Travelling On

Karmacat

Thanks beanie  

Right, some choices today: it's a beautiful day, and I'd like to move the "bird bath" so that I can clean my patio table.  I'd like to see some of the funeral, so I also need to do something inside, because if I'm not doing anything else, I'll last about two minutes.  I could finish the draft email, that would be fine, but the main thing would be to carry on with the research on eco cleaning, I've only done about an hour, and I'd really like to achieve something soon on that, so I can cut down on the amount of manufactured end-product that I buy.  Even though the eco ingredients are manufactured, I'm pretty sure they're lighter on the earth.

Cheery_Daff

Are you researching making your own KC, or where to buy? I noticed Waitflower had some discounted laundry and kitchen stuff the other day, down to just over £2 for a big thing of laundry liquid (I don't buy it so have no idea if that's cheap, but it was quite heavily reduced!)

Cheery_Daff

Do you read the Down to Earth blog?  I love it 😊 She has some green cleaner recipes which I keep meaning to try

https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-cleaning-recipes-version-2.html?m=1

I confess I mostly just put a good squirt of washing up liquid in a spray bottle and mix with water, and use that... and I do the washing with literally just washing soda. Very much of the 'low bother' school of making my own cleaners... I've made citrus vinegar before though which was lovely!

greenbee

KC - I use soapnuts for most of my laundry, with bio D washing powder and ecoleaf laundry liquid as alternatives for odd things. Vinegar in the rinse if I use powder/liquid. Used soapnuts go into the compost. Bicarb comes in 5kg tubs and is used for lots of things, vinegar comes in 5l jugs (repurposed for wasp traps ) and lasts ages (I don't clean much!).  Citric acid in 5l jugs for descaling/making elderflower cordial. I do buy washing up liquid (bio D), loo cleaner (bio D) and linseed floor soap (bio D or ecover) in 5l jugs and decant them, but I have space in the garage to bulk buy.

Bicarb is good for clearing plug holes. Citric acid better for descaling than vinegar. Bicarb or vinegar work for windows. 

Karmacat

I'd wanted to research making my own, Cheery - but I've just looked at Waitflower laundry liquid, and those prices are interesting I might start with something else, and go on to laundry later on   I can see stuff for £2.20, but its only 5 washes, and even though it says its plant based and 98% biodegradable, the price is horrendous.  I sorted them by price, can't see anything at £2 on my view of the website: I suspect existing cookies might be to blame, I've been looking at their stuff recently!  Much better is the Essential Non Bio sensitive skin: 27 washes, £2.61 per litre, not a bad price.  Asda is cheaper, its around £1.81 per litre, but you know what, reading through the safety advice, both companies have horrendous warnings about safety.    Makes me want to *start* with laundry liquid!  

Cheery_Daff

It might just have been my local store getting rid of old stock, I'll have a quick look on the website and see if I can see. 

Rhonda on the Down to Earth website makes laundry liquid - apparently it's very easy, although I've never tried. Might give it a go myself once we're set up with the kitchen and have somewhere sensible to store it that isn't in the garage! I'll definitely be trying my own soap again later this year 😊

Cheery_Daff

Hmm,I thought it was something similar to this that I'd seen, but reduced from about £6 to about £2.30 or something. 

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/ecover-bio-concentrated-laundry-detergent-42-washes/881483-523304-523305

But I can't be sure! Will check if I go back in the next few days. 

Do keep us updated with your findings. I'd like to do a bit more experimenting in the future. At some point I'm hoping I'll have a floor I can mop so I'll be wanting to investigate something I can use for that too!

Karmacat

Thanks for that, Cheery!  So, that's £6 for 1.5 litres: that's 1500 divided by 40 (recommended standard load, 37 washes.  Is that 16p per wash?  Yes, I think so.  It's Bio, too, and it has scents.  

The Waitrose Essentials one that I saw earlier, £3.50 for 960ml (!!!): 960/ ... they say that's 27 washes, but the page says 32 standard washes.  

Okay, the Waitrose one is cheaper, but Ecover is ECOVER, after all, better ingredients, and it's vegan.  I just checked on the Asda page, and this reduction is genuine - the same Ecover product is £8.  

Good grief.  You know what, I love Rhonda on Down to Earth, I don't go there nearly enough.  I might just use up what I've got, and follow her recipe.  That's a great tip, Cheery, ta muchly.

Your point about mopping the floor is important too - we don't need lots of different products, I'm sure there's a basic recipe that can be tweaked a bit.  Off to see Rhonda.

Karmacat

Oh, I originally hopped on here to say that I actually managed to set up the bird bath as I said I would, clean empty dustbin sealed by an old double glazing panel, which I cleaned, and then the bird bath on top.  I confess, I didn't bother cleaning the bird bath, just sloshed a rinse around and filled it with clean water.  It's at the end of the garden now, so the birds won't be so shy of using it.

And then ... ta da!  .... I cleaned the table, with two doses of disinfectant (because, you know, birds ...) and another go of washing up liquid.  I confess I didn't clean the underneath, it's a kind of plastic honeycomb between 1 - 3 centimetres deep, and life's too short.  The most the table will have on it is a book of mine, or maybe a cup of tea I've brought out. 

So I have a clean table and two clean chairs.  Living the high life here, I tell you  

greenbee

Don't get over-excited about Ecover. I rarely use it now if I can get alternatives: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/ecover-uk-limited