Eco Clean Kit for less than $15?!

Are you concerned about budget constraints? Does the degradation of the environment make your hair turn grey? Perhaps your cleaning materials take your breath away, in a “my lungs are dying!” kinda way? Whatever has drawn you here, the following Eco Clean Kit is likely to resolve some or all of these concerns for you.

You are about to be amazed and full of wonder when you find out exactly how easily, and cost-effectively you can build your own Eco Clean Kit. Not only are you going to be strutting around like a swaggery eco warrior, but you are also going to be delighted by how most of these products work far better than cleaning products available in your local supermarket. Your Eco Clean Kit will see you right for years to come, and your cleaning product expenses will plummet.

Bonus for young players: the products in your Eco Clean Kit have a less intense, and less toxic smell than what you would generally buy from your local store.

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you will know that I have an almost unhealthy love of the cleaning properties of baking soda, white vinegar and a good microfibre cloth. With these humble accoutrements, you too can achieve superhuman feats of cleaning amazingness.

To build your Eco Clean Kit you will need:

1. Standard bucket ($1 from Kmart).
2. Shaker bottle ($5 from Kmart, or $3.95 from your local $2+ store).
3. Microfibre cloth – I buy the 1kg pack from Bunnings ($9.99), because there is a huge variety, including the fabulous window cleaning one. You will need about 50 cents worth to accomplish a good household clean. Just wash and your 50 cent cloths can be used again and again.
4. 2 x Spray Bottles – you can use empty spray bottles from your general household cleaners, as long as you thoroughly rinse them first. Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose!
5. Window cleaner spray – I prefer this over methylated spirits because of the smell. Actually, my experience tells me that meths is more effective… Oh the eco warrior guilt! Anyhow, Aldi sell a good value window spray for $1.19. 1lt of methylated spirits costs $3.75 at Kmart, and you will make about a kazillion litres of glass cleaner with this. Up to you.
6. White vinegar – You can buy 2lt from Coles for $1.09. This will last you for ages! Let’s say that you use about 25 cents worth to get stocked up.
7. Baking Soda – Obviously I buy this in bulk. I buy 5kg for $30.25 from Melbourne Street Organics. Not only is this business a great one to support, but their baking soda is the cheapest in Melbourne that I have found. 5kg of baking soda would last the average household at least a couple of years – probably more like 3! Let us agree that for the purposes of creating a fully stocked and functional kit, that your Baking Soda would cost you $3. NOTE: If you know of a great and cost-effective baking soda supplier, please let me know in the comments section!

With just these basic ingredients in your Eco Clean Kit, you can clean your bathroom, kitchen (including oven and microwave), laundry and floors (including carpet AND lino/tiles/wood). You can also clean many of your kitchen equipment, such as your dishwasher and any burnt pots that you have. Blogs on this pending…

It turns out that you probably cannot deal with your Oven Tray of Shame with this kit, but it seems like a small sacrifice for the other miraculous benefits. I’m still working on that Oven Tray of Shame… Grrrr…

Now, let’s do some maths and add up all of those costs. One plus five plus *mumbles to self and gets out calculator*… Well, that comes to $10.94. What an absolute bargain! Let’s give it about a 30% room for error and round it up to $15 – you might not be the bargain hound that I am, and may prefer to buy your more flashy pants bucket etc.

Putting your Eco Clean Kit together

1. In one of your spray bottles, make up your own Eco Spray. This can be used to clean almost any surface. It cleans the outside of a toilet like a boss. It’s also great at getting shower scum off tiles, and pretty much makes any surface clean and shiny.
2. Fill up your shaker bottle with baking soda (and keep the sieve-like insert in there, as it breaks up any lumps that might form). Use this to clean your toilet bowl – just sprinkle it in and leave it for a few minutes before scrubbing. You can also sprinkle it around the carpet before you vacuum to freshen things up (leave for 15 minutes or more for best results). Put it into your stinky runners (thank goodness this works so well!), or sprinkle your pets’ bed and toys with it for a good old fashioned freshening. When mopping floors, simply shake less than a tablespoon into the water, instead of floor cleaner. You don’t need much, and it zips through floor scum.
3. In your other spray bottle, make up your Oven Eco Spray (recipe and instructions pending!). When you HAVE the recipe, just spray your oven door and inside with this once every week or so – totally keeps on top of that yukky oven crap that builds up. Also works on modern ovens that you need to be careful with. If this spray is not cutting the mustard with your oven, sprinkle baking soda on the more stubborn bits, and spray gently with your eco spray. Leave for 30 minutes or more. It’s not as effective as commercial oven cleaners, but it’s a LOT less toxic.
4. Assign one microfibre cloth as your “wet” cloth.
5. Assign one microfibre cloth as your “dry” or polishing cloth.
6. Use the window cleaning microfibre cloth ONLY for cleaning windows and mirrors.
7. Put all of the above, plus your window cleaner spray, into your bucket.

Voila! Your Eco Clean Kit is finished! Now draw a smiley face on your bucket, and tie one more large microfibre cloth to each end of the bucket handles, akin to a cape. And now you have a Superhero Eco Clean Kit! By the way, I’m a Superhero – not a photographer… Please give this post a thumbs up (below if you like it). Any tips, comments or criticisms most gratefully received.