s not in use.
Consider replacing your old cleaning machinery with the latest water-saving equipment, such as low moisture vacuums. Pick companies that use water-saving equipment if you use home cleaning services. Also, minimize wastage of other cleaning products and resources such as energy.
If you use the dishwashing machine, only run the machine when it is full. This will use less water, because you will be running fewer loads.
Use an Eco-Friendly Cleaning Agency
You may not want to do all the home cleaning yourself. When you hire a home cleaning service, talk to them about their environmentally friendly cleaning practices and their commitment to preserving the environment. Using a trusted, incredible agency for home cleaning will allow you to get your home cleaned fast without a lot of effort from you. But if they are not environmentally friendly, you may feel guilty about using them instead of doing the work on your own.
It may be worth paying a little extra for cleaning services that you feel good about than getting the cheapest service and causing more environmental damage through their lax cleaning practices. Take your time to choose the right cleaning company. Check out online reviews to find out what people say about their environmental friendliness and their effectiveness. If they take a long time to clean, they may use extra resources. If they do a poor job, and you have to clean up after them or you have to have them come back and fix their work, additional resources will be wasted. That’s why it’s so important to choose a reliable cleaning service.
Ditch Plastics
Avoid buying new plastic containers for your cleaning routine and replace them with glass. Also, recycle and upcycle old cleaning plastic containers as much as possible. When purchasing cleaning detergent, use reusable containers from sellers with refill outlets.
Use Natural Cleaning Products
Switching to natural products might be challenging initially, but keep at it until it becomes your newly acquired habit. Besides, don’t be misled by “organic” or “all natural” words on product labels. These words are not regulated, and some disingenuous marketers use them as bait. Check the ingredient lists and avoid products with volatile organic compounds such as xylene, toluene, benzene, formaldehyde, and ethylene glycol.
Switch from Disposable to Reusable
Are you currently using any disposable cleaning supplies? These could be disposable cleaning bottles, cleaning rags, scrub pads, and other supplies that are meant to be single use. Why not switch over to something more durable that can be used again and again?
You will pay more for these items initially, but you can use them for months or even years without needing to replace them. That saves you money in the long run and cuts down on the amount of resources you’re using up. It’s better for the environment when there’s less wastage around, so reusable cleaning supplies are a smart, eco-friendly choice.
Make Sure Cleaning Methods Are Efficient
Another way to conserve resources and to be more sustainable when you’re cleaning is to use cleaning methods that work very well. If you spend a lot of time cleaning, you’re probably going to use more resources. If you use very efficient methods and materials, the work will be easier, it will go faster, and fewer resources will be used up.
One example of this might be in the vacuum cleaner you use. If you’re using an old vacuum cleaner that’s not very efficient, it may use a lot of power but not do a very good job. It could take you a lot longer to clean the floor with this old vacuum, and it would be more energy efficient to buy a new vacuum cleaner, particularly one that is eco-friendly.
Another example could be in the way you clean your home. You can clean efficiently by working from one room to another, moving from one end of the room to the other. This saves you from having to walk back and forth as much and from moving between rooms constantly. Work efficiently as you clean so that you can save time and resources.
Analyze your cleaning methods to see if there’s a way you can be more efficient, to cut down on your cleaning time, and to use fewer resources. One way to do this is to create a clean solution for mopping the floors and then mop all the floors at once. That way, you don’t have to make up your mopping solution multiple times and potentially waste your resources.
You also want to make sure that you’re using very effective and efficient cleaning chemicals. If the cleaners you use work very slowly and don’t do a good job of lifting stains and getting rid of grime, you may need to replace them with something more effective. Be careful about the cleaners you use, as not all of them will be environmentally friendly. However, make sure you’re using something that cleans fast and efficiently so that it doesn’t take a lot of resources to clean in your home.
Sustainability, specifically sustainable home cleaning, is not a fad but a vital practice that ensures a healthy. With these environmentally-friendly cleaning methods, you can be more sustainable in the way you clean and feel better about your impact on the environment.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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