Multi-billion dollar companies do a great job convincing us that muscly men and magical fairies will solve all our cleaning woes – they sell around £274 million of kitchen cleaning products each year in the UK. This means the cupboard under your sink is probably stuffed with half-empty plastic bottles.
There are better (and less toxic) ways to keep your kitchen clean.
Surfaces
For cleaning kitchen surfaces, use vinegar or soda crystals with hot water or an all purpose liquid soap. Wipe down with a reusable cloth. Avoid kitchen sponges - they are the perfect damp breeding ground for bacteria. You might as well lick your benchtop clean – at least you’d save the sponges going to landfill
Above: Go Swedish! These biodegradable Swedish dishcloths last 6 months
Dishes
For washing dishes, use a wooden dish brush with a replaceable head. Leave the pots and pans to soak, and then attack with a copper metal scourer. Castille soap can be used as washing up liquid. Or for reduced-plastic alternatives, consider Splosh or Method.
Above: Try an eco-friendly natural dish brush instead of the ugly plastic version
Kettles and Ovens
Consider this: if you came across a spider in your bedroom, would you attack it with an axe? Not likely, unless you’re starring in some new Tarantino movie.
And yet, supermarkets sell us dangerous chemical cleaners for simple stuff like descaling the kettle or degreasing the oven. This is bizarre when simple non-toxic products work just as well.
You can easily descale a kettle by boiling equal parts water and vinegar, or using soda crystals. Even simply, use boil your kettle with a water and lemon juice mixture. Likewise, to clean the oven racks, simply soak them overnight in your bathtub with dissolved soda crystals.