No buying unnecessary cleaning products challenge January 2013

noelphobic

count me (and my many products!) in! I do seem to have curbed my excesses and don't buy anywhere near as many products as I need to but I need to work out what I have and maybe even use some of them - my house would be lovely and clean if I did AND less cluttered as I would free up the space all the products take!

I will try and do an inventory soon. One of the most annoying thing I have is the stuff you are supposed to spray on the shower when you have finished so you don't have to clean it. Then the next time you use the shower you rinse it off - wouldn't it just be easier to clean the shower when you've used it? Does anyone have any of this and know of any other use for it? I think it's called Shower Shine or something similar.

mcculloch29

I've used Shower Shine and found it largely useless.
What I do use around the shower and bath a lot is a large magic sponge - the ones that disintegrate, these are good for when you don't want to use chemicals on a surface.
I've got a massive bottle of drain unblocker taking up space under the sink, but I've not had a blocked drain in years. May risk fate and use it diluted as drain cleaner. Also a bottle of Jeyes fluid that I bought for use on the patio - then I bought a pressure washer.

May declutter the bag of soda and box of borax substitute, plus a big bar of soap, to make another bucket of laundry gloop this weekend.
Son loves using Ariel gel, I get less mucky, I think..

Have started using Stardrops for machine washable woollens and it's worked a treat. I've used approx 40 ml in a laundry liquid ball in the drum rather than pour it in the powder dispenser.
I'm not sure that Stardrops is quite tough enough for my floors, but I am a fan.

mcculloch29

Today I transferred a half inch of Flash liquid left in a big bottle to a virtually empty Mr Muscle bottle and used that to clean the kitchen surfaces. Both bottles now in recycling.
I have two spray and mop cleaners that my cleaner didn't use, she liked Flash, but I want to regain the space on the shelves and use up these bottles.
I have a small bottle of Cilit Bang liquid for floors as well, plus Stardrops, so I definitely don't need to replace the Flash.
Haven't made the Laundry Gloop yet but did cut open my Ariel gel bottle and put both halves in the washing machine to get an extra wash out of the liquid clinging to the inside of the bottle. Also nice clean bottle halves now in recycling.

The only thing that cuts those bottles is heavy duty kitchen shears, though!

rogueylawyer

OH and I cleaned the house yesterday and I managed to use up the last of a bottle of shower shine, one down two to go. Unfortunately second bottle of shower shine was then dropped and the trigger broke. Ah well, on to the 1 litre bottle in the meantime.

I checked and we have enough laundry product to last at least another month. Nothing else is going to be used up soon though, there's just enough of each to keep going.

McCulloch how are you doing so well on this! Do you have the most sparkling home around?

mcculloch29

Far from it, RL... my now ex-cleaner had her favourite things and I had mine, so I've concentrated on getting rid of what she used most, that was virtually empty.
I don't think Flash is better than anything else and I've got enough of other stuff to not use that, so getting rid of the inch of Flash at the bottom of a mega - size bottle was a priority.

I discovered a large pile of pan scrubbers and cloths at the back of the under-sink cupboard. My cleaner used her own cloths and my kitchen towel, I'd wondered where my cloths had got to!

Amazon have free downloads for Kindle (and Kindle on the PC) at the moment, of the "Practical Household Uses of..." books by Margaret Briggs.
There's vinegar, salt, honey, lemon and bicarb. Vinegar is most useful for cleaning, I've got a full bottle of white vinegar that I haven't got around to using yet, but there are so many uses to put it to..

Sue14

Went to a!di yesterday to stock up on essentials, so we don't have to go out in the snow over the weekend, and although it was a struggle to resist, the only cleaning product I bought was washing up liquid, as the bottle we had was almost empty (finished it today). I did realize when I got home that I could have used stardrops, but I didn't think of it at the time, lol!

mcculloch29

A!di's washing up liquid is the bee's knees, so I think you can forgive yourself that one, Sue14, it will certainly work out cheaper than Stardrops anyway.

I made my Laundry Gloop - I do keep conventional laundry gel too as DS won't use gloop - but gloop works fine on everything I wash.
DS only does a few loads a week so the gel lasts ages, I got it in early December when it was on offer for under half price at Wilko's.
I noticed that the gloop set far more quickly than it usually does, thanks to the kitchen being significantly cooler than normal. That was useful, as I got a late night wash load done.

So the borax was decluttered, though I still have washing soda left for the next lot of gloop. So far this year I've spent £1.68 on two items, the 68p was on a 32 wash bottle of Lenor, it was on half price offer at T*sco's and I had a £1 coupon. I only buy Lenor when it's on offer, but it's also the only conditioner I will use. So in a sense, the 68p was unnecessary, as it wasn't required, but I wasn't leaving that offer untouched!
I don't think that I'll need anything for quite some time.

Sue14

Today I finished a spray cleaner and put the bottle in recycling, but I did buy 2 packs of soda crystals as I was getting low on them. I didn't dare go down the rest of the cleaning products aisle, as I would have been tempted to buy stuff I don't need, lol!

mcculloch29

That sounds good Sue, - shame we haven't had more join us but perhaps we have lurkers!
My spend is still £1.68, Flash at a quid and half price Lenor concentrate with a £1 off coupon, so 68p for that. (Normally £3.36). Which was the system that got Mags 8 lots of washing products... I know hard-line OS'ers don't use fabric conditioner, but I love the smell, and Lenor fragrances the house as the clothes dry on the ceiling mounted drying rack. (Mounted over the stairs.)

Sue14

I've had to buy some washing powder, but I did finish the last of a bottle of washing liquid, that's been in the cupboard under the sink for a couple of months (used it to wash OH's car cleaning cloths), and emptied a fabric conditioner bottle, both bottles now in recycling.